etumukutenyak: (skull with nails)
As another character says, "And what a pair of names for one such as yourself, eh?"; Blanche White is a black woman who has a business that brings her in contact with lots of other people, perfect for stumbling across mysteries and solving them. She sounds like the kind of person I'd like to hang out with in real life, except for that tendency to find dead bodies that all sleuths seem to have. An excellent read, and worth tracking down in the nearest used bookstore.



Other AoC that I recall reading:

Madhur Jaffrey, Tastes of India
Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Steven Barnes, all of his books
CherrĂ­e Moraga/Gloria AnzaldĂșa, This Bridge Called My Back
Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Alex Haley, Roots
Malcolm Gladwell, Blink
Audre Lorde, Zami, A New Spelling of My Name
Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy
etumukutenyak: (skull with nails)
I've seen some interesting books suggested on LJ, for reading books about/by PoC, and I think I'll start with some of the books I have read that are not pure white.

"The Short Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz
"Red Azalea" by Anchee Min
(which reminds me of "Life and Death in Shanghai" by Nien Cheng, one of my all-time favorites. I must find it and re-read it.)
"Devil in a Blue Dress" (and other Easy Rawlins books) by Walter Moseley. My dad picked them up from the bookstores in Grand Central, and infected me.
Octavia Butler, in a stack of books ordered all at once, so I can't recall which ones are about what.


Others to be added once I retrieve them from the dusty vaults of memory. I am looking forward to reading Barbara Neely's "Blanche White" series, the first one of which I've ordered.

ETA: On the way home I realized I'd read a fair number of writings by African authors in my advanced French classes during high school. That's probably one reason why some international authors aren't better known in the US: if it has to be translated, it somehow loses appeal. Anyway, that's when I first read of the trickery of Anansi, the poetry of Senghor, and the short stories of several authors whose names escape me. I shall track them down.

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