The Art of Prophecy – The Bookish Mutant

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Here in the U.S., May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! This is my fourth year making this particular list, and I’ve found and read so many incredible books since then. As always, diverse reading shouldn’t be restricted to one month only, but here at The Bookish Mutant, I try to take any opportunity I can to shift the focus to marginalized voices—and to recommend fantastic books. It feels especially important to make these lists in the past few years, what with the book bans that are not-so-subtly targeting almost exclusively POC and queer voices—read between the lines. Freedom to read is freedom to resist.

As with last year’s list (see below), I’ve now expanded them to included both YA and Adult titles, organized by genre.

For my past lists, click below:

Let’s begin, shall we?

THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S BOOKS FOR AAPI HERITAGE MONTH (2024 EDITION)

FANTASY:

Off With Their Heads – Zoe Hana Mikuta | YA | LGBTQ+, Retellings, Horror | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Monstrous Misses Mai – Van Hoang | Adult | Historical fiction, Magical realism | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Kindling – Traci Chee | YA | LGBTQ+, Historical fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Babel – R.F. Kuang | Adult | Historical fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Thousand Steps Into Night – Traci Chee | YA | High fantasy | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Art of Prophecy – Wesley Chu | Adult | Historical fiction, High fantasy | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

SCIENCE FICTION

Machinehood – S.B. Divya | Adult | Dystopia, Thriller | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Deep Sky – Yume Kitasei | Adult | Thriller, Literary fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Memory Police – Yōko Ogawa | Adult | Dystopia | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Flux – Jinwoo Chong | Adult | LGBTQ+, Mystery | ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sea Change – Gina Chung | Adult | Dystopia, Literary fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Meru (The Alloy Era, #1) – S.B. Divya | Adult | LGBTQ+, Romance, Space opera | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

REALISTIC AND HISTORICAL FICTION:

Yellowface – R.F. Kuang | Adult | Contemporary fiction, Thriller | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea – Rita Chang-Eppig | Adult | Historical fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This Book Won’t Burn – Samira Ahmed | YA | Contemporary fiction, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Are Not Free – Traci Chee | YA | Historical fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Boy You Always Wanted – Michelle Quach | YA | Romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
While You Were Dreaming – Alisha Rai | YA | Romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of these books, and if so, did you enjoy them? What are your favorite books by AAPI authors? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

NEW BEABADOOBEE????? I’m seated—

That’s it for this recommendations post! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles! Hope this month has treated you well.

How is it already the end of May? It feels like I was trying to get dust bunnies out of the corners of my dorm room just a few days ago…(so many dust bunnies 😭)

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Whew! May has been pretty busy, but everything’s…temporarily winding down. I finished up my finals and managed to make straight A’s this semester—I just found out I got on the dean’s list, too! Still can’t believe I’m already finished with my first semester of college; it was such a scary and jarring experience at first, but I’m already finding myself missing parts of it. What a weird and wonderful year it’s been. Now that I’m back home for the summer, I’ve just been trying to soak it all up—I’ve had a few quiet weeks, but I’ll be going back to the library soon, which I’m so excited about!

My reading and blogging have both still been slower, with all of the bustle of finishing…everything, but I’m starting to get back on track now that summer’s started. I’m slowly trying to get back on a writing schedule as well—I ended up deciding to write the sequel to my main sci-fi WIP, and once I finish outlining it (which I’m in the middle of right now), I’ll get back on my writing schedule. That’ll probably be what I end up working on for Camp NaNoWriMo in July…

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing more, playing guitar, watching Kindred (Octavia Butler deserves a better adaptation), committing to binge-watching my way through Taskmaster (there’s strength in arches, y’know), and enjoying being home. We’re still in the “summer, but not disastrously hot yet” stage here in Colorado, so I’m enjoying that while it lasts…

And more importantly, I’m going to a virtual Q & A with the one and only AMIE KAUFMAN tonight!! I CAN’T WAIT!!

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 18 books this month! My reading’s still a bit slowed down after finals and moving out (!!!), but I still feel like I read a good amount. It was a really mixed bag, though—two 1 star books (one was a DNF, the other would’ve been had I not been trying to wait out a lightning storm before going to sleep 🥴), but THREE 5-star (one rounded up from 4.75) books! Can’t remember the last time the former happened. Either way, I found a ton of great reads for AAPI heritage month, and finally got my hands on some of my most anticipated reads of the year!

If this month’s 1 star reads are any indication, maybe the word “monster” is the problem…?

1 – 1.75 stars: