Black authors: Memoirs and other nonfiction

 There is a wealth of nonfiction by black authors.  This is in no way complete, just part of my personal list. I am still working my way through the list, but everything I have read so far is excellent.  Some are funny, some recount history, some are personal, all are thought provoking.

These are in alphabetical order by author.

Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now, Maya Angelou

I'm Still Here, Austin Channing Brown

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Cross and The Lynching Tree, James H. Cone

Eloquent Rage, Brittney Cooper

Picking Cotton, Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino

Tears We Cannot Stop, Michael Eric Dyson

Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies, Dick Gregory

The Sun Does Shine, Anthony Ray Hinton

This Will Be My Undoing, Morgan Jerkins

Stamped From The Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi  (See also Stamped by Jason Reynolds)

When They Call You A Terrorist, Patrisse Khan-Cullers and Asha Bandele

This is Major, Shayla Lawson

Across That Bridge, John Lewis

Dream With Me, John M. Perkins

Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl, Issa Rae

Well, That Escalated Quickly, Francesca Ramsey

Invisible No More, Andrea J. Ritchie

You Can't Touch My Hair, Phoebe Robinson

My Vanishing Country, Bakari Sellers

Whistling Vivaldi, Claude M. Steele

Here For It, R. Eric Thomas

The links (hopefully) go to Amazon, but a list of black booksellers is in a previous post.

Anti Racism Books

There are many excellent books on being an anti-racist available (that also explain why just being a non-racist is not enough.)

If you are white I suggest starting with Waking Up White, by Debbie Irving, which does an great job of explaining what white privilege is.  Then move on to White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo, which explains why white people have so much trouble talking about race.

Two books I think everyone will benefit from are How To Be An Antiracist, by Ibram Kendi, and So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo.

Other titles to consider (in no particular order):

Anxious to Talk About It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully About Race, by Carolyn Helsel
What If I Say The Wrong Thing? by Verna Myers
Witnessing Whiteness, by Shelly Tochluk
The Myth of Equality, by Ken Wytsma
White Awake, by Daniel Hill
The Color of Compromise, by Jemar Tisby
Good White Racist? Kerry Connelly
Me and White Supremacy, by Layla Saad
How To Be Less Stupid About Race, Crystal Fleming
This Book is AntiRacist, by Tiffany Jewell
White Rage, by Carol Anderson
Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram Kendi, also the version with Jason Reynolds
The New Jim Crow,by Michelle Alexander

See also my upcoming post on memoirs and other nonfiction by black authors, many of which also deal with racism and antiracism.

Black Authors: Science fiction/Fantasy

Here is a list of some of the science fiction/fantasy titles by black authors I have found. 

The first author to mention is NK Jemison.  She has written two award winning series, stand alones, and just came out with her newest, The City We Became.  Definitely check her out.

Another title that popped up many times is the series beginning with The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter.

In no particular order, here are the rest of the suggestions:

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James
Kindred, Octavia Butler
The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
The Gilded Ones, Namina Forna (will be released Feb. 9, 2021 but sounds too good not to include)
Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor
Redemption in Indigo, Karen Lord
Beastkeeper, Cat Hellison (a Beauty and the Beast retelling)
Song Below Water, Bethany C Morrow
Cinderella Is Dead,  Kalynn Baylon (releases July 7, 2020)
The Goddess Twins, Yodassa Williams
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, Roseanne A. Brown
Babel 17, Samuel Delaney
Rosewater, Tade Thompson
Do You Dream of Terra Two? Temi Oh
Sound of Stars, Alechia Dow
My Soul To Keep,  Tananarive Due
The Belles, Dhonielle Clayton

The above links go to Amazon but if you want to buy them from a black owned bookstore, here is a list of fifty five.

Any mistakes are mine.  Happy reading!

Black Authors: Cozy Mysteries

I am starting a series of posts on black authors and on racism.  For this post, I searched for black authors in one of my favorite genres, cozy mysteries.  I am always looking for new series, and I was excited to find these.  Several of these suggestions came from a video by Intentionally Bookish, a booktuber who does a lot of cozy mystery videos.

And here without further ado is the list:

A Spell For Trouble, Esme Addison - available now on Kindle and on July 7, 2020 in hardcover

Murder, Mayhem, and A Fine Man, Claudia Mair Burney

The Plot is Murder, VM Burns

A Deadly Inside Scoop, Abby Collette

Death of an Idiot Boss, Janice Croom

Sex, Murder and a Double Latte, Kyra Davis

Murder In G Major, Alexia Gordon

Sweet and Salty Treachery, ME Harmon

Going Nowhere Fast, Gar Anthony Haywood

Deep Fried Trouble, Tyora Moody

Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley

Blance On The Lam, Barbara Neely (Kindle or Audio)

Secrets, Lies, and Crawfish Pies, Abby L. Vandiver

All of these links go to Amazon (no, I am not affiliated with them) but please try to use a local bookstore or a black owned bookstore when you can.

Any mistakes on this list are totally mine.  I hope you found a lot of books to add to your To Be Read pile!  Happy reading!

