Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors
With May coming to a close, we couldn’t let the month go by without shouting out Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage month. One of the most powerful ways to celebrate and honor these communities is through storytelling as books open up doors to diverse—and important—experiences. While The Reading Chamber is a small online bookstore, we know how important it is to feature authors from all different backgrounds. As the store grows, so does our collection, and we highly encourage you to check out these titles below by amazing AAPI authors! For a larger variety, check out Penguin Random House.
Capsule by Mel Torrefranca
Two students from Brookwood High School mysteriously go missing on the same night.
The first is Peter Moon, a heartless pescatarian who bashes students from Brookwood on his blog, turning everyone against him. The second is the adored Kat Pike, an audacious girl desperate to boost her adrenaline. Three days pass. No leads.
Indifferent to the disappearances, sixteen-year-old Jackie Mendoza remains immersed in her virtual world of video games and online friends.
When a menacing app by the name of Capsule downloads itself onto Jackie's phone, she enters a game interlaced with reality. A game threatening to erase Peter and Kat forever. Only Jackie can save them now--but Capsule is the most ruthless game she's ever played.
Mel Torrefranca delivers a heart-wrenching thriller about unlikely friendships, bittersweet moments, and a never-ending search for answers best left forgotten.
Iron Widow and Heavenly Tyrant by Xian Jay Zhao
Iron Widow:
In Huaxia, the highest honor for a young girl is to be selected as a concubine-pilot: supporters paired up with male pilots to power up Chrysalises, the giant transforming mechas that humanity relies on to battle the massive aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. But the honor often ends in death, and when 18-year-old Zetian’s sister is killed by an ace male pilot, Zetian signs up to avenge her. The vengeance is swift, brutal—and unexpected, leaving Zetian labeled as an Iron Widow, a much-feared kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead of the other way around.
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage her and Shimin’s combined might and infamy, and survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out why the pilot system relies so heavily on destroying girls’ lives—and dismantle it for good.
Heavenly Tyrant:
After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself on the seat of power in Huaxia, but she has alos learned that her world is not as it seems. Revelations about an enemy who dangles one of her loved ones as a hostage force Zetian to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite their mutual dislike and distrust, the two must work together to take down their common enemy and stoke a revolution against the systems of exploitation that plague their world.
However, power is not so easy to wield once seized, and a revolution is not so easy to control once unleashed. As Huaxia’s former elites strike back and the common people’s fervor for justice turns bloody and paranoid, can Zetian remain a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance and liberation?
The Holiday Switch by Tif Marcelo
Lila Santos is ready for her last winter break of high school. The snow in her small town of Holly, New York, is plentiful, the mood is as cozy as a fuzzy Christmas sweater, and she’s earning extra cash working at the local inn—the setting of the greatest film of all time, Holiday by the Lake—while moonlighting as an anonymous book blogger.
But Lila’s perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss’s frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Rivera, becomes her coworker. Lila is type A, Teddy is type “Anything but Lila’s Way,” and the two of them can’t stop butting heads over tangled icicle lights and messy gift shop merch. But when they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they realize they’ve been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets—and an unexpected snowstorm—bring these rivals together?
The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor
Now:
When sixteen-year-old Alice inherits an apartment in Paris that has been locked for over seventy years, she is determined to discover why its existence was hidden from her family for so long. However, the more time she spends digging through the mysteries of the past, the more she realizes there are secrets in the present that her family is still refusing to talk about.
Then:
Ever since the Nazis invaded France, Adalyn has been determined to do something. When she meets Luc, the dashing and enigmatic leader of a resistance group, Adalyn feels she finally has a chance to fight back...even if it means risking her safety, her reputation, and her relationship with the people she loves the most.
Although separated by generations, Alice's and Adalyn's fates are entwined in ways both heartbreaking and hopeful. Jordyn Taylor masterfully weaves together both girls' stories in a thrilling combination of high stakes, tantalizing mystery, and the romance of the City of Lights.
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favorite people are there: Susannah, her mother’s best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad’s brother, Jeremiah, Belly’s heart belongs to Conrad. Will he offer his to her? Will this be the summer that changes everything?
