May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the many cultures, achievements, histories, and traditions of AAPI individuals and communities. This month and every month, we affirm and uplift the wisdom, resilience, and lived experiences of AAPI authors whose stories of identity, justice, faith, and transformation help all of us belong.
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Books on Current Events
Fascism is not coming to America; it has been here for a long time. In this investigation into the sinister realms of fascism and its many guises, Omer Aziz sets out to answer the question: Why are so many young people like him drifting to the ultranationalist right? And what can we do about it? Shadows of the Republic offers a haunting portrait of American fascism, how it began, and where it's going—and also an anti-fascist playbook to help us salvage democracy for years to come.
The insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was not a blip or an aberration. It was the logical outcome of years of a White evangelical subculture's preparation for war. Religion scholar and former insider Bradley Onishi maps the origins of White Christian nationalism and traces its offshoots in Preparing for War. Through chapters on White supremacy and segregationist theologies, conspiracy theories, the Christian-school movement, purity culture, and the right-wing media ecosystem, Onishi pulls back the curtain on a subculture that birthed a movement and has taken a dangerous turn.
Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul
Social justice work, we often assume, is raised voices and raised fists. But what does social justice work look like for those of us who don't feel comfortable battling in the trenches? Alongside inspiring, real-life examples of highly sensitive world-changers, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul expands the possibilities of how to have a positive social impact, affirming the particular gifts that sensitive souls offer to a hurting world.
Read an interview with the author here.
Financial markets disenfranchise women, the 99 percent, and the planet itself. But what if we found the source of power and made the tools of the system available to all? In The Defiant Optimist, Durreen Shahnaz illuminates what investing in those excluded from networks of power and opportunity requires. From growing up with constrained life chances, to working as the first Bangladeshi woman on Wall Street, to becoming a global leader in impact investing, Shahnaz takes us on a mesmerizing trek of innovation, compassion, and enterprise.
Books on Spirituality
Being a Christian has nothing to do with being Chinese American—that's what Kristin T. Lee learned as a child. A fissure between her identity and what she was told to believe opened wide. In We Mend with Gold, she asks: What if we can bridge the divide? Through lyrical storytelling about her upbringing in Asian immigrant churches as well as in white evangelicalism, Lee wrestles with history, ancestral stories, and what it means to follow Jesus.
Disillusioned by narrow theology and constricted dogma, people are leaving Christianity in droves. But Jesus describes the reign of God as a house with many rooms. What if there are nooks and crannies of faith we have yet to explore? In A Faith of Many Rooms, Debie Thomas claims that the space where God dwells is expansive and full of belonging.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw
Who is God when we see God through the eyes of survivors? Many books have dealt with abuse scandals in the church and the role of pastoral care for survivors. Others have provided liberatory readings of biblical texts to support survivors. Surviving God centers the voices of sexual abuse survivors while rethinking key Christian beliefs to lead us to deep healing and a transformed church.
Everything Good about God Is True
You know what you don't believe: about the Bible, the church, and God. But what if someone asked: "What do you believe?" In Everything Good about God Is True, Bruce Reyes-Chow helps us consider what it means to choose faith and how to create one's own "faith montage." What if we could articulate the gospel of love, humility, and justice? What if everything good about God is true?
In the West, the practice of yoga comes to us stripped of cultural context. Colonized and appropriated by capitalism, dominant culture, fitness trends, and body shaming, yoga in America today is associated with expensive classes, trendy athleisure products, and white women. However, yoga is not a one-hour fitness class. Yoga is a spiritual practice from South Asia with the ultimate goal of connection, self-realization, and liberation. In Liberating Yoga, yoga teacher Harpinder Kaur Mann shows yoga practitioners a path to reclaim yoga from appropriation and recenter the practice where it belongs.
Born into a family legacy of Buddhist spirituality in Việt Nam, Nhi Yến Đỗ Trần immigrated to the US at age ten. Budding Lotus in the West follows her journey and unveils the complexities of how Buddhist teachings are used in America. With her unique Vietnamese American feminist perspective, debut author Trần critically addresses gender equality, ethical dilemmas, and modern interpretations of Buddhist teachings.
God's love for us breaks every boundary—and so should our love for each other. In Outside the Lines, Mihee Kim-Kort shows us a God who loves us with a queer love through the life, work, and witness of Jesus. Our faith in that God becomes a queer spirituality—a spirituality that crashes through definitions and moves us outside of the categories of our making. Whenever we love ourselves and our neighbors with the boundary-breaking love of God, we live out this queer spirituality in the world.
Books on Personal Growth
Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc? How can we justify making beautiful things? From award-winning author Mitali Perkins comes an essential companion for writers, artists, and other creatives who long for a more just world. We must keep making art infused with truth, beauty, and goodness, not to ignore a world in distress but for the sake of loving it. With vivid stories, practical ideas, and reflection and discussion questions, Just Making will inspire you to keep making beauty in a broken world.
Also available from Mitali Perkins is Steeped in Stories: Timeless Children's Novels to Refresh Our Tired Souls.
This Book Won't Make You Happy
Happiness is fleeting. What if you don't even need it to live a life of peace and purpose? In This Book Won't Make You Happy, Niro Feliciano offers a path to something much more achievable and satisfying: contentment. By incorporating eight simple postures rooted in cognitive behavioral science and mindfulness practices into our daily routines, we can move away from anxiety and toward balance.
Also available from Niro Feliciano is All Is Calmish: How to Feel Less Frantic and More Festive During the Holidays.
Too many of us are living disconnected from our bodies, chasing a constantly moving target of "ideal," and accepting the societal narrative about which bodies are deserving. Your Body Is a Revolution is an invitation to reclaim what has been stolen from us, to embrace the wisdom our bodies long to share, and to fully inhabit our lives—perhaps for the first time.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
