Reddit mentions: The best asian american fiction books

At this point, I think you could read pretty much anything outside of your comfort zone and learn a lot! "Classics" are great, worth your time, and have a lot to offer, but also are likely so different from what you're used to that it might be hard to properly use them as a learning tool--especially ones old enough to be in the public domain.

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a great contemporary literary fiction novel about a communist Vietnamese spy in America.
  
• The Plague by Albert Camus is more in the "classic" age range ('47), and is a compellingly written story about people & society suddenly isolated and confronted with their demise.
  
• Any collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges would be good--they're generally super fascinating, short "concept" stories. He has one about an infinite library (The Library of Babel), a man who dreams another person into being (The Circular Ruins), and a cult of scholars who invent an incredibly elaborate fictional, tangential reality (Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius). He's a hugely influential early "post-modernist" writer.
  
• and maybe Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five? This probably falls into the camp of "required high school reading," but it's both classic lit and sci-fi and it's written in a unique style that's basically impossible to describe--a sort of colloquial madman philosopher--that you might find inspiring.
  
  I realize none of these are public domain, but they shouldn't be too hard to find online or at a library. They're also just books that I've found informative to my own writing, and definitely don't constitute any sort of curriculum (it's also short because I know you're already gonna be buried in recs).

People keep telling me about this book with my username. I've never actually read it. My name comes from this. It's in memoriam of a dead friend who liked drugs a little too much.

I'll have to go pick up that book one of these days. People keep telling me about it.

If you ever remember the name of that other book, which sounds like a Chick tract, just tell me the name. I can go fetch it for myself. No need to be buying me stuff, k.

If you like to read, hell yeah, let's talk. My hubs and I are both bookworms to an amazing degree. I just read one called Everything I Never Told You which won some kind of award from Amazon - best new or first book of the year, can't remember. It's a mindfucker.

The only book that ever made me cry was written from the point of view of a family dog. It was made into a movie that completely sucked, but the end of the book had me bawling. I've had to fight to retrieve that book from people I've loaned it to; only one printing, there aren't that many around, so I wasn't able to just let them keep it.

Want to read one from the point of view of a velociraptor? Here you go.

Another mindfucker: Room. Jesus, this one will have your skin crawling and hair standing up on the back of your neck.

My main thing is historical fiction, though. Gotta be well-researched and accurate - and yes, I check. I can go on and on about this, but the best is Edward Rutherfurd. He takes several lineages and follows them throughout history - Sarum starts in prehistory, do that one first - with a ton of detail.

Hubs is into science fiction, favorite author is Neal Stephenson. We both dig Kim Stanley Robinson, though. If you've never read his stuff, try this. If sci-fi is your thing, I can ask him for some recommendations.

When I say that Himself and I are bookworms, I am not kidding. We turned the dining room into a library to contain the overflow. You walk in our front door, and to your right is a wall; to your left, a library. Pretty fucking cool, if you ask me.

Despite all the bad, there are some good stories. Neighbors caring for land and livestock, but also neighbors stealing land and livestock.

My family has a story I love to share, one person can make a difference. My grandmother returned her wedding ring to Bon Marche (Seattle's Macy's). Can't make payment from behind barbed wire...

The clerk, being a kind human said ok, come back when this is over and you can resume payments. My grandmother thanked her, figuring it would not happen (they were selling what they could for pennies on the dollar, and people would barter them down further or simply state "I'll come back for the fridge when you're gone").

The concentration camps happened and they eventually made their way back to Seattle years later. One day on a whim, my grandmother goes back to Bon Marche to inquire about the wedding ring.

The store kept their word, she resumed payments on the ring.

It doesn't take much effort to make society better. But you have to live with purpose and be willing to go that little extra.

"No-No Boy" by John Okada is an amazing story of post war America. Probably the greatest piece of American Asian literature, and the story of the author and book is equally part of understanding this history.


No-No Boy (Classics of Asian American Literature) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0295994045/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9YXxCb7DSS246

> War and brothels go hand in hand with emasculating of Asian male and hypersexualizing of Asian female that got enforced by 3 wars which consolidate it and because it wasn't challenged, its harder to break the stereotype because it is so entrenched.

