The Toledo Lucas County Public Library celebrates the diversity of our community and works to advance equity, access, inclusion, and belonging through our services, collections, programs, and policies. The recent violent attacks against Asian community members are in direct conflict with the Library’s values and we unequivocally condemn these hateful actions.

It is incumbent upon the Library to provide a wide variety of materials that inform, challenge, and inspire people to learn more about Asian and Pacific Islander community members. Fiction, nonfiction, short stories, poetry, memoirs, thrillers, historical fiction, science fiction, and more can help people expand their horizons and consider the diverse perspectives of our neighbors.

To continue honoring Asian American and Pacific American Heritage Month (and beyond), we’ve compiled a short list of novels for Asian and Asian American voices.

All you need is a Library card to begin your own journey of discovery and understanding. If you have a card, but need help with your account number or PIN, call 419.259.5200. If you need a Library card, you can apply and begin borrowing digital materials within minutes with our online application.

Tell Me My Name

By Amy Lynn Reed

Fern is watching and waiting for summer, for college, for her childhood best friend to decide he loves her. Then Ivy Avila lands on the island like a falling star. When Ivy shines on her, Fern feels seen. When they’re together, Fern has purpose. She glimpses the secrets Ivy hides behind her fame, her fortune, the lavish parties she throws at her great glass house and understands that Ivy hurts in ways Fern can’t fathom. As they get closer, Fern’s cozy life begins to unravel.

Luck of the Titanic

By Stacey Lee

The Titanic story told through the viewpoint of Valora Luck, a Chinese girl making her way to the United States.

Outrun the Moon

By Stacey Lee

eBook   |   eAudiobook   |   hoopla eAudiobook

On the eve of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Mercy Wong, daughter of Chinese immigrants, is struggling to hold her own among the spoiled heiresses at prestigious St. Clare’s School. When tragedy strikes, everyone must band together to survive.

From Little Tokyo, with Love

By Sarah Kuhn

Rika’s life seems like a fairy tale in the making. She’s an orphan with two bossy cousins, working away in the family business. Rika loves her family, even her cousins who are named after Disney heroines. Working at her aunts’ restaurant in LA’s Little Tokyo is also kind of fun. With her judo skills, half-Asian heritage, and a healthy interest in Japanese snake-girl folklore, Rika is sure she’s more the misunderstood witch than the singing princess. All that changes the moment she locks eyes with a certain Grace Kimura, America’s reigning rom-com sweetheart!

The Kingdom of Back

By Marie Lu

eBook   |   eAudiobook

Desperate to be forever remembered for her music, Nannerl Mozart makes a dangerous pact with a mysterious stranger. Will it cost her everything?

A Taste for Love

By Jennifer Yen

To her friends, Liza Yang is nearly perfect: smart, kind, and pretty. She dreams big and never shies away from a challenge. Liza agrees to help out at the bakery’s annual junior competition. The catch? Every contestant is a young Asian American man her mother has handpicked for Liza to date!

Every Reason We Shouldn’t

By Sara Fujimura

Olivia Kennedy is a sixteen-year-old figure skater whose Olympic dreams have ended. She’s bitter but still enjoying teenage life, until Jonah Choi starts training at her family’s struggling rink.

The Weight of our Sky

By Hannah Alkaf

During the 1969 Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur, Melati becomes separated from her mother. With the help of a young Chinese boy, she fights prejudice, violence, and her own obsessive-compulsive disorder to find her mother again.

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes

By Atia Abawi

After their home in Syria is bombed, Tareq seeks refuge with his father and sister. They travel first to family in Raqqa, a stronghold for the militant group, Daesh, and then abroad.

Vicious Spirits

By Kate Cho

The sequel to Wicked Fox: Miyoung and Jihoon’s efforts to start over in the wake of devastating losses. The loss of the fox bead has caused a tear between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and ghosts are suddenly flooding the streets of Seoul.

Empress of a Thousand Skies

By Rhoda Belleza

eBook   |   eAudiobook

When their paths cross after a brutal attack, Aly is falsely accused of killing Rhee. Now Aly must work together with an unlikely ally to save themselves and the universe.

The Kidney Hypothetical, or How to Ruin Your Life in Seven Days

By Lisa Yee

eBook   |   hoopla

Higgs Boson Bing has seven days left before his perfect high school career is completed. Then it’s on to Harvard to fulfill the fantasy portrait of success that he and his parents have cultivated for the past four years. When Higgs’ girlfriend presents him with a hypothetical question about whether or not he’d give her a kidney, the exposed fault lines reach straight down to the foundations of his life.

Crossing

By Andrew Xia Fukada

As one of only two Asian students at Slackenkill High School, freshman Xing Xu exists on the fringes of adolescent society, counting the days until he’s free. When a series of abductions rattles his adopted hometown, Xing as an outsider can see and hear things others cannot. As he moves closer to unveiling the kidnapper, he must choose between staying in the shadows or revealing a secret from his past, which may prove his worth to his classmates.

Interior Chinatown

By Charles Yu

eBook   |   eAudiobook

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy, the highest aspiration he can imagine for a Chinatown denizen. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family.

Your House will Pay

By Steph Cha

eBook   |   eAudiobook   |   hoopla eBook   |   hoopla eAudiobook

In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it’s been since the unrest of the early 1990s. Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. Grace is sheltered and largely oblivious, living in the Valley with her Korean-immigrant parents, working long hours at the family pharmacy. Shawn has had enough of politics and protest after an act of violence shattered his family years ago. He just wants to be left alone to enjoy his quiet life in Palmdale. But when another shocking crime hits LA, both the Park and Matthews families are forced to face their shared history while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep

By Justina Chen

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