Adult Fiction Winner
Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. New York: Ballantine Books, 2009.

Jamie Ford’s first novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a poignant and deeply touching story set in the Japanese and Chinese neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II. The story begins with a crowd of curious people milling around the front of the Panama Hotel a Seattle Landmark that once stood at the entrance to Seattle’s Japantown. Old Henry Lee watches with trepidation as the hotel’s new owner uncovers what once belonged to a group of Japanese families who were taken away to internment camps during the war. At the sight of a colorful Japanese parasol Henry is overcome with emotion as a host of memories flash by. He believes the parasol belonged to his dear friend Keiko and thoughts of the innocent friendship they had shared and his love for Keiko come back to haunt him; filling him with a desperate longing to find her. Jamie Ford also approaches the father son relationship in this novel with great sensitivity and creates an emotionally absorbing story weaving various parts of the narrative into an exquisite masterpiece.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was selected as APALA’s award winner because it vividly brings to life a critical period in the history of Asian Pacific Americans and reveals the tragic impact of war and discrimination on the hearts and lives of these vulnerable people. Jamie Ford has approached this complex theme with great sensitivity, and has created a heartwarming story that tells of the power of love, commitment, sacrifice and forgiveness. (Suhasini Kumar)

Tsui, Bonnie. American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods. New York: Free Press (Simon & Schuster), 2009. For many Americans, their city’s Chinatown is not merely a tourist destination – it is a community, a place where regular people live, work, run errands, and spend time with friends. Behind striking architectural façades and weathered buildings are vibrant neighborhoods, whose roots can be recent or stretch back to the late 19th century.
Lively, edifying, and personal, Bonnie Tsui’s exploration of five Chinatown communities across America leads readers on a cross-country odyssey of life behind the bus tours and array of souvenir shops that a typical Chinatown tourist may experience. Through informative historical vignettes and individual stories told both people both old and young, newcomers and long-standing residents, Tsui provides readers a peek into the lives of Chinatown inhabitants in five diverse American cities, from New York to Honolulu. Readers learn about Los Angeles Chinatown’s rich heritage of collaboration with Hollywood, the young Asian-Americans in San Francisco who serve as Chinatown tour guides to dispel misconceptions about their community, and the glitz of the inaugural Miss Chinatown pageant in Las Vegas, the site of the United States’ newest Chinatown. 
Tsui’s revealing and affectionate book is overall the story of ordinary and upstanding Americans -- their strength in the face of prejudice and changing economic times, their appreciation for their past, their optimism for better jobs and lives for their families, their pleasure in socializing with their friends, and their zeal for bettering their communities by improving their businesses, social services, and leisure activities.
For its educational and engaging portrayal of Asian Pacific American life, Bonnie Tsui’s American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods is the 2009-2010 recipient of the Adult Non-Fiction Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (APAAL). (Rebecca Kennedy)