I will admit that I posted this thread to share an update earlier rather than later (before I forget or get too busy)!
Last month, I posted a few times in the reading thread about my Black History Month reading challenge, and last week another commenter asked me to share my reading list from that challenge.
A bit of background to help situate the challenge and resulting list: I decided to do this challenge (for which there was a single participant – me) because my reading has been growing increasingly White over the past few years. This is in part due to the genres I read in – I am first and foremost a romance reader, and while there are many authors of color in that space, there are also a whoooooole lot of White ladies – but also unquestionably stems from simply not paying attention to the patterns in my own reading. My long-term goal is not for books by authors of any particular identity to be siloed in a specific time of year; however, doing a challenge like this felt like a good starting point for intentionally diversifying my reading.
My selections for Black History Month were a mix of things that had been languishing on my TBR and things I picked up from the New Books display at my library. My only rules were that the author had to be Black, and the main character (or at least one of them) had to be Black. One thing I realized while reflecting on the reading was that it ultimately lacked intersectionality – I didn’t have any books by Black queer writers, or Black Latino/Latina authors, for example – so that’s something for me to keep in mind going forward. There was nothing I read for this challenge that I truly didn’t like, but I enjoyed some books more than others; for that reason, I’m dividing my list into Favorites from BHM and Everything Else.
Favorites from BHM
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Everything Else I Read During BHM
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
The Originalism Trap by Madiba Dennie
Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Pardon my Frenchie by Farah Rochon
Grown Women by Sarai Johnson
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole
An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole
I have decided that I’m going to keep this style of challenge going throughout the year by reading for other group history or heritage months. In April, I’ll be reading for Arab-American History Month, and in May for Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, although for both of those months, I am going to ignore the -American part; Arab and Asian/Pacific Islander authors who don’t have ties to the U.S. will also fit the bill. I’ll do a Pride Month challenge in June, read for Hispanic Heritage Month from 9/15-10/15, and do Native American Heritage Month in November.
I already have a good portion of my hold list set up for April, but if anyone has recommendations for books by Arab writers that are joyful, I invite you to tell me about them! I have a lot of books on my list that are intergenerational family stories, which is a type of literary fiction I adore, but for obvious historical (and, frankly, contemporary) reasons, I know there’s going to be a lot of trauma and sorrow in those stories.
