June TIOLI - Read a book for National Caribbean American Heritage Month

National Caribbean American Heritage Month has been officially celebrated during the month of June in the US since 2006, when Congress passed a resolution sponsored by California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, which was signed by President George W. Bush.

So, for this month, I challenge you to read a book by an author or about a person who was born in the Caribbean, or who has at least one parent who was born there. All types of books (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, sci-fi, YA, etc.) are acceptable.

Wikipedia has a page on the Caribbean, which includes the region's sovereign states and dependent territories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean.

Other helpful resources:
Wikipedia page on Caribbean literature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_literature
An Amazon contributor's list of his favorite Caribbean novels (thanks to Kerry for finding this): http://www.amazon.com/My-Favorite-Caribbean-Novels/lm/1I0VNK5K4KVW9

A few of my favorite Caribbean authors and books:

V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad): A House for Mr Biswas; The Mystic Masseur; A Bend in the River; India: A Wounded Civilization; A Turn in the South

Edwidge Danticat (Haiti): The Dew Breaker; Brother, I'm Dying; After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti

Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua): A Small Place; The Autobiography of My Mother; My Brother

Andrea Levy (born in UK to Jamaican parents): Small Island; The Long Song

Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic): Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Caryl Phillips (born in St Kitts): Foreigners; Dancing in the Dark; Cambridge; The Atlantic Sound; Crossing the River

Sam Selvon (Trinidad): The Lonely Londoners

Derek Walcott (Nobel laureate from St Lucia): White Egrets

Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique): Solibo Magnificent; School Days

Edgardo Vega Yunqué (Puerto Rico): No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again

Other authors to consider:

Sadie Jones (born in UK to a Jamaican father): The Outcast; Small Wars

Jean Rhys (Dominica): Wide Sargasso Sea

Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados): Elegguas; Born to Slow Horses

George Lamming (Barbados): The Emigrants; Of Age and Innocence

Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic): How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents; In the Time of the Butterflies

Alejo Carpentier (Cuba): The Lost Steps; The Kingdom of This World

Aimé Césaire (Martinique): The Season in the Congo; Solar Throat Slashed

Frantz Fanon (Martinique): The Wretched of the Earth; Black Skin, White Masks

C. L. R. James (Trinidad): The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution; Letters From London

Piri Thomas (Cuba/Puerto Rico): Down These Mean Streets

This list is far from comprehensive, so you are encouraged to list recommended authors and books, even if you're not planning to read them for this challenge.

Return to main June TIOLI thread

Great challenge, Darryl!

Scanning my shelves, I've come up with these possibilities:
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (I entered this one on the wiki since it would be a shared read, so I'll make it a priority)
Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid (I don't own this one any longer but remember liking it when I read it many moons ago, so I may check the library for it)
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (I'll have to get that one from the library but I've been wanting to read it since I finished my re-read of Jane Eyre a few weeks ago.)

I also have The Outcast by Sadie Jones and Small Island by Andrea Levy TBR but I don't want to get carried away...

>2 katiekrug: Thanks for those recommendations, Katie!

At the moment I'm planning to read these books for this challenge:

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau (winner of the 1992 Prix Goncourt)
Elegguas by Kamau Brathwaite
Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey
The Three Suitors of Fred Belair by E.A. Markham
A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire

I am in for Small Island and A House for Mr. Biswas. I already have my copies in hand.

> 1

Oooh! Nice picture, Darryl!!

Love the picture, Darryl. I'm going to try to get to A House for Mr. Biswas and/or Wide Sargasso Sea and/or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, all of which I own copies of and have been meaning to read for some time. I think this is a great challenge.

This is a great challenge, Darryl. I don't have any of the books y'all are recommending (or planning to read) so I'm going to make a list and head to my favorite bookstore (because they are open tomorrow and I don't have to work -- hooray!) to choose one.

I remember reading something by Jamaica Kincaid a long time ago - and liking it. But I don't remember what it was.....

This probably isn't what you had in mind:
Alexander Hamilton
but, hey, he lived in the Caribbean 15 years longer than the marvelous Michelle Cliff, my first choice, did!

I have a newfound fascination for American colonial times, so I'm going to attempt this whopper from the local community college library.

>8 Megi53: Sounds good!

Thanks for posting my books to the Wiki already, Darryl. I went to do it today and discovered they were already there.

I've posted The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Jamaica) and Tides Running (Tobago) to the wiki - touchstones aren't working this morning.

Went to the bookstore this morning to buy one book for this challenge.
Ended up purchasing:
The Long Song by Andrea Levy ---- HELP with the touchstone please!
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul AND
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

I hope to read all three in June!
~Ellen

I did an entire Caribbean category last year for the 1010 Challenge. I have one or two remnants as well as a wish-listed Levy book that I'll have to see if I get to this month.

