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America is Not the Heart

by Elaine Castillo

An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humor, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.

The Buddha in the Attic

by Julie Otsuka

The author of When the Emperor Was Divine presents the stories of six Japanese mail-order brides whose new lives in early 20th century San Francisco are marked by backbreaking migrant work, cultural struggles, children who reject their heritage and the prospect of wartime internment.

Interior Chinatown

by Charles Yu

From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Native Speaker

by Chang-Rae Lee

Henry Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away. It is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.

The Leavers

by Lisa Ko

The Leavers has won praise in the US, and its underlying themes of displacement and deportation carry deep and desperately urgent resonances far beyond America, and fiction. Ko movingly captures Polly and Deming’s liminal presence in the immigrant community, on the margins of society in overcrowded apartments, in nail parlours and factories, who are always there yet invisible to the rest of us.

The Namesake

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Meet the Ganguli family, new arrivals from Calcutta, trying their best to become Americans even as they pine for home. The name they bestow on their firstborn, Gogol, betrays all the conflicts of honoring tradition in a new world; conflicts that will haunt Gogol on his own winding path through divided loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

by Ocean Vuong

A letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.

Pachinko

by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

The Sympathizer

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Where Reasons End

by Yiyun Li

The award-winning author of Kinder Than Solitude draws on her experiences of losing a child to suicide, in a poignant tribute to the love and complexities of parent-child bonds that reimagines an urgent conversation between a mother and teenage son.

Minor feelings : an Asian American reckoning

by Cathy Park Hong

Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative; and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world.

The Chinese and the iron road : building the transcontinental railroad

edited by Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, with Hilton Obenzinger and Roland Hsu

This landmark volume sheds light on the lives and experiences of the Chinese workers who made up 90% of the workforce that built the Central Pacific Railroad—but who have been little understood and largely invisible in traditional accounts of the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

All you can ever know : a memoir

by Nicole Chung

With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Nicole Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.

The Korean-American dream : portraits of a successful immigrant community

by James Flanigan

Flanigan’s compelling narrative told largely through personal interviews provides a front-row seat to the economic, business, and cultural developments of the Korean American Community. At a time of spirited debate about immigration, their energy and ambition serve as a ringing reminder of the promise of the American mosaic.

The making of Asian America : a history

by Erika Lee

The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day. An epic history of global journeys and new beginnings, this book shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life in the United States: sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s; indentured "coolies" who worked alongside African slaves in the Caribbean; and Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and South Asian immigrants who were recruited to work in the United States only to face massive racial discrimination, Asian exclusion laws, and for Japanese Americans, incarceration during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees.

Driven out : the forgotten war against Chinese Americans

by Jean Pfaelzer

Driven Out exposes a shocking story of ethnic cleansing in California and the Pacific Northwest when the first Chinese Americans were rounded up and purged from more than three hundred communities by lawless citizens and duplicitous politicians. From 1848 into the twentieth century, Chinatowns burned across the West as Chinese miners and merchants, lumberjacks and fieldworkers, prostitutes and merchants' wives were violently loaded onto railroad cars or steamers, marched out of town, or killed.

But the Chinese fought back―with arms, strikes, and lawsuits and by flatly refusing to leave. When red posters appeared on barns and windows across the United States urging the Chinese to refuse to carry photo identity cards, more than one hundred thousand joined the largest mass civil disobedience to date in the United States. The first Chinese Americans were marched out and starved out. But even facing brutal pogroms, they stood up for their civil rights. This is a story that defines us as a nation and marks our humanity.

Orientals : Asian Americans in popular culture

by Robert G. Lee

Confronting the cultural stereotypes that have been attached to Asian-Americans over the last 150 years, this title seizes the label Oriental and asks where it came from. It shows how the bewildering array of racialized images first proffered by music hall songsters and social commentators have evolved and become generalized to Asian-Americans.