I would like to take this opportunity to pull a great quote from Viet Thahn Nguyen's Pulitzer prize winning novel, The Sympathizer:

> I am merely noting that the creation of native prostitutes to service foreign privates is an inevitable outcome of a war of occupation, one of those nasty little side effects of defending freedom that all the wives, sisters, girlfriends, mothers, pastors, and politicians in Smallville, USA, pretend to ignore behind waxed and buffed walls of teeth as they welcome their soldiers home, ready to treat any unmentionable afflictions with the penicillin of American goodness.

I googled 'fictional book about vietnamese soldiers coming to america'

and it came back with this:

https://www.amazon.com/Sympathizer-Novel-Pulitzer-Prize-Fiction/dp/0802124941

Could be it?

>The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

I would recommend an introductory textbook.

Stephen Mitchell's intro to Buddhism textbook is used in a lot of intro classes in religious studies departments.

Donald Lopez's "Buddhism in Practice" would be a great resource, too, I imagine. We used his similar book on East Asian religions for an intro class on that topic. They are edited volumes that offer a great commentary by Lopez at the beginning of each section, followed by a collection of articles by top scholars on the subjects. Lopez himself is a very highly regarded scholar in the field.

You can generally find cheap copies on amazon. (the Lopez book on Buddhism is $8 on Amazon, and the Mitchell book is $24.

OMG this suddenly blew up. I didn't know this would be this upvoted! I just told her now that she's reddit-famous haha. This B&N was in Sugarland in Texas. Thank you for the love everyone! You can find her book in Amazon here haha this is so weird.

Thanks for the suggestion on GoodReads, she doesn't have that, she's an independent writer so she's kinda doing this on her own.

Self published - check


Sci-fi / Thriller - check


Currently 9 reviews - check


It is the first in a potential series - check



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LF4PR1J/ChrisChauPatient3


Good luck on your ventures yourself! Hopefully this will be mutually beneficial.


-Chris

There's also a pretty good documentary out there about Richard Aoki, one of the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In the context of Vincent Chen, I Hotel is a pretty interesting read.

I hope it won't be terrible of me to suggest my own book HereAfter: Dragons Rising.

No harem, no distressed damsels, and the mc is (I think) a fairly competent guy.

Only the first part is out at the moment, but after a small hiatus, the second book (of a currently planned five) is almost ready.

Besides that, a relatively lesser known title that I enjoyed (in spite of its flaws) was Bushido Online. I haven't read the sequel, but the first was was pretty good at what it was trying to do.

The first book of Street Cultivation is out on Amazon and I enjoyed reading it for free on royalroad so much that I bought a copy to support the author.

You can read the first five chapters on royalroad if you are undecided, but for me, it eases some of the Cradle-withdrawal symptoms I'm suffering through.

It's basically taking the trappings of the wuxia genre and putting it in a modern-day setting, without letting the main character have anything special or unique. He has to dig himself out of poverty with nothing but his smarts, hard work, and a little luck.

Another wuxia recommendation is Cultivating Earth. There's only 20 short chapters out so far, but it's off to a strong start. It's about a cultivator who reached immortality by consuming all qi on a world for 4,000 years. This world resulted in our modern reality. To pay back the karmic debt, he's cultivating Earth.

It was recommended a few weeks ago and I'm posting it again to show how much I liked it.

I'm more into his poetry, so I will recommend the collections Zero Gravity and Amigo Warfare.

For novels I recommend his latest (just released in November), The Descartes Highlands. It has an Alex Garland feel to it. Empire of Memory is excellent - The Beatles in Manila, the Marcoses and protagonists who are drunk in love. Finally, My Sad Republic is probably the most popular, set during the Philippine Revolution.

Hi guys;


Book 2 of my xanxia cultivation series is out today.


Wu Ying has joined the Inner Sect of the Verdant Green Waters Society. He'll have to establish his place in the Sect as well as learn a secondary occupation to support his growth as an immortal. Expect, as always, action, discussion on the dao and an ever expanding universe.