I listed Tide Running by Oonya Kempadoo which is set in Tobago, but now that I have the book from the library I don't think she is of Caribbean heritage, though she sounds like an ideal candidate for a Caribbean read.

Oonya Kempadoo is a writer who was born in Sussex, England in 1966 of Guyanese parents. She was brought up in Guyana and has since lived in Europe and various islands in the Caribbean. She has studied art in Amsterdam and has lived in Trinidad, St. Lucia, Tobago, and now lives in Grenada. She was named a Great Talent for the Twenty-First Century by the Orange Prize judges and is a winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize

edit to add: Of mixed Indian, African, Scottish and Amerindian descent, she describes herself as Caribbean rather than Guyanese. From 1985 she worked as a carnival designer, started a textile design business, and has freelanced as a print-maker and graphic artist. She lives with her British-born partner and 12-year-old son, and does voluntary social work with Grenada's teenagers

>14 avatiakh: As far as I'm concerned, Oonya Kempadoo counts, since she currently lives in the Caribbean and seems to have lived there for a long time. Her bio sounds interesting, and I haven't heard of her, so I'm eager to get your take on Tide Running.

Oh thanks - I just aded a bit more to her bio that I found on a review of her book.

Thanks for participating, everyone. With all of the people reading A House for Mr. Biswas I'm tempted to re-read it myself.

May get round to reading The Outcast - I didn't know of the Caribbean connection until reading this thread. I started that book a few years back, got distracted after a few chapters, and never went back.

But I'm already over committed on June TIOLIs, so not sure if I'll get to it or not.

I looked at my TBR shelf and spotted A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez. I'm debating whether I should try here or for the foreign word challenge. I am going to keep an eye out in my classroom to see if the Garcia Girls magically reappears. Toward the end of the school year books have a way of doing that! :)

>19 jacqueline065: IMO, A Cafecito Story doesn't apply to the foreign title challenge, since the entire title is not in Spanish (but Kerry is the ultimate judge of her own challenge). It certainly fits into this challenge, though!

I might not finish Alexander Hamilton because it's huge (800+ pages) but yesterday I got through the first two chapters, about his life in the Caribbean.

Highly recommended for anyone who's a faster reader and wants historical background about agriculture and slavery in the Caribbean. Chernow's narrative is interesting and easy to follow.

One of the best parts explained the close relationships among Danish, French, and English islands. Another lively vignette described a duel between a planter and a lawyer. Finally, there are quotes from Hamilton's 1772 hurricane letter and poetry he sent to a Christiansted newspaper.

I might try to find something shorter to read for this challenge instead. Not A House for Mr. Biswas, another brick! How's everyone coming with that one?

I've just finished Andrea Levy's first novel, Every Light in the House Burnin' for this challenge and gave it 4 stars. Not for the fainthearted - it's semi autobiographical and is the story of her family growing up in London in the 50s and 60s and then of her Dad's illness. I've included it here because both Levy's parents were born in Jamaica and emigrated to London in 1948.

Thanks Darryl for thinking up this challenge - I have owned the book for 3 years and never got round to reading it!

>22 cushlareads: Ooh, I hadn't heard of this book, Cushla, but that sounds like a must read. I'll look for it on my upcoming book jaunts.

I finished up Small Island in the wee hours this morning. Thanks for setting up this challenge, Darryl, so that I finally read this terrific book!

I finally managed to finished The Polished Hoe today. It'll be a few days before I write it up (I am so far behind) but it was excellent, if painful.

Thanks, Darryl. I probably wouldn't have picked it up without your challenge.

Darryl - Thanks for this challenge.

Although I only read one book for it - Wide Sargasso Sea - I would likely not have read it without the challenge. AND I bought some others that I'm looking forward to reading later this summer: Small Island and The Long Song and A House for Mr. Biswas. Good challenge for expanding horizons.

~Ellen

If you haven't already discovered it, July's challenges are rolling merrily along here. Come and enjoy them!

I managed to squeeze in The Long Song which has been on my tbr since it came out. I put down Tide Running after 50 pages as the narration was in a pidgin english that was hard to follow.

Yes, Darryl, this was an excellent challenge. I had big plans, but only got to Wide Sargasso Sea and part of Mr. Biswas (which I'm hoping to squeeze into the "5" spot in Madeline's July challenge). But I'll be reading The Outcast in July, have The Long Song on my shelf, and now have Breath, Eyes, Memory and Waiting for Snow in Havana on my wish list.