1. What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan
From a silk-producing village in rural China, up the corporate ladder in suburban America, and back again to the post-Maoist nouveaux riches of modern Shanghai, What We Were Promised explores the question of what we owe to our country, our families, and ourselves.
2. Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone—and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all.
3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood--and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
4. Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
The popular Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland has been serving devoted regulars for decades, but behind the staff's professional smiles simmer tensions, heartaches and grudges from decades of bustling restaurant life.
5. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
The Night Tiger explores colonialism and independence, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and first love. Braided through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.
6. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
The Kiss Quotient follows Stella, a thirty year old econometrician who is smart and successful in her professional life, but lacking experience in her dating life. It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s which has made her previous romantic experiences unenjoyable. Deciding that the only way to overcome this is with a lot of practice, Stella hires Michael, an escort, to teach her the ways of dating. Only soon their no-nonsense partnership seems to make a lot of sense.
7. Dear Girls by Ali Wong
Ali Wong’s heartfelt and hilarious letters to her daughters (the two she put to work while they were still in utero) cover everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mom in a male-dominated profession, and how she trapped their dad.
8. Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Vividly told in Singlish—colourful Singaporean English with its distinctive cadence and slang—Sarong Party Girls brilliantly captures the unique voice of a young, striving woman caught between worlds.
9. Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho
Crazy Rich Asians meets Bridget Jones’s Diary in this funny and irresistible debut novel about the pursuit of happiness, surviving one’s thirties intact, and opening oneself up to love.
10. The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It’s the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away--and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.