US Link: https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Li-First-Xanxia-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B07TSFN7GD/

CA Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Thousand-Li-First-Xanxia-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B07TSFN7GD/

UK Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thousand-Li-First-Xanxia-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B07TSFN7GD/

AU Link: https://www.amazon.com.au/Thousand-Li-First-Xanxia-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B07TSFN7GD/

DE Link: https://www.amazon.de/Thousand-Li-First-Xanxia-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B07TSFN7GD/

PEN award winner Native Speaker is very explicitly not about immigrant struggles in America in a way I think you'll find very helpful.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

[Cradle]
[Mother of Learning]
[Sufficiently Advanced Magic]
[Street Cultivation]
[The Land]
[The Divine Dungeon]
[The Dark Herbalist]
[Ascend Online]
[The Way of the Shaman]
[The Wheel of Time] (Low Quality)
[I Shall Seal the Heavens]
[A Will Eternal]
[Coiling Dragon]
[Patrick Rothfuss] (Author)
[The Thousand Li]
[Savage Divinity] (Low Quality)
[The Dao of Magic]
[Dante's Immortality]
[Forge of Destiny]
[Veilverse]
[Way of the Immortals]
[Sundered Soul]
[Edge of Eons]
[Soulship]
[The Wandering Inn]
[Delvers LLC]
[Dodge Tank]
[World Tree Online]
[Life Reset]
[Viridian Gate Online]
[The Crafting of Chess]
[Reverend Insanity]
[I Eat Tomatoes] (Author)
[Er Gen] (Author)
[The King's Avatar]
[Against the Gods]
[Martial World]
[Dragon Heart]
[Purple Days]

Well, to get you in the mood for Vietnam, a few suggestions:

• Chickenhawk
  
  
• The Quiet American
  
  
• The Sympathizer
  
  
• In Pharaoh's Army
  
  Buy them second hand and pass them on when you're done with them

I like what you are attempting.

Check this out even if you only listen to the opening story where the character enters the world. May help you with boss mechanic ideas or even creature encounters.

https://www.amazon.com/Bushido-Online-Battle-Begins-LitRPG-ebook/dp/B0759XBQNW

Any chance you're talking about The Sympathizer? The guy just won a Pulitzer for it. He's a fucking refugee and his brother, also a fucking refugee, is now some important guy in the Obama administration. Native-born Americans: what the fuck have you done with your mickey mouse life of comfy 1980s Saturday Morning Cartoons?

Viet Thanh Nguyen's fictional stories are great -- The Sympathizer and his short story collection The Refugees.

If you're looking for something a little more pulpy there's:

Vermilion: The Adventures of Lou Merriwether, Psychopomp

Henry Chang has a series of mystery thrillers with a Chinese-American cop protagonist.

Also of note:

https://bookriot.com/2017/07/20/a-round-up-of-awesome-asian-american-protagonists-in-ya-lit/

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/asian-american-protagonist (some cross pollination with the link above, but still)

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-inscrutable-voices-of-asian-anglophone-fiction

Severance by Ling Ma - innovative and deeply satisfying take on contagion, zombies, late-capitalism/consumerism, etc.

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix - tag line: “The world is a prison and only heavy metal can save us.” FUCKING METAL. 🤘🏼

Fist full of sand and the sequel,

https://www.amazon.com/Fist-Full-Sand-Book-Cerulea-ebook/dp/B079F5NSZD

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K4V8HB9/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Crafting of Chess and he has a sci-fi book that hits the gamelit feels but isnt' really Intelligence block,

https://www.amazon.com/Crafting-Chess-LitRPG-adventure-ebook/dp/B07P1YRHTX

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S1HMJL4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Spwinward dreamsate novel

https://www.amazon.com/Spinward-Artificial-Dream-State-Novel-ebook/dp/B01KQOSHYK

Bushido online.

https://www.amazon.com/Bushido-Online-Battle-Begins-LitRPG-ebook/dp/B0759XBQNW

Axillion99

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BDDDBB6/ref=x_gr_w_glide_sout?caller=Goodreads&callerLink=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39138895-axillon99&tag=x_gr_w_glide_sout-20

Viral (Not really litrpg or gamelit but kind of fits.)

https://www.amazon.com/Viral-Piers-Platt-ebook/dp/B07DHZ8R6Y

Homebrew

https://www.amazon.com/Homebrew-LitRPG-novel-Metagamer-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B07BTL5RM4

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. The author's writing style reminds me of John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Russo. I could eat it like cake.

