goddesspt2's 75 reads in 2011

Books Read in 2011







BOOKS READ IN 2011

December
133. Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler
132. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
131. Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson
130. Dark Matters: Reading the Bones by Sheree R. Thomas
129. Commander in Chic: Every Woman's Guide to Managing Her Style Like a First Lady by Mikki Taylor
128. Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden
127. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
126. Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books edited by Leah Price
125. Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books edited by Jo Steffens
124. The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
123. Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems by Thomas Sayers Ellis
122. Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Elizabeth Alexander
121. The Chameleon Couch: Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa
120. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
119. The Love of Books: The Philobiblon by Richard de Bury
118. The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
117. Zone One by Colson Whitehead
116. Parnassus on Wheels (eBook) by Christopher Morley

November
none

October
115. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
114. Cain by Jose Saramago
113. The Kingmaking by Helen Hollick
112. Secret Societies of America's Elite: From the Knights Templar to Skull and Bonesby Steven Sora

September
111. A Vanished World: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain by Chris Lowney
110. Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch: Essays On Race and Sexuality by Dwight McBride
109. Makes Me Wanna Holla by Nathan McCall
108. The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family by Ron Chernow
107. Beloved by Toni Morrison
106. Steampunk ed. by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
105. The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate
104. Act of Grace by Karen Simpson
103. Hurricane by Jewell Parker Rhodes
102. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
101. Mayan December by Brenda Cooper
100. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

August
99. Angle of Ascent by Robert Hayden
98. Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham
97. Hypatia of Alexandria by Maria Dzielska
96. The Chinaberry Tree by Jessie Redmon Fauset
95. So Long Been Dreaming: Post-colonial Science Fiction & Fantasy edited by Nalo Hopkinson
94. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
93. Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes

July
92. Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes
91. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
90. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
89. The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates
88. Brainwashed: Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell

June
87. The Sacred Geometry of Washington, D.C. by Nicholas R. Mann
86. The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States by Edwidge Danticat
85. Around the World in 80 Days (eBook) by Jules Verne
84. Akata Witch by
Nnedi Okorafor
83. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
82. Cane by Jean Toomer
81. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
80. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
79. If Sons, Then Heirs by Lorene Cary
78. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
77. Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson
76. Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes

May
75. The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall
74. Juice! by Ishmael Reed
73. Rex Libris Volume One: I, Librarian by James Turner
72. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
71. John Constantine Hellblazer: Papa Midnite by Mat Johnson
70. Incognegro by Mat Johnson
69. Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story by Mat Johnson
68. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

April
67. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
66. John Adams by David McCullough
65. Substitute Me by Lori Tharps
64. Open City by Teju Cole
63. Japanese by Spring by Ishmael Reed
62. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
61. The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
60. Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda D. Addison
59. The Word: Black Writers Talk About the Transformative Power of Reading and Writing by Marita Golden
58. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
57. Lyric's Alley by Leila Aboulela
56. From the Pyramids to the Projects: Poems of Genocide and Resistance! by Askia M. Toure
55. Swimming Swimmers Swimming by Percival Everett
54. Great House by Nicole Krauss
53. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin
52. Room by Emma Donoghue
51. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
50. West of Here by Jonathan Evison

March
49. Othello by William Shakespeare
48. Holding Company: Poems by Major Jackson
47. Suck on the Marrow by Camille Dungy
46. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
45. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
44. Paradise Lost by John Milton
43. Wuthering Heights (eBook) by Emily Brontë
42. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
41. Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
40. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
39. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
38. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
37. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

February
36. Plum Bun by Jessie Redmon Fauset
35. The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
34. The Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago
33. Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen
32. The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
31. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
30. Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell
29. Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams
28. Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
27. Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
26. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (eBook) by Mark Twain

January
25. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
24. Seeing by Jose Saramago
23. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
22. Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
21. When Washington Was In Vogue by Edward Christopher Williams
20. Bookmarks: Reading in Black and White by Karla F.C. Holloway
19. White Egrets by Derek Walcott
18. Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice
17. Taming the Shrew by William Shakespeare
16. Killing Floor by Lee Child
15. The Metamorphoses of Ovid by Ovid
14. Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color by Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll
13. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
12. Fierce Angels: The Strong Black Woman in American Life and Culture by Sheri Parks
11. 32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter
10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (eBook)
9. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
8. Small Island by Andrea Levy
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (eBook)
6. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (eBook)
5. The 100 Best African American Poems by Nikki Giovanni
4. Arc & Hue by Tara Betts
3. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
2. Zora and Me by Victoria Bond
1. Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

Welcome!

Thanks drneutron

Glad to have you with us!

Thanks alcottacre :)

I have Wild Seed on my shelves, waiting to be read. What did you think of it?

antqueen, Butler is one of my fav authors and this was a last minute re-read for me. I just felt like I wanted to go into the New Year with this read. The male and female leads are immortals but they achieve it conflicting means. The male (Doro) has to kill; whereas the female (Anyanwu) is a nurturer/healer.

