Ottakee Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I am looking for some good books to read/listen to that feature minority characters in central roles....and preferably ones written by minority authors. I would love books that are relatively clean (esp no explicit scenes) and are more just about regular life type things vs only about racism, etc. Any good ideas for me? I am a Christian so faith based books are good but not necessary. I like modern fiction, historical fiction, well done young adult books, books with humor would be great. Cozy mysteries are fine but nothing gory, etc. I am not into fantasy/sci fi, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 Books that have been translated to English would be great as well....even though I know that sometimes they can lose the richness of language in translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I really enjoyed The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. It's a YA (or younger?) story of African-American teenage brothers who play basketball, written in verse. It's a really enjoyable read and it's also very clean. (I was actually surprised by how clean it was, considering how a lot of teens talk when they're playing ball.) Anyway, I really liked it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I've just finished reading Yassmin Abdel-Magied's autobiography to dd. I don't usually enjoy autobiographies but this was an enjoyable read for both of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 The boy who harnessed the wind? There are a couple of very sad parts but it’s quite inspirational. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonhawk Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I can't vouch for these books so perhaps not as helpful, but if you are a "browser" type of person: Lee &b Low Publishers have a teen section that may fit some of the "well done young adult" category and hopefully be clean also. https://www.leeandlow.com/high-school/diversity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but "Cry, The Beloved Country" is one of my all-time favorite books. It takes place in South Africa where the black community is the majority. And it's written by a white South African author. But it discusses racial tensions and injustice, and is tragic and very thought-provoking. One of the main characters is a black Christian minister so it does have that emphasis in it too. It's a book that you'll never forget, once you read it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Almena’s Dogs - Black main character, white author afaik, old enough to be very clean. It’s a kid book, main character might be around 4th grade perhaps? But iirc you are a teacher? If so I think you might like it, even more likely to like it if you like dogs. There’s also a class that has kids with physical disabilities in some secondary character roles. It is oop so probably has to be found by inter library loan. Autobiographies: eg Wangari Maathai, Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, Trevor Noah, ... Braiding Sweetgrass , The Way to Rainy Mountain Why the Jews (Prager and Telushkin), Harry Kemelman’s Friday the Rabbi etc cozy mystery series featuring Jewish Rabbi main character amateur sleuth A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth ), the Joy Luck Club (? I can’t recall if it would be a problem of anything gory or explicit) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I enjoyed Small Island: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002TXZTNY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I'm not sure if its clean enough, but Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 11 hours ago, Pen said: the Joy Luck Club (? I can’t recall if it would be a problem of anything gory or explicit) There are some issues that might be a concern, although I don't recall how explicit. There's definitely a yuck factor in several of the mothers' stories. They grow and get stronger, though, and once all the threads are tied together at the end it's very satisfying. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I adore the Number One Ladies Detective Agency. One of my all-time favorites, ever, is Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. A heavier read but well worth it for sheer lyrical insight is Cry, the Beloved Country. If you do read it, send me a PM and I will tell you the powerful biblical allusion that comes into play. I did really enjoy Trevor Noah's book, Born a Crime, and I suspect you would enjoy it, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 This does get into current, heavier issues (a black teen girl watches police kill her childhood friend), but I thought The Hate U Give was well worth reading. It's not all heavy, and you do experience the girl's strong family support as she deals with a range of issues. My dd and I read the book last year, then we all watched the movie last weekend as it was free through Amazon. There were some tears flowing, but I think we all thought it was very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Jacqueline Woodson writes a lot of middle grade books, the ones I have read are good, especially Brown Girl Dreaming. Cry, the Beloved Country is really good! The author is white although South African. Becoming by Michelle Obama, although non-fiction is really good. Condelezza Rice’s autobiography is also really interesting. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is fabulous. He is a black attorney from the north who moved to the south and started the Equal Justice Initiative which works with those who were wrongly imprisoned, often on death row, due to non-existent or poor legal representation. If you would like something on civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr’s autobiography read by Lamar Burton is really, really good. There are recordings of the speeches Dr. King gave interspersed throughout. I agree with CuriousMom that Maya Angelou is a great writer but many of her books have graphic scenes in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 42 minutes ago, EKS said: I'm not sure if its clean enough, but Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is excellent. I did enjoy that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 Thanks for all of the ideas. I out several on hold and will wait until the inter library loans get back up and running for several more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I second Brown Girl Dreaming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Not a book, but I'd recommend the movie A Raisin in the Sun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beezus Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Purple Hibiscus, by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. The River Between, by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This Kenyan author has written a lot of other books too. The Dark Child, an autobiography by Camara Laye about growing up in western Africa. Guinea, I think. Songs