Yojimbo

Akira Kurosawa

In the year 1860, a wandering samurai-for-hire turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. A satire on greed, violence, paranoia and human weakness. Includes theatrical trailer. Akira Kurosawa’s film served as the inspiration for (some would say “remade as”) Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars”, and consequently all Spaghetti Westerns, if not all modern Westerns.

The Apu trilogy

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray’s breathtaking milestone of world cinema The Apu Trilogy brought India into the golden age of international art-house film, following one indelible character, a free-spirited child in rural Bengal who matures into an adolescent urban student and finally a sensitive man of the world. These delicate masterworks—Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)—based on two books by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee, were shot over the course of five years, and each stands on its own as a tender, visually radiant journey. They are among the most achingly beautiful, richly humane movies ever made—essential works for any film lover.

Enter the Dragon

Enter the Dragon was the first martial arts film that American audiences had witnessed, and was actually produced in both Hong Kong and Hollywood. Interestingly, Enter the Dragon also set the stage for non-traditional, culturally specific narratives to make their way into Hollywood. Bruce Lee plays a kung fu master recruited by a foreign government to infiltrate the island of a megalomaniac martial artist named Han. The Hall of Mirrors sequence towards the end of the film is now famous, as are Lee's incredibly gymnastic martial arts abilities. This trend-setting film holds up as an entertaining, engaging action movie, more than 30 years later.

Die xue shuang xiong = The killer

John Woo

Chow Yun Fat stars as an assassin with a code of honor who agrees to do one last job before quitting for good. But, when his bosses double-cross him, he must take on the mob and the police. Directed by John Woo.

Raise the Red Lantern

Zhang Yimou

When a beautiful young woman is selected to serve as concubine to an affluent man, she sadly accepts - knowing that she has no other alternative to survive financially. Her fate, however, turns from bad to worse when her master's other wives, all older and not as attractive, callously alienate the newcomer due to their sexual jealousy.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.

Kisaengch'ung = Parasite

Bong Joon-ho

Kim Ki-teak's family are all unemployed and living in a squalid basement. When his son gets a tutoring job at the lavish home of the Park family, the Kim family's luck changes. One by one they gradually infiltrate the wealthy Park's home, attempting to take over their affluent lifestyle. The first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Crazy Rich Asians

Jon M. Chu

Envisioning a summer vacation in the humble Singapore home of a boy she hopes to marry, Chinese American Rachel Chu is unexpectedly introduced to a rich and scheming clan that strongly opposes their son's relationship with an American girl.

The hundred-foot journey

Hassan is a culinary ingenue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, his family settles in a quaint village in the south of France. They plan to open an Indian restaurant, that is, until Madame Mallory, the owner of a classical French restaurant, gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant so near her own escalate to all out war; until Hassan's cooking talent and love for Mme. Mallory's assistant, Marguerite cannot be ignored.

The Namesake

The grown son of Indian immigrants is torn between finding his own cultural identity amongst his New York friends and respecting his parents' traditional ways.

The Farewell

A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.

Meet the Patels

Ultimately a touching, funny documentary about family and cultural forces putting pressure on a first-generation Indian-American man to do what should come naturally: find love and a life partner.

Searching

After his 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a desperate father breaks into her laptop to look for clues to find her.

Manbiki kazoku = Shoplifters

Kore-Eda Hirokazu

On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united by fierce loyalty, a penchant for petty theft, and playful grifting. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence and test their quietly radical belief that it is love--not blood--that defines a family.

Hua yang nian hua = In the mood for love

Wong Kar-wai

The story of two lonely people who discover in each other the intimacy they have lost in their marriages.

Shi mian mai fu = The House of the Flying Daggers

Zhang Yimou

During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. Leo is a police officer who sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers" organization. Leo ends up arresting Mei, only to have Jin break her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But things are far more complicated than they seem.

Ringu = The Ring

Hiroshi Takahashi

A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.

Oldboy

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Daesu is released and sets out to find his abductors.

