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May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! To celebrate, I’ve curated a list of fantastic books by AAPI authors that also check off tasks on the 2026 Read Harder Challenge. We have a nonbinary fantasy series, an anti-colonialist gothic novel, a Chinese American romantasy book, a Native Hawaiian picture book, and more to choose from.
Of course, that doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the AAPI books worth reading this month and every month. Scroll to the end of this list to find links to even more recommendations.
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Task #2: Read a book featured on a “best book covers” listÂ
Blob by Maggie Su, Cover design by Robin Bilardello
You don’t have to like Vi to empathize with her experiences as a college dropout living in a Midwest town where she sees herself having no future. But you will certainly be unable to stop reading this book after she discovers a blob on the street and brings it home. This is no ordinary blob, though. It’s sentient, and over the course of the story, it begins to grow limbs and a whole personality. Vi realizes she has an opportunity here: make this blob her ideal partner and finally find true, meaningful love. Blob is a weird, funny, and moving read about identity, family, and, err, street blobs.
Casual Optimist named this one of the best book covers of 2025. —Kelly Jensen
Task #4: Read a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
A nonbinary monk storyteller tells a series of incredible stories in this cycle of novellas from author Nghi Vo. Chih is on the road in search of stories when they run into an elderly woman who was once a handmaiden in the court of an exiled Empress. Rabbit was there for the rise and fall of Empress In-yo, and she has a story to tell unlike any other Chih has heard.
That’s only the start of Chih’s adventures, too, which continue in the sequel, When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain. —Rachel Brittain
All Access members, read on for five more books by AAPI authors that check off 2026 Read Harder Challenge tasks.
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For even more great AAPI reads, check out these lists:
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What are you reading for AAPI Heritage Month? Let us know in the comments!