Hello Hungry Readers,

It’s pollen season where I am, so we’re getting wind and breakthrough warm days followed by more temperate days that apparently make strangers on the metro platform ask me where my coat is.

Anyway, whether you are warm because of weather shifts, or because you are cozying up under a blanket, I do consider warm the preferred state to be. (Until we get to super hot and then I’m like, ooh, dial it back a little.

But pollen season also means, it’s Independent Bookstore Day this month in the US. I am lucky enough to live near a plethora of independent bookstores. I once made it to six on a single day using only a little public transportation. And I could have done more but the Middle Eastern book store was packed and I was already over lines, so decided to save that for another day. But I know some people are hours away from an Independent Bookstore. And the nearest one may not carry romance or sci-fi or whatever your favorite genre is.

It’s why I’m such a huge fan of bookshop. If the books you need aren’t in stock locally, you can order online and still credit it to a local or non-local bookshop.

I was a fan of Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant a look at the DC area Chinese community, through the lens of an aging Chinese restaurant. Her second book Bad Asians, is about four millenials grappling with the model minority stereotype, recessions, and the haunting specter of your past self in viral video form.

I also adored Maurene Goo’s One and Only, about a Korean American matchmaker who has a great birthday hookup only to discover his boss is her predicted match.

Happy Reading!