Cranz, Galen, The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design, Plume, 2004.

This history of chair design, focusing on the more recent developments in ergonomics, is the kind of work that the story’s Dean Kaneshiro might read.

Huang, Guiyou, The Columbia Guide to Asian American Literature since 1945, Columbia University Press, 2006.

This book breaks down Asian-American writings since World War II into specific genres, showing those who paved the way for contemporary writers such as Lee.

Manning, Kathleen, and Jerry Crow, Half Moon Bay (Images of America Series), Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

This pictorial history of the town on which Lee based his fictional Rosarita Bay gives readers a sense of the places that he describes in this and other stories.

Novas, Himilce, and Lan Cao, Everything You Need to Know about Asian American History, Norton, 2000.

Written in a more lighthearted style than most history texts, this book...