Fengming: A Chinese Memoir

This heartbreaking, scathing documentary, directed by Wang Bing, is composed mainly of a nearly three-hour-long interview with an elderly woman, He Fengming, who recounts the persecutions that she and her family endured during China’s Anti-Rightist Movement of 1957 and then, again, during the Cultural Revolution.

Motherland

Ramona S. Diaz

Motherland takes us into the heart of the planet’s busiest maternity hospital in one of the world’s poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. The film’s viewer, like an unseen outsider dropped unobtrusively into the hospital’s stream of activity, passes through hallways, enters rooms and listens in on conversations. At first, the surrounding people are strangers. But as the film continues, it's absorbingly intimate, rendering the women at the heart of the story increasingly familiar.

Busanhaeng = Train To Busan

A harrowing zombie horror-thriller that follows a group of terrified passengers fighting their way through a countrywide viral outbreak, trapped on a suspicion-filled, blood-drenched bullet train ride to the Safe Zone … which may or may not still be there.

Hunter x Hunter

Wishing to join the elite Hunter class like his father who abandoned him years ago, twelve-year-old Gon faces the challenging examination, making new friends along the way.

Cowboy Bebop

The futuristic misadventures and tragedies of an easygoing bounty hunter and his partners.

One Punch Man

Saitama is a hero who only became a hero for fun. After three years of “special” training, though, he’s become so strong that he’s practically invincible. In fact, he’s too strong—even his mightiest opponents are taken out with a single punch, and it turns out that being devastatingly powerful is actually kind of a bore. With his passion for being a hero lost along with his hair, yet still faced with new enemies every day, how much longer can he keep it going?

Attack on Titan

After his hometown is destroyed and his mother is killed, young Eren Jaeger vows to cleanse the earth of the giant humanoid Titans that have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.

Steins;Gate

After discovering time travel, a university student and his colleagues must use their knowledge of it to stop an evil organization and their diabolical plans.

One Piece

It is the era of adventure, as countless souls are lured along the Grand Line in pursuit of dreams far greater than any they’ve ever dared to imagine. Wealth, fame, power… It’s all available for the taking to the lucky soul that can find it: The legendary One Piece. Among those on the high seas is a youth on a quest to be king of them all – Luffy, the Straw Hat Pirate! But first he must find a ship, a crew and some supplies. Determined to recruit those at first unwilling to his cause, the young captain remains undaunted…

DragonBall Z

The Saiyans are coming! The last survivors of a cruel, warrior race, these ruthless villains have carved a path of destruction across the galaxy, and now they have set their sights on Earth. They will stop at nothing until they have the wish-granting powers of the seven magic Dragon Balls for their very own.

With the fate of his family, friends and the entire human race hanging in the balance, Goku, the Earth's greatest hero, must rise to meet the approaching threat. As he prepares for the fight of his life, Goku embarks on an epic journey that will take him to other worlds, pit him against new and old enemies alike, and force him to confront the dark secrets of his own past. At the end of his path, the most powerful opponent he has ever faced awaits - the evil Saiyan Prince Vegeta!

I am a Filipino : and this is how we cook

by Nicole Ponseca and Miguel Trinidad, with Rachel Wharton ; foreword by Jose Antonio Vargas ; photographs by Justin Walker

Two trailblazing restaurateurs present a modern cookbook filled with a vast array of Filipino recipes that capture the unexpected and addictive flavors of this vibrant and diverse cuisine.

Amboy : recipes from the Filipino-American dream

by Alivin Cailan with Alexandra Cuerdo and Susan Choung ; photography by Wyatt Conlon

Filipino recipes from the the creator of the legendary Eggslut in LA, host of the hit online series The Burger Show, and the most prominent Filipino chef in the US.

