Guess who signed up for yet another reading challenge? 🙋♀️
The timing is great since I’m actually through all my May ARCs* and I’ll have plenty of spare time to read once finals are over: my last one, organic chemistry, officially ends at 3pm on the 13th. So it seemed like a good time to switch gears and also get caught up on the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge since the books I read for these prompts can be used for that too, and I anticipate many will fulfill other reading challenges. (I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to finish all 25 this month, but I’m sure as heck going to try!)
* Technically when I posted this I hadn’t yet finished Fake It Till You Break It, but I was saving it for this challenge and it wasn’t due until the end of May. And now I’ve finished it, so there! 😜
The Asian Lit Bingo challenge takes the form of a bingo board, a 5 by 5 grid with 25 total prompts for books to read. The baseline goal is to read prompts for a single line, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally on the board, for a total of 5 books. Post your progress on Twitter with the hashtag #AsianLitBingo.
Contest Rules:
- Book must have an Asian main character (can be one of several main characters) and be by an Asian author to qualify. It does not have to be #ownvoices, but #ownvoices is strongly encouraged.
- Book can be a novel/novella/novelette or comic book/graphic novel.
- Book must be read during May 1st through May 31st to qualify.
- Review link-up will close end of June 1st at midnight PDT. The extra margin is to give people the opportunity to write up a review for a book they might have finished late May 31st. We’ll follow the honor system assuming you didn’t read the book on June 1st.
Bingo TBR + Review Links
prompts listed from left to right, top to bottom (MC = main character)
* indicates #ownvoices book; you can click on the title of each book to see my Goodreads review
🗹 East Asian MC: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan*
🗹 Asian refugee MC: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid*
🗹 Asian immigrant MC: The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly*
🗹 Asian MC with disability: Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look
🗹 Multiracial/Multiethnic Asian MC: The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller The Astrologer’s Daughter by Rebecca Lim
🗹 LGBTQIAP+ Asian MC: Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert
🗹 West Asian MC: Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi*
🗹 Asian Muslim MC: Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali*
🗹 Religious Asian MC: Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee* The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani*
🗹 Poor or working class Asian MC: Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok*
🗹 SFF with Asian MC: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
🗹 Historical fiction with Asian MC: The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo*
🗹 FREE SPACE (Any Asian MC): Jade City by Fonda Lee
🗹 Retelling with Asian MC: Reflection by Elizabeth Lim*
🗹 Contemporary with Asian MC: Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen*
🗹 Graphic novel with Asian MC: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang*
🗹 Queer romance with Asian MC: (You) Set Me On Fire by Mariko Tamaki It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura*
🗹 Romance with POC Love Interest: Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim*
🗹 Central Asian MC: The Sky at Our Feet by Nadia Hashimi*
🗹 Translated work by an Asian author: A Hero Born by Jin Yong*
🗹 Southeast Asian MC: The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen* [short review]
🗹 Asian superhero MC: Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee*
🗹 Asian transracial adoptee MC: The Leavers by Lisa Ko*
🗹 Non-fiction by Asian author: On Gold Mountain by Lisa See Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan*
🗹 South Asian MC: The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob*
Did you participate in Asian Lit Bingo? Have any recs for any of the above categories, or general recs for books by Asian authors?
