Comments | moonshadow: POC 50 book challenge

moonshadow

POC 50 book challenge

Mar 03, 2015 13:32

My friends, I have decided to do a reading challenge this year. I read a few accounts of people who chose to eschew reading books by straight white dudes for one year and how it affected their outlook. I already read many books by women and GLBT writers. I think the area where I really fall down is writers of color. I'd like to change that, ( Read more... )

books

Comments 8

chienne_folle March 3 2015, 19:54:11 UTC

You've probably already read Octavia Butler, but if you haven't, you'll want to.

moonshadow March 3 2015, 19:57:00 UTC

Thank you!

I love her and actually shelled out $$ for the Kindle edition of two recently found stories of hers that were recently unpublished.

http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Stories-Octavia-E-Butler-ebook/dp/B00K04NWG0/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425412580&sr=1-8&keywords=octavia+butler

I recommend them!

bluepapercup March 3 2015, 20:06:03 UTC

These are all dudes of color but I have recently enjoyed books by Greg VanEekhout, Ted Chiang, and Ken Liu.

moonshadow March 3 2015, 21:18:04 UTC

Thank you! I will put them on my list!

cos March 4 2015, 02:12:02 UTC

Fiction only, or can nonfiction be on the menu?

moonshadow March 12 2015, 17:32:17 UTC

Sure, nonfiction recs are welcome. :)

cos March 13 2015, 15:04:43 UTC

Oh, I'd forgotten this post.

Actually I think I'll recommend fiction now :)

Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" gets assigned in a lot of public schools in the US, so perhaps you read it, but it's an outlier among his books in its style. Like Tolkien's The Hobbit. Chinua Achebe's books that really felt like Africa to me were Anthills of the Savannah and A Man of the People, which I remember as brilliant political satire though it has been many years since I read it.

Naguib Mahfouz, from Egypt. I'm not sure which book to name. Just pick one. Maybe start with a short story collection, or the Cairo trilogy.

Your post also made me realize that I don't actually know the race or ethnicity of a lot of the writers of nonfiction I've read. I'm sure a majority are white American/European, but I don't know which ones aren't, particular when the books are about topics like science or history or how things work.

moonshadow April 1 2015, 17:21:46 UTC

Thank you cos! I appreciate the suggestions and have requested some Mahfouz from the library :)