Memories of Philippine kitchens : stories and recipes from far and near

by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan; photographs by Neal Oshima

The essence of Filipino food has always remained somewhat secluded in the family kitchens of Filipino homes, passed down through the generations, melding native traditions with those of Chinese, Spanish, and American cuisines. Here, the owners and chef at Soho's popular Cendrillon restaurant, present a look at Filipino cuisine and culture. They have spent years tracing the traditions of the food of the Philippines, and here they share the results of that research. From lumpia, pancit, and kinilaw to adobo and lehon (the art of the well-roasted pig), the authors document dishes and culinary techniques that are rapidly disappearing and in some cases unknown to Filipinos whether in the Philippines or abroad. In addition to more than 100 unique recipes culled from private Filipino kitchens and their own menu, Besa and Dorotan document the role of food in Filipino society, both old and new.

Korean BBQ: master your grill in seven sauces

by Bill Kim; with Chandra Ram

A casual and practical guide to grilling with Korean-American flavors from chef Bill Kim of Chicago's award-winning BellyQ restaurants, with 80 recipes tailored for home cooks with suitable substitutions for hard-to-find ingredients.

The gaijin cookbook : Japanese recipes from a chef, father, eater, and lifelong outsider

by Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying

Fortunately, being a lifelong outsider has made Orkin a more curious, open, and studious chef. In The Gaijin Cookbook, he condenses his experiences into approachable recipes for every occasion, including weeknights with picky kids, boozy weekends, and celebrations. Everyday dishes like Pork and Miso-Ginger Stew, Stir-Fried Udon, and Japanese Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce are what keep the Orkin family connected to Japan. For more festive dinners, he suggests a Temaki Party, where guests assemble their own sushi from cooked and fresh fillings. And recipes for Bagels with Shiso Gravlax and Tofu Coney Island (fried tofu with mushroom chili) reveal the eclectic spirit of Ivan's cooking.

Simply bento : delicious box lunch ideas for healthy portions to go 

by Yuko and Noriko

From the creators of Japanese Cooking 101, Simply Bento is a complete collection of nearly 100 delicious and healthy bento recipes for everyone in the family. Ready to make lunch quick, easy, and delicious? Simply Bento features nearly 100 healthy, delicious bento recipes you can make for every day of the week using a combination of traditional and non-traditional ingredients! Learn the essential components for a bento box, how to assemble your box, and the everyday items you will need in your pantry.

The Peached Tortilla : modern Asian comfort food from Tokyo to Texas 

by Eric Silverstein

This is Asian comfort food at its best! Eric Silverstein puts a modern American twist on dishes that are firmly rooted in Asian street food to deliver intensely flavored, soul-satisfying fare. His background in Asian food culture as a child in Japan, and later his immersion in Southern and Southwestern cuisine, influences his cooking today, at his restaurant, The Peached Tortilla, in Austin, Texas. The 100 flavor-packed recipes include many of The Peached Tortilla's most-beloved dishes, like Silverstein's Banh Mi Taco and Bacon Jam Fries, which gained a cult-like following when he first served them out of his famed Austin-based food truck.

Cook Real Hawai’i

by Sheldon Simeon with Garrett Snyder

The story of Hawaiian cooking, by a two-time Top Chef finalist and Fan Favorite, through 100 recipes that embody the beautiful cross-cultural exchange of the islands. On two seasons of Top Chef, Sheldon Simeon established himself as a leading young, creative chef (he was both a finalist and Fan Favorite on both seasons). The role he is even more proud to fill, though, is as the storyteller of Hawaiian cuisine and the many cultures that have come together there to create it: the native Hawaiian traditions, Japanese influences, Portuguese cooking techniques, and dynamic flavors that are closest to Sheldon's heart.

Vietnamese food any day: simple recipes for true, fresh flavors

by Andrea Nguyen 

Drawing on decades of experience, as well as the cooking hacks her mom adopted after fleeing from Vietnam to America, award-winning author Andrea Nguyen shows you how to use easy-to-find ingredients to create true Vietnamese flavors at home fast. With Nguyen as your guide, there's no need to take a trip to a specialty grocer. Nguyen’s tips and tricks for creating Viet food from ingredients at national supermarkets are indispensable, liberating home cooks and making everyday cooking easier.

