Chinese Americans book series in reading order

Fran Manushkin, born November 2, 1942, is an American children's author who worked first as a children's book editor. Manushkin studied at the University of Illinois and Roosevelt University. Come Let Us Be Joyful: The Story of Hava Nagila received a Notable Children's Book citation from the Association of Jewish Libraries in 2000. The catalogue lists 64 early-reader books from 2009 to 2021, with Katie Woo named in the subjects; titles include No More Teasing (2009), Boo, Katie Woo! (2010) and Pedro is Rich (2021).

Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, private investigators in New York, share the lead across S.J. Rozan's crime novels. Thirty-three catalogued books run from Body English (1992) to First Do No Harm (2026), taking in China Trade (1994), Concourse (1995), Mandarin Plaid (1996) and A Bitter Feast (1998). Chinese American life in the city is a standing subject. The Dee & Lao series, standalone novels, short fiction and poetry complete the list.

Grace Lin

35 books• 4 series

Grace Lin, born May 17, 1974, is a Taiwanese-American writer and illustrator of children's books and a Newbery, Geisel and Caldecott honoree. Lin writes for young and middle-grade readers, often with young Asian and Asian American characters in everyday or fantastical settings, and advocates for Asian American representation in children's literature. The catalogue lists 35 books from The Ugly Vegetables (1999) to The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon (2025), including Dim Sum for Everyone! (2001), Kite Flying (2002) and The Year of the Dog (2005). Ling & Ting and Pacy are Lin series. Subjects include Chinese Americans, Taiwanese Americans, twins, sisters and Chinese New Year.

Amy Tan

14 books• 5 series

Chinese American families, and mothers and daughters in particular, are Amy Tan's subject. The Joy Luck Club (1989) opens a catalogue of 14 titles, followed by The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) and The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001). Tan also writes for children, among them The Moon Lady (1992) and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), alongside non-fiction and short stories. The Backyard Bird Chronicles is the newest title.

Ed Lin is a Taiwanese-American novelist and the first author to take three Asian American Literary Awards. His first novel, Waylaid (2001), won a Members' Choice Award there and a Booklist Editors' Choice Award in Fiction. The Detective Robert Chow novels put a Chinese-American police officer in the New York Chinatown of 1976, opening with This Is a Bust (2007) and continuing through Snakes Can't Run (2010) and One Red Bastard (2012); the Taipei Night Market books form a second series. Ten titles are catalogued, the newest being The Dead Can't Make a Living (2026).

Gene Luen Yang

72 books• 18 series

American cartoonist and author Gene Luen Yang was born on August 9, 1973. Yang taught computer science and directed information services at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California, joined Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children and young adults in 2012, and was named the Library of Congress's Ambassador for Young People's Literature in 2016. The catalogue lists 72 books from Rosary Comic Book (2003) to The Books of Clash Volume 8 (2026), including American Born Chinese (2006), The Eternal Smile (2009) and Level Up (2011). Series include Secret Coders, Boxers & Saints, Shadow Hero, Shang-Chi, New Super-Man and Monkey Prince. Magdalene Visaggio and Greg Hahn each share credit on 2 books, and Dan Watters and Phillip Kennedy Johnson on 1 each.

Gish Jen

11 books• 1 series

Gish Jen, born Lillian Jen on August 12, 1955, is an American writer and speaker. Chinese American families are what the catalogue's subjects return to, alongside emigration and immigration, interracial marriage, humorous fiction and bildungsromans. Jen has 11 catalogued books published between 1991 and 2025, all credited to Jen, from Typical American (1991) to Bad Bad Girl (2025). Mona in the Promised Land (1996), Who's Irish (1999), The Love Wife (2004), World and Town (2010), The Resisters (2020) and Thank You, Mr. Nixon (2022) sit in the run.

Stacey Heather Lee writes young adult fiction, best known for Under a Painted Sky (2015) and Outrun the Moon (2016). Her work spans contemporary and historical fiction with magical elements, and the catalogue records Chinese Americans, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, slavery, runaways and survival among its subjects. Eight books reach from that 2015 debut to Heiress of Nowhere (2026), taking in The Downstairs Girl (2019), Luck of the Titanic (2021) and Kill Her Twice (2024).

Michael Connelly

60 books• 10 series

Michael Connelly is an American crime novelist, born July 21, 1956. The catalogue lists 60 Connelly books, running from The Black Echo (1992) to Ironwood (2026). LAPD detective Harry Bosch and defence attorney Mickey Haller are the recurring leads, and the listed series include Bosch Universe, Lincoln Lawyer and Safe Man. The Black Echo won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a 2002 film of Blood Work. Subject headings cover police procedurals, legal fiction, serial murder and Los Angeles.

Lisa See

13 books• 2 series

Chinese and Chinese American history is Lisa See's material, handled as family fiction across generations. On Gold Mountain (1995) is a non-fiction family history; the novels follow, among them Flower Net, The Interior, Dragon Bones, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Peony in Love and Shanghai Girls. Thirteen books make up the catalogue, which includes the Red Princess mysteries and runs to Daughters of the Sun and Moon in 2026.

Jamie Ford

4 books

Jamie Ford is an American novelist with four books published between 2009 and 2022. The debut, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (2009), spent 130 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and took the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in adult fiction. Songs of Willow Frost (2013) came next, then Love and Other Consolation Prizes (2017) and The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (2022). Chinese American and Japanese American lives, the wartime relocation of 1942 to 1945, orphans, grief and prejudice are the recurring subjects. No new title has appeared since 2022.

Greenglass House (2014) is the Kate Milford novel that won the Edgar Award for juvenile literature and was long-listed for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Ghosts of Greenglass House (2017) is the sequel, and five further Milford books share the same world. The catalogue holds 12 titles, from The Boneshaker (2010) to Rialto (2026), with Seacritters! The Hunt for the Jigamaree due in 2027. Milford is a New York Times bestselling author who has also written for stage and screen.

Jean Kwok

5 books• 1 series

Jean Kwok is a Chinese American novelist whose books have reached the New York Times bestseller list. Girl in Translation (2010), Mambo in Chinatown (2014) and Searching for Sylvie Lee (2019) are the first three, the last of them a Read with Jenna book club pick on The Today Show. Five titles are catalogued to 2026, with The Leftover Woman (2023) and Dominion (2026) completing the list. Chinese American families, family secrets, ballroom dancing and New York recur as subjects.

Chang-rae Lee

8 books

Chang-rae Lee, born in 1965, is a Korean-American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Stanford University. Lee previously held a creative writing professorship at Princeton and directed the programme there. Recorded subjects include Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, the Korean War, the Second World War, private investigators, spy stories and espionage thrillers. Eight books stretch from Coming Home Again and Native Speaker, both 1995, to A Tender Age (2026), by way of A Gesture Life (1999), Aloft (2004), The Surrendered (2009), On Such a Full Sea (2014) and My Year Abroad (2021). The median recorded length is 400 pages.