# Jana’s Book Recs

## Happy AAPI Month Friends!

Here are some book recommendations for the month, more to come!

- **Burn the Sea** by Mona Tewari  
  My first book by this author, not my last. I was blown away by this historical Indian fantasy that reimagines the 16th century Portuguese attacks on South India.

- **Sword of Kaigen** by M. L. Wang  
  Feminine rage at its best, this standalone fantasy was my favorite read of last year!

- **Fundamentally** by Nussaibah Younis  
  Debut novel that follows Nadia, a British academic who takes a UN job in Iraq.

- **Julie Chan is Dead** by Liann Zhang  
  A satirical thriller about a supermarket cashier who assumes the identity of her deceased influencer twin sister Chloe to escape her own life.

- **We Dance upon Demons** by Vaishnavi Patel  
  Contemporary fantasy novel with an iconic cover. A burnt out reproductive health worker gains supernatural powers.

- **If we cannot go at the speed of light** by Kim Choyeop  
  A collection of Korean sci-fi stories that will take you on such an amazing journey.

- **Cleo Dang would rather be dead** by Mai Nguyen  
  Dark humor explores a grieving mother who deals with the loss of her daughter and struggles to heal.

- **The Photonic Effect** by Mike Chen  
  Space opera? Say less.

## Cleanup on Aisle Five by Ann Larson out 6/9/26

This is such an incredible, powerful educational book. I’m so glad I picked this up and hope others do too.  
“It is next to impossible not to become as indifferent or brutal as the system in which one is caught” - Simone Weil

Here are just a handful of topics covered in this book:

- Poor mental health is a result of exploitation inherent in wage labor.
- Black shoppers and power dynamics in the 1920’s and 1930’s where diseased food wasn’t discarded but instead sold to black consumers.
- Poverty is a constant state of emergency.
- Chain stores did not eliminate discrimination. Centralization ended some longstanding racist customers.
- SNAP benefits.
- Abundance can make the supermarket seem like capitalism’s greatest achievement.

"All labor has dignity".