Nine Tale Vixen 
Oh wow, this looks so cool! I’d love to do this but I won’t have access to books in May 😦
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oh no! not having access to books figures prominently in my nightmares 😭
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Yeah 😭 But on the flip side I’ll be travelling and I still have ebooks, so not all is lost
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Wow…amazing prompts and books!! I haven’t read a single one of them but I am participating in #yarc2019 and I think I’m doing alright as of now. 🙂
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that’s awesome! I do love that technically you can win at any level of YARC since all the badges are so cute – I’ve been a little behind if I want to reach 50+ so I figured hey, two birds 😉
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Oh wow 50+? All the best, Isabelle!! I’m just aiming for the second level…10-20 books..😍
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haha thank you! and hey, every book counts – you do what works for you 💕
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Wow that’s A LOT of books to read in basically 2 weeks! Good luck! But it sounds like you might not need it since you have it all planned out 😊
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haha thank you! I do have all month so hopefully I’ll be able to get through a significant portion, but I’ll also be at home after finals with lots of spare time to read so I’m not super worried about finishing – and worst case scenario, I won’t fill the whole board but I’ll get a couple bingos and call it good 😜
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I had no idea Lisa See wrote any nonfiction! Guess who’s adding a book to their tbr. You got this bingo card, and freakin Loved Ghost Bride so I’ll have to ask you what you think of The Night Tiger, and I am really curious about (You) Set Me on Fire. Good luck with the last of your academic work, and I would say good luck with this, but you don’t need it lol. I plan on focusing on YARC in the late Summer….I hate my inability to get through my ARCs lol. But yay for you! Telling your tbr who is boss lol
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thanks haley! 💕 this bingo is kind of pulling triple duty as Asian Lit Bingo itself, YARC catchup, and getting some good Asian authors’ books off my TBR and finally read – so hopefully this plan doesn’t crack under the pressure 😅
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” I’m actually through all my May ARCs” …. i died ahaha you ARE FAB.
but also from ur tbr list, i highly recommend forest of a thousand lanterns, i loved it so much
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yesssss I’ve heard so many good things about it! thanks Lauren!
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Wow!! You found a book for every prompt. I’m like the most impressed person ever. YOU CAN DO IT!! READ ALL 25 BOOKS!!! (After finals and moving) 🎉
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well I did pull about half the books from their list (because the bingo organizers were awesome enough to make one, haha). and yeah, it’s starting to hit me just how many books I pulled … we’ll see how it goes 😅
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I completely forgot that Asian lit bingo was a thing! Hmm I have to see if I can atleast get a bingo for the board. I was already planning to focus on Asian reads this month but I can’t ever turn down a bingo board its my kryptonite!
I’m excited to see your thoughts on what you read this month alot of the books you have are on my tbr as well!
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yessss I love bingo boards! imo just one bingo is totally doable, especially if you cross the free space 😉 and yup, a lot of these books made it onto my list because I’ve heard a lot about them, so I’m excited to get to them at last!
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i believe in you 🎉
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Oh, all the best! Hope you are able to read all 25.
The whole TBR looks very interesting – especially Not Your Sidekick since I have heard so much about it!
Hope you enjoy reading all these books!
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thanks Jayati! and yeah, I’ve heard great things about so many of these books so I made a point to try to fit them in if I could!
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Ooooooo you’re reading a lot of good books this month! Hope you get through them all! I’m going to attempt without fully committing, but I’m going to try and participate in the photo challenge (when the weather decides it’s not going to rain on days I want to take photos).
calls you out Fake It Till You Break It is a May ARC and I don’t think you’re done with it yet, young bookwyrm.
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thanks Soph! researches rituals to ensure no rain so you can take those photos
also as of the time I am writing this comment, I am done with Fake It Till You Break It. so there 😜 (also I was saving it so I could count it towards this bingo and it’s not out until the end of the month anyway lol)
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I’m not participating because… life… but Murakami is an asian author that I’ve been loving at the moment!
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I’ve heard tons about Murakami! thanks for the rec, I’ll definitely make sure to check out some of his books when I get a chance.
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Murakami is great. My favourite book that I’ve read by him so far is After Dark. If you’re into asian authors etc. I think Adele @bookishdella is planning on maybe starting a Japanese author read-a-long thing! (https://bookishdella.com/2019/04/30/april-wrap-up/)
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I hope the challenge goes well! Saints and Misfits as well as Exit West are both ones I am intrigued to hear more about. I loved a different novel by both authors Jenn P. Nguyen and also Stacey Lee, and actually have the ones you chose on my wishlist because I want to read more of their work eventually!
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thanks Olivia! I hope we both enjoy them 😉
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This looks like so much fun! I have so many of these books on my tbr. You’re also reminded me how I unfortunately haven’t made much of a dent in my YARC2019 tbr. Oof. But, that’s what summer is for! Hehe. I hope you enjoy all the books you read for this bingo, Isabelle! 🙂
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thank you Kelly! I hope you get some time to catch up too 💕
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