Richard Wright's Native Son is an excellent novel from 1940. Wright was a member of the Communist Party and is one of the canonized greats of African American literature. The main character of the novel is introduced to communism, which is instantly regarded as the only ideology that has anything to offer the American black community. Really a great read. Amazon link

Last year's Pulitzer Prize in Fiction was won by Viet Thanh Nguyen with The Sympathizer, which is a spy-thriller about the Vietnam War. While Nguyen does eventually criticize the National Liberation Front, he spends a great deal of the novel criticizing American imperialism as well. Nguyen identifies as Marxist, but is taking a fairly balanced approach here, being rather critical of communism in VN after the death of Uncle Ho. Amazon link

Ell Donsaii series https://www.amazon.com/Quicker-Ell-Donsaii-story-1-ebook/dp/B005ORQO7W

Emily Kane series https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Fights-Back-Emily-Adventure-ebook/dp/B005CIRTSG

Kurtherian gambit series https://www.amazon.com/Death-Becomes-Kurtherian-Gambit-Book-ebook/dp/B017I3NVP2/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=17MDDIZMZQ4R7&keywords=kurtherian+gambit+series&qid=1554849438&s=gateway&sprefix=kurtherian&sr=8-3

Last Sentinel series by Ivy Asher - (if you’re ok with ‘why choose’ style sex) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42861547-the-lost-and-the-chosen

Have a look in the monthly and daily deals sections of the Kindle store, there's some good stuff in there usually, and even if it's crap you've only wasted 99p mostly.

General recommendations:

The power - Naomi Alderman

Ashes of London - Andrew Taylor

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (pretty much any of their solo books are good too).

Quite ugly one morning Chris Brookmyre

[IQ] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1474607187/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jp9NBb44YRWFN) Joe Ide

Republic of Pirates Colin Woodward

Operation Mincemeat - Ben McIntyre , Agent Zigzag and Double Cross are also fascinating and interlinked.

the book

http://www.amazon.com/On-Such-Full-Sea-Novel/dp/1594486107

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Never-Told-You-Novel/dp/159420571X

Add to that The Sympathizer, which, while a work of fiction, masterfully brings it home on a human level.

The title is Fobolous https://www.amazon.com/Fobolous-Finding-love-other-world/dp/0997582111 not sure why you were DV'd peeps are salty today.

Puchased! I've had my eye on this book for a while, but I just don't enjoy reading on royalroad. Kindle link US

Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang - This memoir is what the upcoming ABC sitcom is based on, and it's what WSJ journalist Jefff Yang has said, if unedited, will be "a game-changer for Asian Americans on screen." It's a witty and insightful story of how Eddie Huang bridges his old school parents' background and the American lifestyle of hip-hop and Air Jordans.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang - graphic novel that weaves the story of the Chinese tale of the Monkey King, a second generation kid who moves into a primarily white neighborhood and doesn't want to be considered a "Fob", and a white American boy whose Chinese cousin "Chin-kee" visits.

No-No Boy by John Okada - A Japanese American returns home after being interned during WWII and struggles with where he belongs in US society. The term "no-no boy" refers to how interned Japanese Americans answered to a "loyalty questionnaire."

Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee. The protagonist is Henry Park, a Korean American whose identity as an American with a Korean upbringing has impacted all facets of his life, including the strain on his marriage and his excellence as a spy. He goes further into cultural turmoil when he is assigned to spy on a Korean-American politician who during his run for mayor of NYC has to deal with tensions between Blacks and Koreans.

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine - graphic novel whose protagonist Ben Tanaka is in a struggle with his own identity. His girlfriend is politically active and is involved in the Asian-American community, which he doesn't care much about. Ben denies the relevance of race, yet he has a certain attraction towards white girls and complex about his own attractiveness as an Asian male. Ben is bitter and angry, and his rejection of many things, including his own race distances him from people.

I also liked American Son (story of two Filipino brothers and their mother navigating violence and a new culture in America) by Brian Ascalon Roley and The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Caspain Kang. The latter is Kang's first novel and it was not spectacular, but I did like his writing style and his use of pop culture from the view of a Korean American. He incorporates the story of the shooter Seung-Hui Cho, which he originally wanted to write a book about to reflect on Korean American male anger. Jay Caspian Kang is already in the media for his journalism pieces, but I'm looking forward to more of his writings and possible continued foray into literature.