Nurse activist reading for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

As we celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, here are some of the books by AAPI authors and about the AAPI experience we’re reading.

These selections illustrate that even in the face of discrimination, violence, racism, and xenophobia, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are organizing and building powerful movements for social justice. We hope these stories can be an inspiration to all nurses as we fight to protect our patients, our communities, and ourselves!

Non-fiction recommendations

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino History by Catherine Ceniza Choy

Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change by Angela Garbes

Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation by Diane Fujino and Robin Magalit Rodriguez

Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s China Town by Nayan Shah

Asian America, 2nd Edition by Pawan Dhingra and Robyn Magalit Rodriguez

Heartbeat of a Struggle: the Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kuchiyama by Diane C. Fujino

From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i by Haunani K. Trask

Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Take on the Global Factory by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie

We Too Sing America by Depa Iyer

China on Strike by Eli Friedman, Zhongjin Li, and Hao Ren

Fiction recommendations

This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang