The sixth category for the 2017 Reading Challenge—for those of you who are stretching yourselves this year—is “a book about the immigrant experience.”
Why? The books that fulfill this category automatically include a diversity of plot lines that make for a good story: the clash of cultures, the journey tale, the confusion of identities, the pang of homesickness, the nostalgic look to the past.
Depending on which title you choose, this could be your opportunity to take a journey you’ll never actually live, to travel back in time, to better understand your neighbors, or to experience your own land through radically different eyes.
Need ideas for this category? There are so many good ones, which is why I’ve included a whopping twenty-five titles here. Most are fiction; a few are non-. All are fair game for this category. I can’t wait to hear your suggestions, and to see which titles YOU choose to read.
What book about the immigrant experience are you reading for this category? What titles would you add to the list?
68 comments
The Hundred Dresses was probably one of my favorite books growing up. I always asked my mom to get it from the library. Such a good book!
What a great list! Adding several of these to my WTR list. So glad you included Jhumpa Lahiri, too.
Just finished the Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen. A collection of short stories with excellent insights into the universal experiences faced by refugees. Based on the Vietnamese refugee experience.
That’s a great addition!
Wow! I just learned that this must be one of my favorite genres. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my all time favorite with The Boston Girl being one of my favorites as well. Pachinko is tied for best book I’ve read this year (along with This is the Way it Always Is). Thank you for this list, I will return to it for future TBR.
I’d like to add American Street. Just finished it and it was excellent! High school student Fabiola and her mother immigrate from Haiti to resettle in Detroit with an aunt and cousins. Life in urban Detroit is not what Fabiola expects and she finds herself in way over her head due to cultural differences.
That’s a new title to me; thanks for sharing!
The Voyage of Their Live: The Story of the SS Derna and its Passengers by Diane Armstrong is a marvelous account of European immigrants who survived WWII and traveled to Australia to begin new lives. Mrs. Armstrong compellingly weaves narratives of individuals from many walks of life, sharing their heart-rending war experiences, shipboard encounters, and courageous adventures as they began a new life in a strange land.
Armstrong is uniquely qualified to pen this work as she was a 9 year old passenger on the SS Derna. As a journalist she has the skills to ferret out interesting details and compassionately tells the stories of many amazing people. It’s an inspiring book of immigrants who overcame great obstacles.
I’ve never heard of this one before—thanks so much for sharing!
Hamilton by Ron Chernow – best biography of anybody ever, period, end of story.
The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar, or anything by Thrity Umrigar would be my choice for a great novel in this category.
Exit West is one of my favorite titles of the year (though I’ve noticed it’s not for everyone.) I just lent my stepmom my copy of Before We Visit the Goddess, since she lent me Interpreter of Maladies, both of which were so good! Americanah, The Namesake, The Sun is Also a Star, AND Little Bee are all currently on my bookshelves and my TBR list. I really need to get on it!
Thanks for this list. I would recommend The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez, also.
I second this. It’s on my list to read this Summer. A lot of people in my book club read this one and LOVED it!
I was going to recommend this book also, one of my favorites!
One of my absolute favorites!!!! So good!
Hi Anne! Thank you for sharing your list! I will definitely add some of those titles to my TBR list. I just read “That Thing We Call a Heart” by Sheba Karim, and really enjoyed its description of a Pakistani-American teenager navigating love and friendship the year after graduating from high school. While it is an easy-to read YA romance, it also tackles a wide range of cultural topics, including wearing hijab, Urdu poetry, and the partition of India and Pakistan. I would definitely recommend this book!
This year I’ve read a few immigrant stories: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Girl in Translation, and Americanah. The first is about an Ethiopian who comes to Washington, DC and deals with gentrification in poor neighborhoods as well as immigration.
And for very young children, we love “The Keeping Quilt” by Patricia Polacco!
Such a great book! Read with a Kleenex!
This one is not really on anyone’s radar. I think maybe they talked about it on a Book Riot podcast. An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie. A young boy from Togo ends up living in Greenland and of course, fish out of water problems endue!
Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor. I couldn’t put it down. It’s the story of the authors parents who were undocumented workers in Calif. The book was passed around my family for a summer and we all loved it and still discuss it years later. The characters become like family.
What a fantastic list, hadn’t heard of several of these! I really loved Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea, a wonderful book about Irish immigrants travelling by sea to America in the mid-19th century.
Great list – thanks for posting! I’d like to add “We Were the Lucky Ones” by Georgia Hunter, based on the true story of a family of Polish Jews who are separated at the start of WWII, determined to survive and somehow reunite. I found it relevant and gripping from start to finish.
Great list. I had read quite a few, several are on my to-read list. I HIGHLY recommend The Song Poet and The Latehomecomer by Kao Kahlia Yang. Deep, emotional, loving non-fiction books of a Hmong family immigrating to Minnesota.
Deb Garvey: Yes, just chiming in to add those two by Kao Kalia Yang. They should definitely be added to the list.
Loved Girl In Translation, Orphan Train, and Major Pettigrew (possibly all recommendations from your blog or podcast!). We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbough was also a good one about Mexican illegal immigrants.
I REALLY LIKED THE ONE I READ FOR THIS CATERGORY— TITLED UPRISING WRITTEN BY MARGARET PERERSON HADDIX. RATED IT 4 STARS OUT OF 5.
Great list, as always. I don’t think anyone else mentioned this one, but I would like to add No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal. I recently finished it and loved it.
The Line of the Sun by Judith Ortiz Cofer would be perfect for this list. It stays with you.
What a great list! I’m so glad to see “Girl in Translation” on this list. I had never heard of it but saw it on my library’s “Too Good to Miss” shelf (where they display good books that have been out for a while) and decided to pick it up. I loved this book and felt such a bond with Kim despite having vastly different life experiences.
Anne, I’ve just been appreciating you and your book recommendations lately and wanted to let you know. Thank you! You are amazing at what you do!
So many great books on this list! I just added several to my TBR list. Will Cather has a special place in my heart, as she lived in Red Cloud, Nebraska, only about an hour from my home. Such expansive and beautiful writing!
Loved Little Bee!
I would add The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street to this list (by Susan Jane Gilman). You could use the same book for the “unreliable narrator” category. Great ideas here. Thanks!
I listened to Behold the Dreamers on Audiobook and I can NOT recommend it nearly enough. So beautiful and such a skilled reader! All of the accents and songs and music–it was enchanting and heartbreaking.
In the Country We Love is a must read. Diane Guerrero’s memoir after coming home from school one day to find her parents had been deported. Heart wrenching and eye opening. Also, The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez, told from the point of view of several different Latino immigrants in one small northeast apartment complex. Also oldie but a goodie, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Thank you for the list! These are my favorite kinds of stories because, as an adult, I’m actively seeking titles about diverse cultural experiences. I recommend In the Country by Mia Alvar. It’s a fantastic collection of short stories about the Filipino/a diaspora that feel so intimate that they left me thinking about the characters long after finishing the book.
Wow, I guess I’ve found my genre, too! I’ve read, and loved, so many of these books! Little Bee, Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Namesake. I guess I’ll have to add some of the others to my TBR! These are such beautiful, important stories for us to read. Thanks for another great list.
I just finished reading Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran, and it would make a great addition to this list. The story of an undocumented Mexican woman, her American-born son, and the Indian-American couple who become his foster parents when his birth mother is arrested and held in immigrant detention. Excellent read!
The Shoemaker’s Wife is SO good! I only buy books if I want to read them again and again. I bought this one!
I have many of these! Must dive in. Thanks 🙂
In addition to the great titles on the list (especially A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), I would also recommend God Grew Tired of Us: a Memoir. While not the best writing, it’s worth the read as a very thought-provoking memoir of a Sudanese Lost Boy who immigrated to the US in 2001. I read this after watching the documentary by the same name. I also second another reader’s timely suggestion of Lost Boy.
