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Reading 50 Books by Women of Color in 2018

Once again, I'm challenging myself to read 50 books by women of color this year.

This time, instead of writing one long list of all the books at the end of the year, I'll be writing about them periodically as the year progresses for Rewire News.

You can read about some of my first 14 books here.

I'm always open to recommendations for other women of color authors. Let me know who I should be reading next.
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Published on March 10, 2018 07:39 • Tags: diverse-literature, people-of-color, women-authors, women-of-color
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message 1: by Debbie (new)
Mar 11, 2018 06:27AM

Debbie I love this challenge and I appreciate your lists so much.
My friends and I are doing a book "bingo" this year, there are 25 slots, and I added for myself the challenge of 50% WoC (13) and less than 20% WM authors (5). I love it so far.

Assuming that most of your "read" books are posted, I have a few WoC ideas:

For fun: Novels by Beverly Jenkins. You can start with
Forbidden (Old West, #1) by Beverly Jenkins and the series Bring on the Blessings (Blessings, #1) by Beverly Jenkins .
Also novels by Jeannie Lin and Courtney Milan

Also, I noticed that you had a few Ida B. Wells books, and it wasn't clear if you finished those. I also picked up Giddings and put it back down for being too dense. Memphis Diary is currently on my shelf. If you find that you need a more casual "in", as I did, I _highly_ recommend the children's biography Ida B. Wells Mother of the Civil Rights Movement by Dennis Brindell Fradin (not a WoC author) and this was easier to read than Giddings: To Tell the Truth Freely The Life of Ida B. Wells by Mia Bay

I enjoyed reading King Peggy An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village by Peggielene Bartels , and The Warmth of Other Suns The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson came highly recommended and is on my to-read shelf.

As an activist, I found How Organizations Develop Activists Civic Associations and Leadership in the 21st Century by Hahrie Han pretty useful.

There's also the rest of the Mildred D. Taylor books in the Logan series (my favorite is The Land by Mildred D. Taylor ), and actually my favorite Asian American book The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang by Wendy Shang (it beat out Where the Mountain Meets the Moon).

I'm guessing your daughter's age based on the dates of your shelf. Depending on age and maturity level~
Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel (Dyamonde Daniel #1) by Nikki Grimes is a beginning chapter book series, I've put it in front of a dozen 5-10 yo's and they all inhaled it (the 12-yo was not interested). The second book "Rich" is my favorite. My own favorite chapter book (maybe another year up) is Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look which made me laugh out loud.

If she is older, I also read Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi and was very moved by it, but the content can be pretty heavy for a sheltered kid. And one of my favorite authors and books of all time for any age: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson because I need more books about kindness in my life.

oops sorry for writing so much. I really really love this list of yours, thank you for having this resource.


message 2: by Debbie (new)
Mar 13, 2018 08:07AM

Debbie One more. If anyone reading this knows of any emerging diverse authors, point them to these contests:

https://winningwriters.com/our-contests


message 3: by Victoria (new)
Mar 13, 2018 08:31AM

Victoria Law Thanks so much! Will definitely check some of these out.

My daughter is now a high school senior, so most of her reading is now YA and adult. (I think she's reading The Hate U Give and nicked my copy of When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir for her to-read pile).


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