This came at exactly the right time for me and for America. As an adopted half-Asian, these conversations have been critical for me. I've always felt both too white and too Asian to fit in either camp. I grew up and now live in predominantly white cities, so I have known few people who are also half- or full-Asian, leaving me to grapple alone with many experiences. This book voiced many of the struggles I thought I might be alone in. It put words to feelings that I did not know how to name. This anthology shows that while there is no universal Asian-American experience, there are common threads that unite us. I was simultaneously uplifted while reading because I knew I wasn't alone in these moments, but also heartbroken that so many of us share some of these experiences.

Everyone should read this book, whether you are Asian yourself or want to learn more about being Asian in America. In a time when racism and anti-Asian hatred is growing and becoming more public, books like this one become increasingly critical for people of every ethnicity and every age to read.

As one (well, one being an Asian growing up in the US) might expect, there is a lot to relate to in the experiences described in this book. Despite being all different varieties of Asian, a common thread is that of being othered. We are othered in different ways and in varied degrees, but othered nonetheless. We also come to this realization in a variety of ways. There is a repetitiveness to these stories that felt tedious at times, yet I recognize that this could also be the result of the exhaustion I feel in relating to them. I can only read this as an Asian reader and there is simultaneously a feeling of community in reading these accounts alongside the horror that so many of us are having these revelations in isolation.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC...
... and a huge thank you to CAPE, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, for making this anthology come to life.

My Life: Growing Up Asian in America is an essential anthology to read, one that spotlights the multitude of Asian American perspectives and experiences through individual stories. These stories vary across genre, style, and message -- and not all of the stories quite align or agree with one another. This, itself, is the virtue of the anthology.

I took an Asian American history course this semester at my college, and I lamented that despite my professor's efforts to incorporate personal accounts and nuance into the histories taught, the fraught histories of erasure, exclusion, and violent assimilation that shape the Asian American identity as we know it today makes this pursuit for personalized and humanized nuance to be difficult to find. This is where I personally see the merits of artistry as a means of excavating one's ancestry, one that may have traveled across perilous oceans, unreturned promises, unfulfilled dreams, unspoken languages, and unresolved questions.

If you'd like to add dimension to your understanding of Asian American histories, or if you appreciate reading personal memoir genres that handle topics of personal identity and reckonings, I would say that this anthology is critical to include in your reading! I look forward to future works that emerge from the footsteps of works such as My Life.

"Show your unmasked face, and the uniqueness of who you are will be all the magic you need."

This is a book that challenges the harmful "model minority" stereotype, or the belief that success among Asian Americans is universal. The stereotype dangerously
exacerbates interracial tension and does not
acknowledge the socioeconomic disparities among the diverse range of Asian-American subgroups. It also perpetuates a myth that Asian Americans are not afflicted
by racism and disregards a longstanding history of racially-motivated aggression and discrimination in policy against Asian Americans (e.g., L.A.'s 1871 Chinese
Massacre, the Page Act of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese Internment Camps).

Like any other group of people, there is no singular Asian American experience. While there are perhaps shared themes, especially when encountering racism or ignorance for example, the way we process or respond to
those situations varies, as does the way we view and identify ourselves. This book highlights our shared humanity and the universal experience of wanting to
belong and feel accepted while including 30 contributors who are at the intersection of multiple identities. This compilation includes diverse voices from different ethnicities, backgrounds, and even writing style; yet it still feels cohesive. There are poems, essays, comics, and even quotes from prominent Asian Americans.

As a Black and Filipino-American woman who grew up never feeling Filipino or Black enough, I especially connected with Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence's piece about her experience of also being Black and Asian and interracial tension. Especially with an introduction written by MTV's SuChin Pak (who was a fixture on my television), this book feels like it was written directly to my
teenage self, to help me know I wasn't alone and to help me embrace and define myself for myself.

Many thanks to the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE), MTV Books, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book which was published earlier this month.

Interesting mix of autobiographical writers including journalists, executives and a magician. Themes covered will be common to any Asian-American reader, from fitting in, discrimination, stereotypes, fetishism, and being othered. A lot of intriguing issues are raised here but not detailed, leading me to some fruitful research (Spike Lee and Yuri Kochiyama, 2008 films Doubt and Waltz with Bashir, all the victim’s of Atlanta’s 2018 shooting, and 75-yr old Xhiao Zhen Xie in SF who beat her 39- yr old white male assailant into submission with a piece of wood); and leaving me also with some unanswered questions: did racism have something to do with the fall of Linsanity? What was the villa in Manila?

MY LIFE: GROWING UP ASIAN IN AMERICA is edited by CAPE, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, a non-profit whose focus is on "creating opportunities and driving Asian and Pacific Islander success in Hollywood." They have gathered essays, poems, and comics from over two dozen people, including novelists such as Melissa da la Cruz and Marie Lu, business leaders like Ellen K. Pao, plus journalists and TV and film writers. Each story centers on some aspect of growing up Asian American. In "A Pair of Shorts" Kao Kalia Yang (The Latehomecomer), for example, reflects on an incident form her childhood and tells readers, "I want to please both of them, my mother and my grandmother. But I also want to look like the other kids at school, the ones whose legs climb into the sky when they swing high and move fast ahead of me after balls in the school yard. ... And by the end of the school day, I come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what I wear; I'll never fit in, be a regular American kid." PBS NewsHour's Amna Nawaz shares "The Ring" which begins shortly after 9/11 and in which she says, "I hid part of myself, minimized part of myself. I did all this to avoid the scrutiny, the questions, and the hostility of others." There is much to contemplate and discuss: Nawaz reflects on her ancestors who "chose to believe that America could be as good and great as she says she is. My girls will know the work it takes, and will continue to take, for their generation and the next, to make that true for everyone." I know our students will appreciate the hope these authors share as they speak to their younger selves and to their own children.

A short biography of each of the contributors appears at the end of MY LIFE: GROWING UP ASIAN IN AMERICA and quotes from other Asian Americans are dispersed between selections. I saw only the digital preview, but hopefully the print edition has a Table of Contents to assist readers as they sample different selections. I am encouraging teachers to do that this summer as they prepare curriculum choices for next year.