Mango and peppercorns: a memoir of food, an unlikely family, and the American dream 

by Tung Nguyen, Katherine Manning, and Lyn Nguyen, with Elisa Ung

In 1975, Tung Nguyen fled Vietnam as a pregnant refugee and landed in Miami, where she met Kathy Manning, an American grad student who opened her doors to eleven immigrants. The two women grew close, raising Tung's daughter, Lyn, together and opening a tiny restaurant. Hy Vong, meaning Hope in Vietnamese, quickly became famous in the local community for its delicious, authentic Vietnamese flavors. The restaurant continued to gain in popularity, until it reached national and critical acclaim. This book is their intertwining narratives, punctuated by recipes from Tung and Kathy's upbringings, and the Hy Vong restaurant.

Indian-ish : recipes and antics from a modern American family 

by Priya Krishna with Ritu Krishna

A witty and irresistible celebration of one very cool and boundary-breaking mom's "Indian-ish" cooking --with accessible and innovative Indian-American recipes. Indian food is everyday food! This colorful, lively book is food writer Priya Krishna's loving tribute to her mom's "Indian-ish" cooking --a trove of one-of-a-kind Indian-American hybrids that are easy to make, clever, practical, and packed with flavor. Think Roti Pizza, Tomato Rice with Crispy Cheddar, Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Green Pea Chutney, and Malaysian Ramen. Priya's mom, Ritu, taught herself to cook after moving to the U.S. while also working as a software programmer--her unique creations merging the Indian flavors of her childhood with her global travels and inspiration from cooking shows as well as her kids' requests for American favorites like spaghetti and PB & Js.

Double awesome Chinese food: irresistible and totally achievable recipes from our Chinese- American kitchen

by Margaret, Irene & Andrew Li

Full of irresistible recipes that marry traditional Asian ingredients with comforting American classics and seasonal ingredients, Double Awesome Chinese Food delivers the goods. The three fun-loving Chinese-American siblings behind the acclaimed restaurant Mei Mei take the fear factor out of cooking this complex cuisine, infusing it with creativity, playfulness, and ease.

Cook like a local: flavors that can change how you cook and save the world 

by Chris Sheperd with Kaitlyn Goalen

Chris Sheperd, James Beard Award-winning chef of Houston's Underbelly Hospitality, is a champion of that city's incredibly diverse immigrant cuisines. An advocate, not an appropriator, he asks his diners to go and visit the restaurants that have inspired him, and in this book he brings us along to meet, learn from, and cook with the people who have taught him. Even beyond flavors and techniques, the book is about a bigger story: how Chris, a son of Oklahoma who looks like a football coach, came to be "adopted" by these immigrant cooks and families, how he learned to connect and share and truly cross cultures with a sense of generosity and respect, and how we can all learn to make not just better cooking, but a better community, one meal at a time.

Between Harlem and Heaven : Afro Asian American cooking for big nights, weeknights, & every day

by J.J. Johnson and Alexander Smalls ; with Veronica Chambers

In two of the most renowned and historic venues in Harlem, Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson dreamed up the Afro-Asian-American flavor profile. Braiding together the foods of the African diaspora and Asian influences with a distinctly New York sensibility, they present here for the first time more than one hundred recipes that go beyond just one place, taking you, in words from The New Yorker, "somewhere between Harlem and Heaven."

Rebus

by James Jean

Over the past decade, James Jean has won critical acclaim for his art (including a record eight Harvey Awards in a row for his cover illustrations for the DC Comics series Fables), hosted celebrated gallery exhibitions around the globe, received numerous design awards, and developed a fan base of devoted collectors. Rebus showcases new work as well as important creative milestones--including the eerie dreamscapes of his oil paintings, the elaborate installations and animations he created for Prada in 2008, his gorgeous illustration work, as well as never-before-published pages from his detailed sketchbooks.

