The Cheesemaker’s Daughter by Kristin Vukovic
In this book released in 2024, author Kristin Vukovic takes the reader on an immigrant’s journey with the inner struggle of honoring generational traditions and growing beyond those foundations to create something new. Marina returns to Pag Town, Croatia to visit her family after being sent by her father during war to America under refugee status. She has since graduated from college and now holds a job in corporate America. She’s reeling from a miscarriage, and her marriage is crumbling. She feels torn between two worlds, displaced and lost in her life when she becomes invested in saving her family’s cheese factory, Sirana. This is a story of family, expectations, generational feuds, intertwined community, finding oneself, heartbreak, love, healing, political power—and cheese.
The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang
Winner of the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, this murder mystery is set in the small town of Haven, Wisconsin, where the Chao family has run a popular Americanized Chinese restaurant for the past 35 years. Big Leo Chao and his wife, Winnie, have three sons—Dagou, Ming and James—who play vital roles in this classic family saga. The dark underpinnings of small-town America and fatal family secrets all become unraveled by a stranger’s forgotten bag.
For Kids: Seven Samosas: Counting at the Market by Kabir Sehgal and Surishtha Sehgal
For Middle-Grade: Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres
For YA: Kimchi & Calamari by Rose Kent
Casie Leigh Lukes is an Eagan-based writer, editor and owner of Cocoa&Champagne—creator of custom library curations. You can find her on Instagram @cocoaandchampagne.
