I decided that in honor of Pride month, and to put our money where our mouths are when uplifting Black voices and supporting Black businesses, I would read only Black and/or Queer books this month, and rec them each day on Insta and FB, linking to a Black bookseller each time. I quickly realized that I had much more to say about some of these books than an instagram caption, so moved it to the blog. Below are the posts I've already made this month, and watch this space for future posts!
NK Jemisin, The Fifth Season
Today it's N.K. Jemisin's THE FIFTH SEASON. (Pictured is the sequel lol).
She's a science fiction juggernaut. Won the Hugo and ripped my heart out all in one go.
DONT SHOP AMAZON. Go to BOOKSHOP.ORG and they'll send proceeds to indie bookstores.
To buy this from The Lit. Bar--a black owned bookshop, visit https://bookshop.org/books/the-fifth-season/9780316229296
This book has a black author, black characters, AND queer characters. Perfect for pride month and supporting Black Lives. Though it's listed as sci-fi, I personally found that it had a fantasy feel/vibe to it, which is more in my wheelhouse. Her worldbuilding is unparalleled.
Jasmine Guillory, The Proposal
Today's book lets you do your part to support black authors and stores while escaping into some rom-com goodness. It's THE PROPOSAL by JASMINE GUILLORY. (I loaned out my copy lol)
Jasmine Guillory is a STANFORD LAWYER turned novelist. This particular book is on Reese Witherspoon's booklist and begins with a woman facing down a baseball jumbotron proposal that she does NOT want! Romance ensues with the dashing Latino man who gets her out of that stadium asap.
Today I'm linking to CAFE CON LIBROS on bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/books/the-proposal-9780399587689/9780399587689. Buy paperback, audio book, ebook from them! You can also go to their website!
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, They Were Her Property
Yesterday I needed a quick rom com escape. Today is Breonna Taylor's birthday. Today I've been angry. So today you get THEY WERE HER PROPERTY by STEPHANIE JONES ROGERS.
This book is selling like hotcakes both in and outside academia. Dr. Jones-Rogers took the history of capitalism out of white male hands and showed us all that white women have always been complicit in slavery, and not just by allowing it to happen. They were ACTIVE investors, owners, abusers. They did not live in their tower, oblivious to the sins of slavery. They did the sinning. Their daughters would enshrine the pro-slavery Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The cycle continues--what have you done to break it?
It's time to get uncomfortable, white women. It's hard to read what Jones-Rogers recounts (honestly, the slaveowners say it proudly themselves in journals and letters), but her beautiful writing won't let you put the book down.
Today's black owned bookstore is Mahogany. https://www.mahoganybooks.com/9780300251838
Ta-Nehesi Coates, Between the World and Me and/or Black Panther
Listen, I didn't call Mr. Coates our generation's James Baldwin, Toni Morrison did!!
CHOOSE UR WEAPON, depending on your mood. BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME is a poignant and heart-wrenching (and brief--this book speeds by) letter to his son about life as a black man in America.
If you need some fiction in your life, check out his run of the BLACK PANTHER comics. Like Coogler's movie version, he digs into questions of imperialism. (Coates also wrote a Captain America volume which I just now learned about????)
Today's bookstore is Black-owned Pyramid Books https://pyramidbooks.indielite.org/
E. Patrick Johnson, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South
Here's the tea: there is no universal experience for black gay men in the Deep South. E. PATRICK JOHNSON compiles oral histories of sixty different gay black men from all walks of life in SWEET TEA: BLACK GAY MEN OF THE SOUTH. Some stayed closeted, choosing the comforts of their intimate, local communities, while others braved the loneliness of the big city if it meant the ability to come out.
In Johnson's interviews, the South is not backward or repressed. It is as alive and unique as the men within these pages.
https://bookshop.org/books/sweet-tea-black-gay-men-of-the-south-revised/9780807872260 This book's a lil harder to find, but I found it at The Lit.Bar
Selena Montgomery, Reckless
Today I'll share an in-progress read of mine--RECKLESS by Selena Montgomery aka Ms. STACEY ABRAMS HERSELF.
We love romantic suspense! Hotshot lawyer returns to her hidden past, immediately clashes with local detective because there's been a murder, obviously!
It might just be a hobby of hers but so far it holds up! It's not an earth-shattering novel but that's not what we want in romance anyway. Will share a link to a bookstore in the morning I am very tired.
Chuck Brown, et. al, Bitter Root
BUCKLE TF UP for BITTER ROOT, co-written by UofSC History's own
Chuck Brown.
Family of monster hunters. Harlem Renaissance. MONSTERS that feed on hate and prejudice to transform humans. MOVIE RIGHTS with Ryan Coogler as a producer.
Purchase it you fools!!
Link from Cafe Con Libros, single issues from Image comics https://bookshop.org/books/bitter-root-volume-1-family-business/9781534312128
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
Falling behind!!! Turns out posting every day is a lot, but we're still reading only black and queer books this month!
If you haven't read OCTAVIA BUTLER and you call yourself a sci-fi expert....wyd?? PARABLE OF THE SOWER is a dystopian sci-fi novel in which a teenaged girl begins to write her own religious tenants based on the violent realities surrounding her.
Jericho Brown, The Tradition
I don't wanna overwhelm y'all with history books and I've barely read for pleasure the past 5 years so I've recruited my well-read friend Catherine for today's post. Her words below, and buy from Elizabeth's Bookshop here https://bookshop.org/books/the-tradition-9781556594861/9781556594861 . . Jericho Brown won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for poetry with his collection "The Tradition." In his poems, he explores the evil everyday things (or “traditions”) to which we’ve become accustomed. His poem “Bullet Points” echoes what we’re seeing each day in news, social media feeds, and life this week in California and Atlanta.
Poetry is hard for me to read, because it’s punctuated with emotion. Poetry is good for me to read because it’s punctuated with emotion. This collection did something for me that incessant Instagram and Twitter feeds won’t ever do.
Jericho Brown is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing and the Director of Creative Writing at Emory University in Atlanta.
My friend Jennifer helpfully shared a video of Brown in conversation with UofSC professor Nikky Finney!
From now on, I will be adding each book as its own post!