Chiura Obata : an American modern

by ShiPu Wang

Obata emerged as a leading figure in the Northern California artistic communities, serving not only as an influential art professor at UC Berkeley for nearly twenty years, but also as a founding director of art schools in the internment camps. With a prodigious and expansive oeuvre, Obata’s seemingly effortless mastery of, and productive engagement with, diverse techniques, styles, and traditions defy the dichotomous categorizations of American/European and Japanese/Asian art.

Secret Teachings of a Comic Book Master: The Art of Alfredo Alcala

by Heidi MacDonald

In the late 1960s, an extremely talented group of Filipino illustrators took the American comic book industry by storm-and Alfredo Alcala led the way, working for both Marvel and DC on such popular characters as Conan the Barbarian and Batman. This unique work is loaded with amazing art and pointers on observational methods, composition, and other techniques. In addition to insightful interviews with Alcala, the book features pages from his groundbreaking masterwork, Voltar, which was hailed as a new concept in comic book form, an epic in narrative art, and a milestone in sequential art illustration. Students, professionals, teachers, and fans will treasure this inspiring volume and its insider's look at comic book artistry.

Flower art

by Makoto Azuma

The art of Makoto Azuma uses flowers and plants as its starting point, but juxtaposes their timeless yet transient beauty with an incredibly diverse range of striking settings. In a series of sculptures, installations and interactive events, he delights in blurring the boundaries between nature and artifice. Azuma founded the floral atelier Jardins des Fleurs in 2002, taking commissions from private clients as well as brands and corporations, both in Japan and all over the world. His parallel career as an artist began in 2005 and involves creating and exhibiting artworks that turn flowers and plants into a medium for self-expression.

Asian inspiration : art, graphics & illustrations

edited and produced by Viction:ary; concepts & art direction by Victor Cheung

Asian Inspiration is a treasury of illustration, art, and graphics that draw themes and visual inspiration from the diverse cultures of Asia. Be it a reference to an artist's cultural roots, or an expression inspired by a designer's deep affection for Eastern art, the work included represents a unique perspective on distinctly Asian art styles, myths, philosophies, and popular culture from a variety of time periods. With a multitude of event posters, prints, murals and advertisements, this title is perfect for anyone with an appreciation for Asian culture and aesthetics.

Indian contemporary art : contemporary, one word, several worlds

by Hervé Perdriolle

This book is an exploration of tribal society and art production in various parts of India: Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar. Representing more than 25 artists, the book provides a biography of each artist and several illustrations to accompany each text. Essays by the author are included, as well as a bibliography for further reading.

Wasak!: Filipino Art Today

edited by Matthias Arndt

This groundbreaking volume presents the first wellresearched overview of the Philippine contemporary arts scene, inviting the reader to discover around two dozen artists who are about to take the Western art market by storm. Each is featured with an outline of his ideas and techniques, photographs of major works, and a portrait. The curator Norman Crisologo and the journalist and editor of a culture magazine Erwin Romulo have contributed an extensive essay in which they lay the foundations for a discussion of where contemporary Philippine art stands and explore its relations to tradition and religion, film noir, vernacular imageries, and urban culture. The "Wasak!" of the title is a popular expression: its literal meaning is "broken," "ruined," or "wrecked," but in street slang it signals the speaker's amazement and enthusiasm.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

story and art by Hirohiko Araki

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a groundbreaking manga famous for its outlandish characters, wild humor and frenetic battles. A multigenerational tale of the heroic Joestar family and their never-ending battle against evil!

Fullmetal Alchemist

story and art by Makoto Inoue; original concept by Hiromu Arakawa

As young boys, Edward & Alphonse Elric dabbled in alchemy to try to resurrect their dead mother. As a result, Ed lost one arm and one leg, while Al lost his entire body and had his spirit sealed into a suit of armor. Now, they are searching for the fabled Philosopher's Stone to restore what they've lost.

Monster

story and art by Naoki Urasawa

The story revolves around the moral and ethical dilemmas of Dr. Kenzou Tenma, who chooses to save the life of a child instead of that of the mayor’s life. However, people around him start getting murdered and all fingers point to the little boy.

