April CATWoman: Women of Colo(u)r

For April's CATWoman challenge we are focusing on women writers of colo(u)r. There are so many brilliant authors out there that this overview can only touch on the breadth and depth of literature out there - I'm looking forward to discovering many new-to-me writers as well as the more well-known authors.

Whether poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, there are plenty of authors of colour to choose from. Here are just a few suggestions, please do add your recommendations and likely reading in the thread.

Poetry

Jackie Kay
Camille T Dungy
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

Fiction

Maya Angelou
N.K. Jemisin
Sunny Singh
Toni Morrison
Jhumpa Lahiri
Zadie Smith
Candice Carty-Williams
Angie Thomas
Celeste Ng
Stacey Abrams/Selena Montgomery* (*Selena is Stacey Abrams' pen name for her romance books)
Zakiya Harris
R.O. Kwon
Zora Neale Hurstone
Brit Bennett
Raven Leilani
Yaa Gyasi
Leila Aboulela
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Bernardine Evaristo
Arundhati Roy
Jeevani Charika
Jackie Kay

Non-Fiction

Ijeoma Oluo
Samantha Irby
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Malala Yousafzai
Margot Lee Shetterly
Jung Chang
Nina Mingya Powles
Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor
Arundhati Roy
Monisha Rajesh
Anita Sethi
Pragya Agarwal
Jessica J Lee
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Angela Saini
Lauret Savoy
Chitra Ramaswamy
Roxane Gay
Afua Hirsch
Jackie Kay
Reni Eddo-Lodge

Don't forget to add your choice to the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/CATWoman_2022#April:_Women_of_Colour_.28...

I'm hoping to read 4 books for this category this month - may be a bit ambitious for me, but we'll see! For non-fiction, I've lined up Monisha Rajesh's Around India in 80 Trains, and Pragya Agarwal's SWAY: Unravelling Unconscious Bias. And for fiction, I'm hoping to get to Jeevani Charika's A Convenient Marriage, and Mare's War by Tanita S Davis.

I'd like to add a few American women to your list that I have enjoyed:

--Fiction--Nella Larsen: Passing (1929) and Quicksand (1928), both short and very accessible
--Nonfiction--Isabel Wilkerson (historian): The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste
--Poetry--Elizabeth Alexander; plus she wrote a poignant memoir about her husband: The Light of the World: a Memoir

I need to read All That She Carried for a book club meeting next month, so that will be my selection. I'd also like to fit in My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me if I can.

I think My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is my best bet for this one.

I may choose something by Octavia Butler, sci fi author.

I have a bunch to choose from (as I'm sure many of us do!).

Deciding between these:
How to Pronounce Knife / Souvankham Thammavongsa
The Porcupine Year / Louise Erdrich
The Island of Sea Women / Lisa See
The Tusk that did the Damage / Tania James

Leaning more towards the last two, but we'll see.

I have Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss on my to read list.

If I have time for it, I'll probably read Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler since I just read the first book of the Earthseed series last year.

I have a couple of books that I am planning on reading for this theme: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Jackie - I love the way you spelled colo(u)r in the title of this thread. Being Canadian we use 'colour' but I often use the American version of 'color' so I tend to spell the word differently every time I use it!

I'm planning on Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemie.

Our book club is reading All That She Carried for next month's book so that will be my selection.

I will probably read some short story collections: either Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston or Difficult Women by Roxane Gay.

The Tusk that did the Damage / Tania James
2.5 stars

This book follows an elephant, two filmmakers at a sanctuary(?) in India doing a story on a vet, and a poacher. The chapters alternate between the three. The elephants mother was killed when he was a baby and he was stolen, raised to perform.

I didn’t really like this (surprisingly since it’s an animal book). I didn’t care about the humans and those chapters (mostly) bored me. I liked the elephant chapters at first, but they went downhill because they weren’t all from the elephant’s point of view (as I’d expected), but some of those chapters followed the “handlers” more and there was a bit of elephant mythology (which often would interest me, but in this case, I was bored). Overall, though, the book did pick up in the last 1/3 or so and I was more interested, but it was only enough to bring my rating up by a ½ star. Although I’m not even certain what happened at the very end, and although I see other reviews say the three stories came together, I completely missed where the filmmakers’ story fit in.

I read Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen; both the author and the female main character are Asian American. The book is a cute, albeit predictable, YA contemporary romance that uses the fake-dating trope.

I have completed my read of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. A fascinating exploration of two black familes through seven generations, this was a five star read for me.

>16 DeltaQueen50:
I liked that one too.

Fatma Aydemir is a German journalist of Turkish descent. Ellbogen is her debut novel about a young woman of Turkish descent who is obviously neither at home in Berlin nor in Istanbul, where she flees after she and her friends have killed a young man in a drunken fight in a subway station. I couldn't understand her, to be honest.

I read Broken Places by Tracy Clark.

