Asian American, Pacific Islander and Jewish American Heritage Month

The month of May is recognized as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month as well as Jewish American Heritage Month, to get into the spirit of celebrating and learning these heritages Cannell Library has an assortment of books that you can come down, check out and read.

History

 ‘Asian Americans: Oral Histories of First to Fourth Generation Americans From China, Philippines, Japan, India the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, and Cambodia’ By Joann Faung Jean Lee.

‘Our Voices, Our Histories: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women’  By Shirley Hune and Gail M. Nomura

‘Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian-Pacific-American Activists’ By Kevin K. Kumashiro.

‘Stories from Jewish Portland‘ By Olsen, Polina.

“These are the stories of Jewish Portland, whose roots stretch back to the gold rush, whose heart is ‘the old neighborhood’ of South Portland and the memories of its residents and whose identity is alive and well in synagogues and community institutions. Portland author Polina Olsen recounts the history of this richly layered community through a collection of letters, interviews and stories drawn from her series ‘Looking Back, ‘ published in the Jewish Review. In this expanded collection, explore the lives of early settlers brought by opportunity and New York’s Industrial Removal Office, walk the streets of the old neighborhood, alive with basketball games and junk peddlers, and learn the proud history of institutions like the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, which continues the cultural traditions of Jewish Portland.”

‘Jewish-American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia’ By Fischel, Jack and Pinsker, Sanford.

‘Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings and America’s First Imperial Adventure’ By Siler, Julia Flynn

‘Korean American Pioneer Aviators: The Willows Airmen‘ By Chang, Edward T.

Art

‘They painted from their hearts: Pioneer Asian American Artists’ By Mayumi Tsutakawa, Alan Lau, Kazuko Nakane, Wing Luke Asian Museum Located in Seattle, Washington and the Archives of American Art.

‘Asian American Art, A History 1850-1970’ By Gordon H. Chang, Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom and Sharon Spain.

‘Fixing the World: Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth Century’ By Soltes, Ori Z (ebook)

Food

‘Indian-ish: recipes and Antics From a Modern American Family’ By Krishna, Priya

‘Mister Jiu’s In Chinatown: Recipes and Stories from the Birthplace of Chinese American Food’ By Jew, Brandon.

‘Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed’ By Balingit, Abi

“A sweet baking book of fantastically imaginative remixed Filipinx American dessert recipes, plus stories of the Filipinx American experience by baker-activist, Abi Balingit When the pandemic started her lonely work-from-home life in 2020, Abi channeled all her energy into the one thing that brought her joy: baking. She started to produce Pasalubong boxes filled with novel treats that blended the Filipino and Asian flavors Abi grew up with and her favorite Western style baked goods, each time selling out within hours and donating the proceeds to support her community in need. Now, Abi shares these cult-favorite desserts with Mayumu (which means “sweet” in one of the 8 major languages in Philippines), an incredibly fresh baking book of 75 recipes for sweet treats, organized in chapters tied to where she discovered these flavors growing up as child of immigrants in a cultural melting pot, from the Philippines, to all around California, to her now home Brooklyn, NY. And she bakes all of these in her tiny, dimly lit, urban kitchen, meaning anyone can do it, too”

‘Coconut & Sambal: Recipes from my Indonesian Kitchen’: By Lee, Lara

‘The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York’ By Roden, Claudia

Literature

‘Crying in H Mart: A memoir’ By Zauner, Michelle

“From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band–and meeting the man who would become her husband–her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread”

‘Good Talk: A memoir in Conversations‘ By Jacob, Mira

‘The Body of Brooklyn’ By Lazar, David (ebook)

‘Our Feet walk the Sky: Women of the South Asian Diaspora’ By Women of South Asian Descent Collective.

‘Coconut Milk’ By McMullin, Dan Taulapapa (ebook)

‘And the View from the Shore: Literary Traditions of Hawai’i’ By Sumida, Stephen H (ebook)

 ‘No-No Boy’ By John Okada