50 Books

[bcholmes]

Because I am a lemming, I joined the 50books_poc community after the whole Race Fail 2009 thang. More seriously, like so many others, I'm thinkin' to myself, "Y'know, I should read a few more books by people of colour. Can I make it to 50 in 2009?"

Here are some of the books by people of colour that I can remember reading in the last year or so:

• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
• Eyes of the Heart by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. I have a copy of his book, Shalom 2004, but it's in French and I haven't gotten around to trying to see how comprehensible it'd be to me.
• An Unbroken Agony: From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President by Randall Robinson
• The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (I think Krik? Krak! might be in the same timeframe; I think I have The Farming of Bones, but I haven't read it). I've also read pieces by her in The Journal of Haitian Studies. (Edit: Yes! I've found my copy of The Farming of Bones. It's gonna be my book for the car ride to Ottawa)
• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
• How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling by Shawn Martinbrough
• Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward
• Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
• Water Wars and Earth Democracy by Vandana Shiva
• Persepolis and Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
• Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie

I've also started reading Creating a World Without Poverty by Mohammad Yunis, but it's been sitting on my nightstand untouched for a while. Must finish it, I think. I've got Patrick Bellgarde-Smith's Haiti: The Breached Citadel in my "to read" pile.

So, hmm. That was quite a bit better than I was expecting; must collect my gold star.

Comments

[etaureau.livejournal.com]

I thought I just leave a comment regarding two books that I have been very drawn to that were written by people of color:

Kindred by Octavia Butler a noted Science Fiction writer, and
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

There are books on your list I really need to read.