Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week, we are intentionally diversifying our reading and looking for a protagonist that is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color. There are increasingly a lot of options to choose from (thankfully!), so dive right in to this one.

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt?

Right now the book I think I'll be using is Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur, who is Korean diasporic. The book is based on Korean mythology so I’m assuming the protag is BIPOC.

I really loved The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. It’s NOT a depressing book about racism. The characters are fabulous, and the plots are fresh and unexpected. I want to read more by this author.

I also want to read The Trees or something else by Percival Everett. Probably racism.

I will read about indigenous characters for this prompt and/or the Canada/Australia/NZ prompt. I put some of my favorites on the listopia. I liked the eerie Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, so I might read the sequel Moon of the Turning Leaves.

There are many fun magical indigenous books too.

For a different approach, I highly recommend Stöld, Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius. It’s about indigenous reindeer herders in Sweden. I liked the college age main character and the mystery in the story.

I'm reading The Deep Sky for this prompt.

I'm reading A Good Night to Kill: a Pretty Boy Novel (2). Pretty Boy is black. I read the first part of this trilogy this year. For Round 2, I am reading Homegoing, which also has a black MC.

I am reading Empire of Wild for the 'touch of magic' prompt, with an indigenous MC, and Gold Diggers for 'Going for Gold', where the main characters are POC.

My book club is focusing on different cultures, so it will add to my list.

I’m most interested in these
The Violin Conspiracy
Jazz
The Direction of the Wind
Americanah

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - added

I’d like to read Three Day Road (book 1 in the Bird Family trilogy) by Joseph Boyden. It’s about 2 Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military in WWI. I’m also considering Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I’ve been meaning to read this one for years!

I'll be continuing the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and reading False Value.

I have lots of options for this one, mostly books I've been needing to catch up on
The Faithless
To Shape a Dragon's Breath
Silver Phoenix
She Who Became the Sun

A-Ma Alchemy of Love
A-Ma: Alchemy of Love
A-Ma Alchemy of Love by Nataša Pantović

„Seated on a panel with her fellow writers, Maltese-Serbian novelist Nataša Pantović has been known to use slam poetry to perform her poetic body of work. Like her prose, the improvised words, tribal music, sounds, lengthy ‘aum’ chanting, are neither too preposterous nor too earnest but endlessly curious. A bridge builder between East and West, following ancient archaeological findings, she often dives into historic settings more than 2,000 years back in time.“ Sunday Times

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/vie...
A-Ma Alchemy of Love

Pam wrote: "I’d like to read Three Day Road (book 1 in the Bird Family trilogy) by Joseph Boyden. It’s about 2 Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military in WWI. I’m also considering Invisible Man by Ralph..."

I loved Three Day Road! I only recently learned it was part of a series, so I may find room for the next book in next year's prompts (maybe continuing a series, since I don't read many series!)

My plan is to read the mystery Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

A news article just came out that has a bunch of ideas for this prompt: 90 Recent Books to Read This Native American Heritage Month. Hope this helps someone :) I found a horror story that sounds good on there for my list.

I've wanted to read James Baldwin for a while now, so I decided I have to make it happen this year. I guess one sign that I was missing something was when I went to my new favorite used book store (and Largest Outdoor Bookstore in the World - Bart's Books in Ojai, CA) and wasn't finding any Baldwin. I asked where they were, since he wrote in both fiction and non-fiction. They told me that they don't get a lot of Baldwin brought in to sell, since people tend to want to keep their copies. And those that DO come in are re-sold right away. So they actually BUY NEW COPIES of Baldwin so that they have some in the store!!!

The book I'm choosing to start with is Notes of a Native Son which is his first published collection of essays. I can't image this won't work out, but if it does not for some reason, I have at least a couple of dozen options that I've flagged for this prompt, and I'm sure many more on my TBR.

Also, I believe we all agree, that even though the prompt says "character", that when reading non-fiction, this translates to "person in the book".

I've got loads to choose from. Some possibles:

- Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Roy Arundhati
- Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
- The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
- Patsy by Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
- Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
- Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
- The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

The three possibles on my plan for this prompt are:

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
The Map of Salt and Stars
Moloka'i

I'm planning to read Daughter of the Moon Goddess for this prompt. I chose this book because the author and main character are persons of colour. I've always thought that the cover was beautiful and unique looking. But I'm not sure what to expect from this book or how it differs from The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Can anyone who has read this book recommend it?

I'm planning to read There, There by Tommy Orange

I am going to read Murder in G Major

I want to recommend three books by Ernest J Gaines:

A Lesson Before Dying

A Gathering of Old Men

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

The Nickel Boys

I guarantee it will break your heart. FANTASTIC read.

For this prompt, I read:
A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly - 3* - My Review

For Prompt #14, read The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Really enjoyed reading this.

I read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. The main character is from India.

I really liked

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir - excellent memoir.

I'm listening to Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende.

I read by Henning Mankell.

I read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. I'm having a hard time figuring out how I feel about this book, and after having read his Deacon King Kong 2-3 years ago, how I'm feeling about him as an author. I think this is the first time I've truly understood comments about writing "at a sentence level". At a sentence level McBride is great. But I'm finding, for me anyway, that he spends lots of time on character development (which I like), but that his plot development suffers. I feels like he's got a great skeleton of a plot, but that it needs some beefing up. Almost like he's writing it to become a musical and the song and dance will fill in the time where more story development should be.

