Annie
My Shelf
Mayumu : Filipino American desserts remixed
by Balingit, Abi, author.
641.86 /Balingit
Cookbooks
"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"--
Bibliolepsy
by Apostol, Gina, author.
FICTION Apostol Gina
"Gina Apostol's debut novel, available for the first time in the US, tells of a young woman caught between a lifelong desire to escape into books and a real-world revolution. It is the mid-eighties, two decades into the kleptocratic, brutal rule of Ferdinand Marcos. The Philippine economy is in deep recession, and civil unrest is growing by the day. But Primi Peregrino has her own priorities: tracking down books and pursuing romantic connections with their authors. For Primi, the nascent revolution means that writers are gathering more often, and with greater urgency, so that every poetry reading she attends presents a veritable "Justice League" of authors for her to choose among. As the Marcos dictatorship stands poised to topple, Primi remains true to her fantasy: that she, "a vagabond from history, a runaway from time," can be saved by sex, love, and books"--

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The magic fish
by Trung, Le Nguyen, author.
GRAPHIC NOVEL Trung
"Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tíên still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tíên, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay?"--

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Afterparties : stories
by So, Anthony Veasna, 1992-2020, author.
FICTION So Anthony
"A debut story collection about Cambodian-American life-immersive and comic, yet unsparing-that marks the arrival of an indisputable new talent in American fiction"--

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Crying in H Mart
by Zauner, Michelle, author.
BIOGRAPHY 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"--

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The kiss quotient
by Hoang, Helen, author.
FICTION Hoang Helen
"A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick. Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice--with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan--from foreplay to more-than-missionary position... Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he's making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.."--

Added by Annie
Dial A for Aunties
by Sutanto, Jesse Q., author.
FICTION Sutanto Jesse
"What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then, toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family? You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue! When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate--especially when it is accidentally shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding that Meddy, her Ma, and her aunties are working, at an island resort on the California coastline. It is the biggest job yet for their family wedding business--'Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!'--and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her aunties' perfect buttercream-cake flowers. But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love--and biggest heartbreak--makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding, all in one weekend?"--

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Amboy : recipes from the Filipino-American dream
by Cailan, Alvin, author.
641.59599 /Cailan
Cailan, arguably the most high-profile chef in America's Filipino food movement, spent his youth feeling like he wasn't Filipino enough to be Filipino and not American enough to be an American. As an amboy, the term for a Filipino raised in America, he had to overcome cultural traditions and family expectations to find his own path to success. In this memoir/cookbook, Cailan tells that story through his recipes. -- adapted from inside front cover.

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Minor feelings : an Asian American reckoning
by Hong, Cathy Park, author.
BIOGRAPHY Hong, Cathy Park
"Asian Americans inhabit a purgatorial status: neither white enough nor black enough, unmentioned in most conversations about racial identity. In the popular imagination, Asian Americans are all high-achieving professionals. But in reality, this is the most economically divided group in the country, a tenuous alliance of people with roots from South Asia to East Asia to the Pacific Islands, from tech millionaires to service industry laborers. How do we speak honestly about the Asian American condition--if such a thing exists? Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively confronts this thorny subject, blending memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose the truth of racialized consciousness in America. Binding these essays together is Hong's theory of "minor feelings." As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality--when you believe the lies you're told about your own racial identity. With sly humor and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and artmaking, and to family and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche--and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth"--

Added by Annie
In the country : stories
by Alvar, Mia, 1978-
FICTION Alvar Mia
"A powerful, globe-trotting debut short-story collection from an exciting new writer--vivid, character-driven stories about Filipinos from every walk of life. Mia Alvar's stunning debut gives us a vivid, insightful picture of the Filipino diaspora: exiles and emigrants and wanderers uprooting their families to begin new lives in the Middle East and America--and, sometimes, turning back. One man smuggles drugs from his pharmacy in New York to Manila for his ailing father, only to discover an alarming truth about his mother. A woman living in Bahrain faces a challenge that compels her to question her marriage. A college student in Manila struggling to write fiction knows that her brother, who has gone abroad to make money, is the one living a life that stories are made of. The novella-length title story follows the unexpected fates of a journalist and a nurse during the 1970s labor strikes in Manila. Exploring the universal experience of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined, In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home"--

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Sour heart : stories
by Zhang, Jenny, author.
FICTION Zhang Jenny
"Centered on a community of immigrants who have traded their endangered lives as artists in China and Taiwan for the constant struggle of life at the poverty line in 1990s New York City, Zhang's exhilarating collection examines the many ways that family and history can weigh us down and also lift us up. From the young woman coming to terms with her grandmother's role in the Cultural Revolution to the daughter struggling to understand where her family ends and she begins, to the girl discovering the power of her body to inspire and destroy, these seven vibrant stories illuminate the complex and messy inner lives of girls struggling to define themselves. Fueled by Zhang's singular voice and sly humor, this collection introduces Zhang as a bright and devastating force in literary fiction"--

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Know my name : a memoir
by Miller, Chanel, author.
364.1532 /Miller
"She was know to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford's campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral--viewed by almost eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time. Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways--there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life. "Know My Name" will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic." -- summary from book jacket.

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About Me
Annie works as the ICPL's Public Relations Aide, posting on social media and taking pictures of Library events. Since moving to Iowa City from sunny Florida in February 2023, she has enjoyed living in a place that has snow and taking pottery classes. In her free time, you can find her playing cozy Nintendo Switch games, doing the daily NYTimes Spelling Bee or bullet journaling.
I've been following The Dusky Kitchen on Instagram for a while now, and I love her Filipino-American takes on classic Filipino dishes! Living away from my family in an area with limited Filipino cuisine has been hard, but this cookbook has helped bring a little more of home back into my kitchen as I now make a weekly batch of pandesal to have for breakfast everyday. I appreciate her recommendations for specific ingredient brands as well as different methods to make harder-to-find ingredients like ube halaya from scratch. I have yet to try the more interesting recipes like Kare Kare Cookies or Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookies! -Annie