One Piece

story and art by Eiichirō Oda

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer "Red-Haired" Shanks. But his life changed when Luffy accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the power to stretch like rubber...at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure...one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary "One Piece," said to be the greatest treasure in the world...

Tokyo Ghoul

story and art by Sui Ishida

Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way -- except their craving for human flesh. Ken Kaneki is an ordinary college student until a violent encounter turns him into the first half-human half-ghoul hybrid. Trapped between two worlds, he must survive Ghoul turf wars, learn more about Ghoul society and master his new powers.

Uzumaki

story and art by Junji Ito

Kurôzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: "uzumaki," the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the world which causes the inhabitants to go mad.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

story and art by Hayao Miyazaki

Nausicaä, a gentle but strong-willed young princess, has an empathic bond with the giant insects that evolved as a result of the ecosystem being poisoned during a long-ago war.

Akira

story and art by Katsuhiro Otomo

The manga is set in a post-apocalyptic and futuristic Neo-Tokyo, more than two decades after a mysterious explosion destroyed the city. The story focuses on the efforts of teenage biker gang leader Kaneda, militant revolutionary Kei, a trio of espers, and Neo-Tokyo military leader Colonel Shikishima, who attempt to prevent Tetsuo, Kaneda's mentally imbalanced childhood friend, from using his unstable and powerful telekinetic abilities to ravage the city and awaken a mysterious individual with similar psychic abilities named "Akira," who was responsible for the destruction of Tokyo several years ago.

Naruto

story and art by Masashi Kishimoto

Naruto is a ninja-in-training with a mysterious force sealed inside him and an incorrigible knack for mischief. His antics amuse his teammates, intense Sasuke and witty Sakura, but Naruto is serious about becoming the greatest ninja in the village of Konohagakure.

Lone Wolf and Cub

story Kazuo Koike; art Goseki Kojima

Lone Wolf and Cub chronicles the story of Ogami Ittō, the shōgun's executioner who uses a dōtanuki battle sword. Disgraced by false accusations from the Yagyū clan, he is forced to take the path of the assassin. Along with his three-year-old son, Daigorō, they seek revenge on the Yagyū clan and are known as "Lone Wolf and Cub".

Vagabond

story and art by Takehiko Inoue

At seventeen years of age, Miyamoto Musashi--still known by his childhood name, Shinmen Takezō--was a wild young brute just setting out along the way of the sword. In the aftermath of the epic Battle of Sekigahara, Takezō finds himself a fugitive survivor on the losing side of the war. Takezō's vicious nature has made him an outcast even in his own village, and he is hunted down like an animal. At this crucial crossroads in Takezō's life, an eccentric monk and a childhood friend are the only ones who can help him find his way.

Goodnight Punpun

story and art by Inio Asano

The plot revolves around the coming of age of 11 year old Punpun Onodera, an innocent and idealistic child, whose life changes when he meets Aiko Tanaka. We see Punpun grow up and become increasingly disillusioned with his life and everyone in it. Especially since he realizes that the people he once idolized, were nothing more than extremely flawed human beings.

Grand Blue Dreaming

story by written by Kenji Inoue art by Kimitake Yoshioka

This is a sports manga series of sorts, but forget tennis or Go or even American football. This time, it's all about swimming, and the creators did a fine job making swimming look really good in black and white. The main character is Iori Kitahara, who moves into his uncle's scuba diving shop (Grand Blue). He's soon dragged into a wild and comical world of drunken party boys, and while he joins in the fun, he hopes to make something of himself, too.

Berserk

story and art by Kentaro Miura

Our seinen protagonist is Guts, an ideal young boy who is betrayed by his sensei, someone who he loved and respected. He now thirsts for blood, and things are made more difficult for him because of the constant misfortune that he keeps on facing. However, his monstrous strength and his resilience are what keep him afloat.