Book Recommendations Please: Strong POC
Today I suggested to a friend that, rather than reread To Kill a Mockingbird, he’d read something where a POC saves the day. I then broadened it to books with strong, nuanced MCs with agency that are also POC, and put the word out for recommendations.
What follows is the list I received over twitter and FB. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments section, On FB or on Twitter. I’ll keep adding as they come in
(PLEASE NOTE, I haven’t read all these books. Any that I have will have an asterisk. I suspect there is a wide variety of age ranges here so please check books before buying for younger readers)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie*
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières*
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz*
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing and its sequel, Kingdom of the Waves by MT Anderson
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemsin*
Salt Road by Nalo Hopkinson
The Hap & Leonard series of crime novels (The Savage Season etc) by Joe R. Lansdale* (I’ve read and loved these books, but take note that the narrator is white. His friend Leonard, however, features prominently in the books, is gay, a black man, and a brilliant character.)
Edge Of Dark Water by Joe R Lansdale (see note above: white narrator, but apparently also features a prominent black MC. Both MCs are female.)
Un-Lun-Dun Un Lun Dun is a young adult fantasy novel by China Miévil
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms* and sequels, by N. K. Jemisin
Black Ajax by George MacDonald Fraser* ( note, this is an historical novel based on the career of Tom Molineaux. It does not pull its punches about anyone or anything)
The Private Eye by Marcos Martin and writer Brian K. Vaughan (digital comic)
Any book by Malinda Lo
One Crazy Summer by Cinda Williams Garcia
The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Greenglass House by Kate Milford
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker*
Ben Janvier mystery novels (A Free Man of Color etc) by Barbara Hambly
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
The Eternal Sky Trilogy by Elizabeth Bear
Yashim the Eunuch mystery novels (The Janissary Tree etc) by Jason Godwin*
On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard
Earthsea (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu) series by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five) by Max Gladstone
Scale-Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Anything YA or MG by Nancy Farmer
Anything by Rita-Williams Garcia
Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
Parable of the Sower, Patternmaster and Clay’s Ark by Octavia Butler
The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Wild Swans by Jung Chang*
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk*
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz*
A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
Killing Moon/Shadowed Sun duology by NK Jemisin
Isles of the Forsaken by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Air by Geoff Ryman
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole*
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall*