from the River's Edge: Stories from a Bangladeshi Village, by Katie Gardner. Written by an outsider, but the author actually spent several months immersed in village life. It was a very detailed account of life and attitudes in rural Bangladesh, at least as it existed in the 1980s. Animal's People, by Indra Sinha. This novel is about a young man who suffers from physical deformities as the result of a Bhopal-type disaster. There is a lot of sadness here, but also a lot of love and devotion among the characters. This book may be a bit more gritty than what the original poster was looking for. I'm just mentioning it because even though it has been a few years since I read this, bits from the book still pop into my mind from time to time. The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney. This book is for kids, probably intended for about middle grade readers, but worth reading by anyone. The story takes place in Sudan. The Queen of Water by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Faranango. About an indigenous girl from Ecuador. I believe the story is fictional, but it was based on the life of Ms. Faranango. Maybe these are all rather heavy, but I thought they were worthwhile for the window they offered into the lives of others. I love the No. 1 Ladies' Detective stories too. The author is from Scotland I think, but he did live in Botswana for quite a while. These aren't particularly mysterious mysteries, but it is like meeting up with old friends every time a new installment comes out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 Keep the ideas coming. I am off to see which ones I can request from the library and overdrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 5 hours ago, EKS said: I'm not sure if its clean enough, but Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is excellent. So, so, so excellent. And get the audio, read by him. Makes it even better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 1 hour ago, J-rap said: Not a book, but I'd recommend the movie A Raisin in the Sun. It's a play that is actually available in book form. Our library had it and I liked it so much that I bought a copy. Yes, it is really good! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I also liked Trevor Noah's book, but the language is really harsh if you're not used to being around bad language. *Raises hand. There is a young reader's edition (which I've also purchased, but not read yet) that should be much gentler. He is an amazing storyteller with an interesting background. His book taught me more about apartheid than any class could ever teach. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) I read a lot of books by minorities and non-US books. (and SciFi - I'll leave those out!) - I seem to like to read books that are not about people like me? I like clean books generally, like not purposefully gory and no titillating or explicit s*x scenes or overuse of cursing. I don't so much mind some violence as it is integral to the story, more matter-of-fact descriptions of s*x, or the occasional swear word. So, PG-13? LOL. Anyway, so take these recommendations with that in mind. I'm currently reading two books that could fit your description, The Yellow House by Sarah Broom (nonfiction about the author's childhood in New Orleans, then what happened to her family with Katrina), and American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. I took a scan through my Goodreads list to see what books fit your description that I gave 4-5 stars (besides Born a Crime which I still SO highly recommend (audio!) - it really is only PG-13, you can handle it. I'm someone who felt they had to brain bleach after Catcher in the Rye because there was too much swearing, so...) Fiction Marjan Kamali, Together Tea; The Stationery Shop Ruth Ozeki - Tale for the Time Being Viet Thanh Nguyen - The Sympathizer Laura Esquivel - Like Water for Chocolate Kei Miller - Augustown Ayobami Adebayo - Stay with Me Aslam Nadeem - The Golden Legend Sofia Segovia - The Murmur of the Bees Tayari Jones - An American Marriage Mira Lee - Everything Here is Beautiful James Baldwin - If Beale Street Could Talk Laila Lalami - The Other Americans Sabahattin Ali - Madonna in a Fur Coat Saleema Nawaz - Bone and Bread Isabel Allende - Portrait in Sepia; Daughter of Fortune Louise Erdrich - The Round House; Beet Queen Amy Tan - The Joy Luck Club Marcela Serrano - Ten Women Juan Gabriel Vásquez - The Sound of Things Falling Haruki Murakami - After the Quake Kali Fajardo-Anstine - Sabrina and Corina Jhumpa Lahiri - The Namesake Naivo - Beyond the Rice Fields Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret Life of Bees Non Fiction Jung Chang - Wild Swans Carlos Eire - Waiting for Snow in Havana Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns Aeham Ahmad - The Pianist from Syria Bryan Stevenson - Just Mercy David Grann - Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI Edited June 19, 2020 by Matryoshka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 52 minutes ago, Matryoshka said: I read a lot of books by minorities and non-US books. (and SciFi - I'll leave those out!) - I seem to like to read books that are not about people like me? I like clean books generally, like not purposefully gory and no titillating or explicit s*x scenes or overuse of cursing. I don't so much mind some violence as it is integral to the story, more matter-of-fact descriptions of s*x, or the occasional swear word. So, PG-13? LOL. Anyway, so take these recommendations with that in mind. This is about the same level of books that I like to read. I don't need everything white washed....but I don't want extra explicit scenes or language just for shock value. I now have several more books to request. I am loving all of these lists I have read Born a Crime and really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Becoming by Michelle Obama. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 The Way to Rainy Mountain https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826304362/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_uSd7Eb2TPR7DP I decided to give this one an extra mention. But I don’t know if it would be on overdrive. And: Braiding Sweetgrass #hoopladigitalhttps://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11672096 If you can get hoopla from your library and maybe it is on overdrive too... And I want to second (third?) Number 1 Ladies Detective as a cozy mystery series that other than one of the books iirc doesn’t tend to be especially gory. The author is white male, born in Africa (Zimbabwe/Rhodesia) but book is set in Botswana with black female main character which I think he manages very well to handle different gender and race protagonist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 Unbowed: A Memoir https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307275205/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_48d7Eb9PNJMH6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.