This was one of my favorite prompts in the reading challenge this year. I truly enjoy delving into the struggles and personal victories of others – their lives, cultures and time periods. As a newly identified “Explorer” it was noteworthy that I had already read 10 of the 25 books listed and could identify at least another five from my TBR list. To your list of 25 I would add some oldies but goodies: How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent or The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love; Breathe, Eyes, Memory; The Joy Luck Club; Angela’s Ashes; Brick Lane and My Antonia.
I have read a couple of these already. Thanks for the extensive list – most of them are on my TBR list, but what a great reminder to get reading!
What a lot of great titles here! I’ve really added a lot to my TBR today! Here’s my recommendation – Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin (amazing writer of lots of Christian fiction – one of my favorite authors). 3 orphaned sisters in Sweden come to the US through Ellis Island in 1897, wanting to end up in Chicago. This is a fabulous book!! 🙂
PS And for some reason, it’s only 83 cents on the Kindle today!!
Thanks for the heads up on the sale! Purchased and looking forward to reading. 🙂
Howard Fast’s The Immigrants…just starting this one. Rec9mmended to me by my FIL, an immigrant from Austria.
Great list! Another idea for this category is a graphic novel (a first for me!) I just finished called “The Best We Could Do” by Thi Bui. I can’t stop thinking about it. Something about the combination of the haunting illustrations and the author coming to terms with her own part in the larger story of her Vietnamese immigrant family…it was powerful. My husband’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam as well, and some aspects of the family’s story in the novel are quite similar to his family’s experiences. I’m so glad I read this book…and now I want to recommend to it everyone I know.
So many great ones on this list! I read both Little Bee and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn this year, and I have The Hundred Dresses on my daughters’ bookshelf. I need to pull it out with them soon. Pachinko is on my TBR list.
Another great one is What is the What by Dave Eggers, about one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Wonderful book!
I’ve never thought of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as an immigrant story. Puts it in a whole new light for me!
I’d add A Free Life by Ha Jin to this list!
Great list! I think I have read twenty of them! I’ll add The Leavers by Lisa Ko, a Chinese immigrant story that is very congruent with the world today. It has a blurb by Ann Patchett and one by Barbara Kingsolver, so no need for my endorsement!
I loved The Leavers by Lisa Ko. I was very surprised it was not on this list. One of my favorites of 2017!
A great YA pick is Esperanza Rising—easily read in a day or two, all about a young girl’s immigration experience from Mexico to the US to work as a migrant farmer after her father’s death.
Lisa See is a good author too to watch for themes of immigration–several of her books have it as a central theme, and I have yet to read a book of hers I didn’t love.
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These look like such interesting books! Good thing my husband works at a library! I just read The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande. It was honest, good, and I felt as if I had been there with her because of her great descriptive passages!
This is one of your best lists ever. I have read number of these books and have now added several to my ongoing list. The most recent book I’ve read from this list is Exit West. Intriguing and I loved the added touch of mystical realism.
I’d add The Song Poet by Kao Kalia Yang, about a Hmong refugee family in MN.
We just listened to the audiobook for “Ain’t So Awful Falafel” and it would be a great addition to the list too. I especially liked this book because my children enjoyed it as much as I did and I think we all learned more about the immigrant experience.
I can’t say enough about The Book of Unknown Americans (Cristina Henriquez) and the insight it gave into what it’s like for new families trying to settle in the US. Highly Recommend.
I liked Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I would also highly recommend Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife (my very favorite of hers), The Joy Luck Club or The Bonesetter’s Daughter. I learned so much about the Chinese – American experience and culture that has helped me understand more of Chinese history. I can’t wait to read some of the books on this list.
This is probably my favorite genre of all fiction. Super surprised that you didn’t include Joy Luck Club, though. It’s so good, and a classic!
Another great one is The Distance between us by Reyna Grande. A Mexican girl making it to America. So incredibly good!!
This is my favorite theme to read.
Well three of my favorites made the list A tree Grows in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, and The Orphan Train. As an Irish person living in the Kentucky for 18 years, these three resonated with me.
I remember reading A Hundred Dresses in early elementary school. It really left an impression on me but at the time the immigrant aspect escaped me. Time to revisit!