I didn’t work out yet how all of these would fit onto the Bingo board (most could be placed on more than one square), so I’m not sure if I actually got a Bingo, but here’s what I read/reviewed this month.
Read and Reviewed:
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.
Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero by Fred Chao.
To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon.
Reread and Reviewed:
A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman.
Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream by Jenny Han.
Read (but not yet reviewed):
By Gene Luen Yang:
–Saints
–Boxers
–American Born Chinese (I found my copy!)
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
Good Luck, Ivy by Lisa Yee. (American Girl series)
Only One Year by Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Nicole Wong.
P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han.
Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Steve Rolston.
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay.
Wanted to Read (but didn’t):
Dove Arising by Karen Bao. – There wasn’t time for something so immersive.
Silence by Shusaku Endo. – I just didn’t feel like reading this one.
Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee. – one of the branch libraries did end up purchasing this, but I didn’t move quickly enough to hold, checkout, read, and review. I do still plan to read and review it.
Results:
I did significantly better than I expected on this challenge! With out of town visitors and a busy holiday weekend, I didn’t think I’d get much done, but instead went on a graphic novel kick and read 6 graphic novels this month, most of which were new to me. It just suited my month and I had a lot of them.
The books I ended up reading for this challenge are, as far as I can figure, all #ownvoices, with two one exceptions: one book (Emiko Superstar) has a white illustrator, and I don’t think Fred Chao is Japanese but couldn’t find any specifics on his background. If there’s another I missed, let me know.
Some books purchased because of this challenge (mix of new/used) – the To All the Boys books; the Boxers/Saints duology; Good Luck, Ivy; Emiko Superstar. Most I plan to pass along after we’re done reading them.
I also purchased Tall Story and Kira-Kira, which I’d already planned to as part of my reading project seeking stories about disabled people of color. When Dimple Met Rishi is a book I pre-ordered that happened to arrive in time for me to read it for this challenge!
This month I purchased but didn’t yet read a few other books: Tiger Boy, The Year of the Dog, and the aforementioned Kira-Kira.
I managed to crank out seven reviews (two were rereads so I’d already taken notes on them) and was pretty happy. Normally I read fairly quickly but it takes a month or more to photograph, edit, reread, and post a review.
Overall, I’m happy I participated in #AsianLitBingo because it pushed me to read some excellent books and diversify my reading even more. The kids have even picked up two of the graphic novels I got for this challenge.
Some bloggers have already completed the whole card! I’m a little less ambitious and am going to aim for reviewing books for every square over the course of 2017.
Colorful Book Reviews 
I love the idea of reviewing a book for every square. Since you mentioned that one of the illustrators is white, I’ll just mention that the authors should all be Asian for this challenge even if they are not #ownvoices.
Did you enjoy Persepolis? I’m so glad that the kids chose to read some of the graphic novels, we really need to stop saying that those aren’t real books – I hate that.
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Thanks for letting me know – I didn’t think to ask about illustrators but it makes sense. I’ve updated the post to reflect that book not counting. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t end up reading Silence because I think the main character is a foreign missionary so that one wouldn’t have counted either.
Persepolis was very good. The format is a little different to other graphic novel memoirs I’ve read with short episodic chapters and a more comedic style despite the serious subject matter. I read The Arab of the Future Volume 1 earlier this year and didn’t like it, so was relieved to enjoy Persepolis.
So far the kids have read some of the Gene Luen Yang books and N read most of Emiko Superstar. For whatever reason, my reluctant reader has glommed on to Johnny Hiro and is obsessed (even though it’s an adult graphic novel and the vocabulary is challenging) so I might have to buy the second one, although I wasn’t planning to. There are excellent (and diverse) graphic novels out there for every genre, we love them!
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