So, it wasn't a bad by any means, but I didn't love it.

Tracy wrote: "I read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. I'm having a hard time figuring out how I feel about this book, and after having read his Deacon King Kong ..."

Wow, I felt so similarly. But you are so much better at expressing it. This book had all the elements I should love. Yet something kept me from fully loving it.

I read The Fortunes of Jaded Women, the characters were primarily Vietnamese.

I read:
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

BIO: A book with a Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color main character written by an author who is also Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color.
REJECT: A book with a bilingual character

The characters are Japanese.

Finished: 02/24/2024
Rating: 3.5 stars

I read Noor by Nnedi Okorafor for this prompt. It takes place in a future Nigeria, predicting what that country might be like in a technological future.

Main character is Nigerian and disabled as a bonus. It's interesting to speculate on how technology could help the disabled but also what prejudice this might incur.

I read Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke for this prompt. This Edgar award winning book tells the story of a Black Texas Ranger. Read 9th March; 4*

The book I chose for this prompt

short and sweet: 3.5
This book left me feeling quite perplexed. It frequently shifted across different generations, which was disorienting. However, it ultimately proved to be an enjoyable read, primarily because I grew up in Memphis, and many of the locations and streets mentioned were very familiar to me.

I read There There by Tommy Orange

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters , told from the point of view of the two indigenous main characters.

My pick for this topic was Bernadine Evaristos Girl, Woman, Other. She was the first black Booker Prize winner in 2019. I really liked the stories about black women in Great Britain.

I read a picture book There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds. I will probably read a full-length book with an indigenous character, also.

If your still looking for a book for this prompt, or just need a good laugh, try this one:

Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea's Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life by Tyler Perry

I read Heart Berries. 5 stars. Very good.

PROMPT #14 ~ A book with a main character who is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color


My 2024 plan is to "not plan."
BOOK 1 ~ I work at a big library and I'm just going to go with the first book that appeals to me that crosses my returns desk.
BOOK 2 ~ And I'm challenging myself to work on clearing out my old TBR shelf this year, so I'm going to read the dustiest "fits the prompt" book on my TBR shelf as well.

~ ♞ ~

BOOK 1
Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Read ~ 3.27.24
Pages ~ 336
Rationale ~ Luz, Maria Josie, Diego, Pidre - all are Indigenous people of the North American Midwest

Review ~ ★★☆
This is a very atmospheric type novel with rich description of place and time, but the character story lines are trite and fairly sterotypical. The competing timelines are really hard to follow. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and their relationships to each other were hard to figure out from the narrative. I think it would have been a more effective tale were these timeline sequential rather than concurrent. Luckily, there is a generational map in the front part of the book, so that helped. But the book was pretty much a "meh" read for me. Almost a 3 star, but just not quite. It had so much potential, such a beautiful cover, and a really intriguing blurb. I really felt let down, so I'm a little annoyed about that, which is probably what contributed to my unwillingness to rate it any higher.


~ ♞ ~

BOOK 2
The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
Read ~ 3.28.24
Pages ~ 366
Rationale ~ The Angels are a Mexican-American blended family.

Review ~ ★★★★
There is an nice level of humor in this book - mostly because these characters are so REAL, and they have the ability to laugh at themselves and the life that they have been handed. They are a family, but broken? I don't think so. Far from it. I have to admit that I cried a bit at the end of this one. It was a rich read!

I read A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

I read Chain-Gang All-Stars

This is a book that was both heavy going but at the same time not awful

I read Somebody's Daughter for this prompt. I listened to it on audio. It was a really good book. I'd recommend it and the audio was great. It was on Libby for free at least for my library.

I read A House for Alice and Homegoing, both very good books with black main characters.

For this prompt, I read Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova. The main characters are young Latina women. It is the second book in the Brooklyn Brujas series. I tell people if you want a magical YA series without Rowling's transphobia, this is the series for you. I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to book 3.

✔ - 10Jan24
The Personal Librarian – Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray – 3***
As she has done with other women “lost in history,” Benedict shines a light on a little-recognized woman who had enormous influence on American culture. Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman who passed as white to work as J P Morgan’s personal librarian. It’s an interesting history lesson and well told, if somewhat repetitive.
LINK to my full review

I read Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias, a historical fiction set in Costa Rica. A family has been torn apart by a large fire that has burned a major banana plantation to the ground, a father disappears, and no one really knows the story, least of all the children of the family who are now adults. I did some research on the banana plantations (owned mainly by American companies), and found that although I could not find that the American Fruit Company (as named in the book) ever existed, the United Fruit Company (now a part of Chiquita Brands) certainly does and is known for it's "dark history of oppression and violence that would make even the drug cartels proud."

I read Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.

This book has received many awards and it's no surprise. A raw and gripping story that looks at racism and prejudice, and coming to terms with one's true self and what's important.

4 stars

My review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Like McBride's other novels, it's rich in character development of the many characters that pop up continuously throughout the book -- even in the final chapters. This almost works against the plot, but overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Finally I read The Color Purple a book that has been on my TBR for a long time