I really liked how Butler mirrored the capture, slavery, and breeding of immortals with the real-life slave trade, as well as, the with Anyawu's dilemma of her own "enslavement" by Doro in order to protect her children and their descendants.

Title: Wild Seed
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Publisher: Warner Books
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Year: 1980
Pages: 279
Genre: Fiction/Science Fiction
Series: Patternist - Chronological Order (1); Published Order (4)


While Wild Seed was the fourth book published in Butler's Patternist series, it is the first book chronologically. The story opens on the continent of Africa in the 17th century and travels to the New World (New York and New Orleans) while following the relationship between two immortals. Anyawu is a healer and shapeshifter and Doro is a telepath who transfers his consciousness into different hosts, killing each host in the process. Anyawu and Doro are at odds throughout the story as Anyawu disagrees with Doro's murderous transferences and his selective breeding programme. Doro spends his time searching for individuals with special abilities and setting up communities where he can interbreed them to develop a species of super-human abilities.

What I love about this book is the tension that Butler creates between the two antagonists. The bond between these two is initially established because they are the only immortals but there is a love/hate relationship as their ideas of family, ethics, and morality are diametrically opposed to each other.

Butler explores several controversial issues including slavery as Anyawu is continually forced to bend to Doro's will because he holds the fate of her progeny over her head. This emotional slavery is juxtapositioned against the American slave trade going on around them. Other issues that Butler tackles are those of gender, race, and reproductive issues. The book's title, Wild Seed is how Doro perceives Anyawu -- someone that he cannot quite control.

Butler is my favorite female author.

Title: Zora and Me
Author: Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Year: 2010
Pages: 186
Genre: Fiction/Young Adult


Last year, I read a great biography about Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd, so I was looking forward to reading this young adult novel with Zora as a young child. Fourth graders, Zora and her best friends, Carrie and Teddy, search for the truth when a turpentine worker's body is found dead and beheaded on the railroad tracks. The book is told from Carrie's point of view; hence, the "Me" in the title. The action takes place in Zora Neale Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, Florida.

I can see why this book was endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust (the only project to be given such an honor, not by Hurston herself). Bond and Simon uncannily capture the spirit of Hurston through the young Zora. Zora displays a knack for tall tales, as she convinces the other schoolchildren there's a gator-man (half-man, half-gator) in their community. If you have read Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, then you will recognize Joe Clarke's store with the men whiling away the day on the front porch. I love how the authors pay attention to the smallest details, for example, that there were only 45 states at the time.

The authors brillantly capture Hurston's traveling spirit and natural curiosity in little Zora. This magical story is a must read for Hurston fans.

Zora and Me has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award and won the 2011 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award.

Nice review of Wild Seed. I haven't read anything by Octavia Butler yet, but I plan to change that soon. I also need to get to Wrapped in Rainbows, the Zora Neale Hurston biography you referenced (I think I own it, but it isn't in my LT library).

Thanks kidzdoc. I really enjoyed the Hurston biography.

I lost your thread somehow... hard to keep track of so many :) I'll have to get to Wild Seed soon.

I read a lot of YA books. I'm adding Zora and Me to the 2011 reading list.

Title: Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
Author: Danielle Evans
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Format: Hardcover
Year: 2010
Pages: 232
Genre: Fiction/Short Stories


Danielle Evans gives us an amazing debut with eight short stories which mainly focus on the experiences of African-American women. The first story is "Virgins," which was initially published in the 2007 Paris Review, and follows two friends who have differing points of view about the right way to lose your virginity. However, one girl's right way puts her in a dangerous situation.

The story that stayed with me the most was "Snakes," where Tara, a bi-racial teen, is sent to visit with her white grandmother and cousin for summer. Her grandmother doesn't hide her preference for Tara's cousin (and disdain for Tara's brown skin and cornrows). The grandmother even goes so far as to introduce Tara as being adopted to her friends at the country club. This story had a thought-provoking, near-tragic twist at the end.

Another story "Harvest" explores the racial and cultural attitudes towards reproductive issues. Evans juxtaposes the preference of fertility clinics for high SAT-achieving, blonde, white college students (no brown or black women need apply) versus the pregnancy of a black roommate of one of the egg donors.

I also enjoyed "Robert E. Lee is Dead" about a black nerdy, honor student and valedictorian dealing with peer pressure and the stress of trying to be and remain popular.

Evans provides a refreshing take on race, gender, and class through this collection and I definitely look forward to reading more by her.

I own one of Butler's books, I cannot think of which one right off hand. I really need to get it read!

Thanks for the recommendation of Zora and Me. My local library has a copy, so I hope to be able to read it soon.

Nice review of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self; I'll add it to my wish list.

>15 dsstukes:: ooh, I have that one on my TBR. Good to see another fine review.

I don't know if Zora and Me will ever be available here, possibly not, but what a great idea for a book.

I've only read Parable of the Sower and loved it, don't know why I haven't tried her other books yet - fear of disappointment maybe?