Broken Places is the first in a series about a private detective in Chicago. Cass Raine is an African-American woman who used to be a police officer. She is one of my favorite PI characters I have read in a long time. In this novel, she is trying to solve the murder of her good friend, a priest at the local Catholic church. The mystery was interesting and although I predicted the culprit pretty early on, I enjoyed following Cass as she followed the clues and figured it out. I especially liked all of the supporting characters. Cass has an eclectic group of friends that added just the right amount of comic relief. I will definitely continue reading this series.

I just finished A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown, a YA fantasy rooted in West African mythology.

I resurrected this book from my Paused folder. So glad I did.
The Art of Gathering
Find my comments here.

This month's challenge was the inspiration I needed to try another Toni Morrison book. I have a hard time with her plot vs. poetic storytelling. In this case, The Bluest Eye was spot-on as a novel about a young black girl's abuse and the individual stories of those who were part of her life. It also filled a niche in understanding how kindness and generosity are sometimes a luxury that may take several generations to manifest.

Just finished Fifty Words for Rain See my comments here.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/338552#7811377

I finished Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan.

The May thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/341195

I finished Swimming Back to Trout River by Chinese-Canadian author Linda Rui Feng.

I read Republic of Imagination by Azar Nafisi. Does this count?

I read Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall.

COMPLETED My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

I read Nella Larsen's first book, Quicksand.

I'm reading The Leavers by Chinese-American author Lisa Ko.

Becoming / Michelle Obama
3.75 stars

This is Michelle Obama’s autobiography, so it does start with growing up with her family. Her father had MS and didn’t want to buy a house, so they (2 parents, 2 siblings) lived upstairs from an aunt and uncle in Chicago. Although they didn’t have a lot of money, Michelle got an Ivy league education and a law degree. Which is around when she met Barack. Of course, the second half(ish?) of the book was her marriage, their two daughters, and politics, including Barack’s rise to the presidency with Michelle, not only along for the ride, but having to give up her life and career for that presidency.

I liked this. She is an amazing woman and an amazing speaker (I also listened to the audio book, read by Michelle, herself). There are still some things that I don’t understand about American politics (I’m Canadian), but I also learned a few things, too. And it really was an interesting look behind the scenes of the Obamas lives, as well as behind the scenes in the White House. I like that she really seems down-to-earth and was all about (as much as she could be) keeping her daughter’s lives as normal as possible.

I read Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose by Nikki Giovanni. The collection, which is on being a person of color and race relations, serious topics, is beautifully written.

I read Such A Fun Age, The Window Seat, and Glorious. I will definitely be reading more of Forna and McFadden's work.

I read The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. Recommended.

I have finished Jhumpa Lahiri's debut novel, The namesake.

Completed Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

>16 DeltaQueen50: - I also gave Homegoing 5 stars, such a fab book!
I have also bought Jhumpa Lahiri's new book as I loved The Namesake as well!

I read Jackie Kay's Wish I was here - a series of short stories.

This week I read Maud Martha the only novel by poet Gwendolyn Brooks. I loved it 5*****.
Find my comments here.

The Island of Sea Women / Lisa See
3.5 stars

Set in Korea and primarily spanning from the 1930s to the 1970s (with some “current day” tidbits in 2008), the main character is Young-sook, “now” in her 80s. When she was 15, on Jeju island in Korea, she began training with her mother and best friend Mi-ja to become haenyeo, a diver. As a woman, Young-sook would be primarily responsible for feeding her family and making money from the diving she would be doing. After they are married and have children, Young-sook is unable to forgive Mi-ja for a huge betrayal.

The book takes us through a number of historical events, starting with Japanese occupation, WWII, American occupation, the Korean War, and an event in Korea that wiped out (i.e. they were murdered) many of the villagers on Jeju.

Good story, though it didn’t move quickly. I learned a lot about Jeju island (which I had never heard of) and the historical happenings there and in Korea, in general. Also learned about the women divers, which was definitely interesting. It was a bit frustrating, though, with the women being so prominent in that society, yet boys were still more highly prized. The women worked not only to feed their family and make money, but that money was to be spent on educating the boys. Overall, though, it was a good and interesting book.

I finished Pragya Agarwal's SWAY: Unravelling Unconscious Bias and thought it was excellent, popular science at its best. It was an accessible but very thorough look at implicit/unconscious bias in lots of different aspeccts of life - race and gender, but also accent, beauty, artificial intelligence, weight, all sorts of things. Definitely recommended.

I've still got a couple of other books on the go for this month's CAT which I'll have to carry forward to May. Thanks to everyone for a fascinating selection of books, and lots of new-to-me authors! Don't forget to update the wiki :)

Better late than never, adding Monisha Rajesh's Around India in 80 Trains, a fun travelogue covering the entire country in a 4 month epic trip.

>43 Jackie_K: It's never too late for a book recommendation. This one sounds interesting!