While I am still fond of The Making of Asian America: A History for a comprehensive look at Asian American history, Asian American Histories is novel in organizing its chapters by topic, with a thesis of multiple years' starts for "beginning" to look at Asian American history. 2019 is COVID-19 but also the racist legislation claiming a certain amount of air per person in apartments as an excuse to raid Chinese communities in the 1800s; 1875 is the Page Act but also an examination in how Asian American women exist (or erased) in historical and cultural narrative, etc. Relatively short, but an excellent intro to broad Asian American history, particularly focusing on underrepresented parts of the diaspora like southeast Asian refuge waves after Vietnam and the "Secret War" in Cambodia, or the Stockton Gurdwara becoming a central hub for South Asians in California, etc.

There is a little bit of recency bias in mentioning StopAsianHate, the impacts of COVID-19, and the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings (but on the other hand, as an ABC to me they still feel recent even if it's been >5 years). I especially appreciated the inclusion of the growing mixed race population of the diaspora and how in fact they've been here for over a century with Punjabi-Mexican communities and Mexipino families in the southwest and marriages between Chinese men and Irish women in the 1800s.

Once again, Hobb has me inhaling hundreds of pages on a weekend (it helped that I did a lot of passenger princess reading today). After the first book was mostly setup, we finally go on the journey to find the mythical Kelsingra, an Eldering city friendly to dragons. Hobb is great at building complex characters (and also some despicable villains). I'm pleased there are actual gays that we don't have to bury here, and I adore the side plot of the birdkeeper notes to each other amidst the financial transactions/postings between Bingtown and Trehaug.

I fear I must once again check out multiple sequels from the library so I can go to 3 and 4 directly.