Favorite Books of January and February 2020

I actually read more books that made this list in January or early February.  I did however participate in my first readathon in February, the Polarthon hosted by Jadeyraereads.

So here, more or less in the order I read them, are my favorites.

A Heart So Fierce and Broken:  This is the sequel to A Curse So Dark and Lonely, which I also loved.  It is even better than the first book, and I can't wait to see what will happen next.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January:  This took me a bit to get into, but turned out to be a great read.  It features a story within a story, and portals into different worlds.

I went on an Elizabeth Lemarchand binge, rereading the entire series of her mysteries.  At the end of January I began a Patricia Moyes binge, which also included a few  of my favorite rereads.

Murder A La Mode:  Moyes drew on her own experience in the fashion magazine world, which gives a real atmosphere to this mystery.

Murder Fantastical:  This features one of my favorite eccentric families.

And last of this series, but not the least, Who Is Simon Warwick?:  This one features a lost heir, and two claimants.  Which one is Simon Warwick and which one is a murderer?

For the Polarthon, I stayed with middle grade books, including The Seven Professors of the Far North, Ice, Voyage of the Frostheart, East, and The Polar Bear Explorer's Club.  I enjoyed all of them.

My Favorite Books of 2019

Winner:  The Bookish Life of Nina Hill:  I loved Nina and all of the characters that surround her.  Much to her dismay, the extremely introverted Nina discovers she has a family she never knew.  How she copes with them, and with a new romance, makes for a great story.

The rest of the best

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler:  From the Amazon synopsis:  "Overworked and underappreciated, single mom Amy Byler needs a break. So when the guilt-ridden husband who abandoned her shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer, she accepts his offer and escapes rural Pennsylvania for New York City."  The book is funny and makes you root for Amy as she goes on her adventure.  But eventually she has to go home.  What is she going to change about her life?

House of Salt and Sorrows:  This is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.  Annaleigh's sisters are mysteriously dying, one by one.  Her family appears to be cursed.  Can she unravel the mystery before another sister dies?  I loved this atmospheric story.

A Constellation of Roses:  Teenage Trix McCabe's mother abandoned her in a motel.  She is surviving by stealing, which she has an unusual affinity for.  When her father's family finds her, she discovers they all have certain enhanced abilities, like hers for theft.  She is slowly adjusting to life as part of a family when a crisis occurs.  Will she stay with the new life, or escape back to the old one?  I thought about this book for a long time after I finished it.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely:  I love retellings of Beauty and the Beast, and this was a creative one.  Harper is a young woman with cerebral palsy living a very uncertain life in Washington DC.  One day she sees a woman being attacked, goes to intervene, and finds herself swept off to a different world where she is expected to fall in love with the prince.  Harper is not the kind of person who goes along with that sort of plan, and she looks for a way to get back to her home.  You also learn the prince's perspective and about his curse.  

Seven and 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle:  This book made a lot of favorite lists for 2019.  It is about a man who comes to consciousness as he is chasing someone through the woods.  This is only the beginning of the mystery, as he is forced to relive the same day as a different character each day, until he can answer the question, "Who killed Evelyn Hardcastle?"

Wundersmith:  The Calling of Morrigan Crow:  This is the sequel to Nevermoor, one of my favorites from 2018,  From the Amazon synopsis:   Morrigan Crow and her best friend Hawthorne Swift are now proud scholars in the elite Wundrous Society, but life is far from perfect. Does Morrigan have what it takes to prove that she belongs in the Society?

Greystone Secrets:  The Strangers:  "What makes you you?  The Greystone kids thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector over his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what Finn does best—acting silly and being adored. They’ve been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom.  But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children reach the Greystone kids, and they’re shocked by the startling similarities between themselves and these complete strangers. The other kids share their same first and middle names. They’re the same ages. They even have identical birthdays. Who, exactly, are these strangers?"  (From the Amazon synopsis)

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry:  After loving A Man Called Ove so much, I wanted to tackle some of Backman's backlist.  I think his books are better if you know very little about them going in, so I will just say this is a wonderful look at how we deal with loss.

Spinning Silver:  This is supposed to be a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, but I think it is more than that.  Three plots intertwine as three young women learn how to gain control over their own lives.  I loved the characters and the way their stories played out.

Honorable Mentions

Owl Be Home For Christmas:  I love Donna Andrews, and I am letting her represent all of the cozy mysteries I enjoyed this year.  I love the Meg Langslow series, and this was one of her better ones.  Her characters are wonderful, and the setting at an owl conference was interesting - who knew so much passion surrounded the study of owls?

Mule Hollow series by Debra Clopton:  I love this series and was happy to discover there were new books in it.  I am letting these represent all of the romance novels I enjoyed this year.  The series begins with Dream With Me Cowboy, formerly titled The Trouble With Lacy Brown.  It is best read in order.

Nonfiction:  Three very different books  but all great reads.

Save Me The Plums:  A memoir of Ruth Reich's time at Gourmet Magazine

Humble Calvinism:  A wonderful and convincing description of Calvinism

Atomic Habits:  Good discussion of how we form good habits