Task 4: Read a history book by a BIPOC author

[Mary Beth]

Here is a thread to discuss books you’re considering or suggesting for Task 4: Read a history book by a BIPOC author.

[Rebecca]

The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration, Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands or Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America

[Elizabeth]

I recently got a copy of A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance by Stella Dadzie, and since I really want to get to it in the next couple of months I plan on using that for this. There's a lot of stuff I want to read for this task though, so we'll see.

Some recommendations of things I personally loved (which mostly veer towards graphic nonfiction and books under 250 pages because reading lengthy textbooks isn't generally going to make me love something, although I am hoping to get through a few heftier nonfiction books over the next year):
-Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights
-Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
-21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act
-Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers
-On Juneteenth
-Strange Fruit, Volume I: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History
-Strange Fruit, Volume II: More Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History
-Bass Reeves: Tales of the Talented Tenth, no. 1
-Bessie Stringfield: Tales of the Talented Tenth, no. 2
-The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded
-The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements
-Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
-African Icons: Ten People Who Built a Continent

[Ron]

I've got plenty of Indigenous books by Indigenous authors so I'll probably look around there.

[Teresa]

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

[Bobby]

I just purchased a copy of Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot and it fits this category perfectly.

I recommend March by John Lewis.

[Cayley]

I'll be reading The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King

[McKenna]

Very excited for this one!

I would highly recommend The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History and The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer is on my TBR and will likely be my focus this year.

[Carly]

Here to recommend How The Word is Passed by Clint Smith for this category.

[Kaia]

Carly wrote: "Here to recommend How The Word is Passed by Clint Smith for this category."

I second this recommendation for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. I read it last year, and it is very powerful and well-written.

[Fran]

Here are a few books in this category I've appreciated:
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Just Mercy
Tastes Like War
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present

[Jessica]

I just combed my lists and folks have mentioned several of my top potential reads, but here's a few more potentials from me that haven't already been mentioned!

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
The Gene: An Intimate History

[Collin]

A few options on my library list that first got my attention:

- Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture
- Mardi Gras Indians
- Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western

[Lucilla]

I much prefer my history to be ancient (I'm a huge Roman history nerd), so I'm planning on reading When We Ruled: The Ancient and Medieval History of Black Civilisations for this task.

[Elizabeth]

I just picked up Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen for this challenge. I also recommend Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. But I am interested in several that have been proposed here, so I'm adding to my TBR!

[Celena]

Do they mean history book as in a text about a historical event? Or could I use a historical fiction? If the former, this may be the hardest challenge cause text books are painful for me.

If I can do historical fiction, then I may pick the "Joy Luck Club", "Kite Runner", "Beloved", or other classics on my TBR list.

[Teresa]

Celena, I'm reading a children's nonfiction book. My possibilities so far, from my tags/shelves are
Sit-In How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down
Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code
Revolution In Our Time Black Panther Party's Promise
Blue the history of the color as deep as the sea and as wide as the sky
If a Bus Could Talk The Story of Rosa Parks
The Juneteenth Story Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States
A kid's guide to arab American History
Overground Railroad
Shaped by her hands potter Maria Martinez

[Natalie Piccotti]

A friend suggested Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning so I'm going to try that one out!

[Serenity]

As I am also doing the "Around the Year" reading challenge, I have chosen This Place: 150 Years Retold because it also aligns with their prompt of "Canadian Author".

[Carole]

I also read The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King. I grew up in Colorado where the myth of the White Man is still celebrated. I can’t tell you how many times we took visitors to Lookout Mountain to see Buffalo Bill’s grave. Or visited the site of General George Custer’s last stand. I grew up questioning those myths and now recognize them for the harm they caused. Is the author angry? Probably. We all should be. So angry for the people and culture we have lost.

[Elizabeth]

Elizabeth wrote: "I recently got a copy of A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance by Stella Dadzie, and since I really want to get to it in the next couple of months I plan on using that ..."

I'm currently reading two that work for this task, so I'll count whichever I finish first.

I'm reading a physical copy of the one I originally mentioned, A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance by Stella Dadzie. It is so far an excellent book, and very accessible. The subject is obviously very heavy, but it's not too academic, and it's a great resource for anyone who hasn't spent as much time learning about the transatlantic slave trade or slavery in the Caribbean as they want to, or who wants to learn more about women's resistance to enslavement.

I'm also listening to the audiobook of The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris, narrated by Jaime Lincoln Smith. This one is honestly really fun, it has a great sense of humour, and it looks at the history of Black horror movies from the 60s to present, especially tropes and stereotypes and the ways those things have shifted over time.

[Aquaria]

Winfred Rembert & Erin Kelly – Chasing Me to the Grave. It's Rembert's memoir of growing up and becoming an artist in the Jim Crow South, his participation in the Civil Rights movement--and how he survived a near-lynching.

[Sherri]

I read The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. 5 stars

[Erin]

Read Recently and Recommend
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History Nur Masalha
Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression Robin DG Kelley
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South Michael Twitty

Want to Read
The Black Middle Ages: Race and the Construction of the Middle Ages Matthew X. Vernon
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Illyon Woo
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 Rashid Khalidi
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America Jessica B. Harris

[12]

Not a big nonfiction reader here, and when it comes to history books I tend to seek out microhistories or something with a more unusual and "quirky" focus rather than (often bleak) historical events.

I haven't read any of these so I can't recommend either way, just found some options through a cursory search.

∙ The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Jennifer 8. Lee
∙ Pandemic, Sonia Shah (several other options with this author)
∙ Curry: Eating, Reading and Race, Naben Ruthnum
∙ Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, Frederick Douglass Opie
∙ Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation, Elissa stein, Susan Kim (I'm unsure about this one, whether Susan Kim co-authors or... ?)
∙ I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us ⋯, Ed Yong
∙ Heart: A History, Sandeep Jauhar
∙ The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee
∙ The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema ⋯, Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman (recommended by Elizabeth which piqued my interest as a horror fan, but this author has other options as well)

Graphic Novels:
∙ Let's Make Ramen!, Hugh Amano, Susan Becan
∙ Let's Make Dumplings!, Hugh Amano, Susan Becan
^ According to descriptions, it seems they do touch upon some food history although definitely not the focus. Whether or not you'd like to count it for this prompt is up to your own discretion :) I just really wanted to find something similar to Victoria Grace Elliott's food history graphic novels that would fit the bill but haven't had much luck.

Illustrated Children's Books:
∙ Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, Carole Boston Weatherford
∙ The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, Nikole Hannah-Jones (there is a novel version as well)
∙ The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read, Rita Lorraine Hubbard
∙ Hammering for Freedom, Rita Lorraine Hubbard

[Mandie]

I read Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation for this.

[Judith]

I've just come across The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire by David Olusoga, who is a well-known historian on TV here in the UK.

This is a period of history I have a particular interest in, so I shall read that, but the same author's Black and British: A Forgotten History would fit the prompt too.

[Nid]

Would Brotherless Night by V V Ganeshanathan work for this one? It talks about the struggles of Srilankan Tamils during anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka.