Some books I have loved by African-American writers

As I write this, Minneapolis is on fire and there are protests all over the country because of police brutality (murder) towards black people and white people harassing black bird-watchers just because they can.  It seems that white supremacists are fomenting riots to destroy black neighborhoods and blame them for it.

Black lives matter.

My small contribution this evening is to give a list of a few of the books by black American writers that I recommend.  Most of them are nonfiction and most of them are pretty old, because other than Regency romances (the whitest of all fiction genres as far as I know), that's what I tend to read. I've listed them in the order that I read them, for lack of a better system.  

His Eye is on the Sparrow, by Ethel Waters.  Waters was a blues singer whose career began in the 1920's.  This is not a children's book, but I read it when I was in grade school.  I was a sheltered middle-class white girl growing up in the suburbs.  I think this book may have been the first memoir I ever read, and it began my love for the genre.  Waters' description of growing up poor in Harlem was my first real glimpse of a the many worlds within this country.  I had to wait for the internet to be invented before I could actually hear her singing.

Roots, by Alex Haley.  I saw the mini-series (the original 1977 one, not the recent one, which I haven't seen) along with pretty much everyone else in the country, before I read the book.  Haley traced his ancestry back through American slavery to Africa.  Although his research has been questioned, the book is fantastic whether it's history or historical fiction.

Autobiography of Malcolm X, also by Alex Haley.  I read this when I was an exchange student  living with a Mexican family.  I loved Mexico (and the family I was living with), but I remember feeling foolish for traveling to a different country when Malcolm was showing me so much yet to see in my own.  I think it's impossible to read this book and not fall a little in love with him.  Someone recently told me about Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012.  It apparently tells a more accurate version of Malcolm's life.  It's next on my reading list.

Manchild in the Promised Land, by Claude Brown.  An autobiographical novel (I'm not clear how much is autobiography and how much is novel) about growing up in Harlem in the 1940's.  I read this when I was a camp counselor in a teen program at a camp where a lot of the kids where low-income New Yorkers.  Their lives were tough in a different way than the narrator's, but I loved being able to talk to them about this book.  

 

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin.  I read this in college when I wanted to understand more about the civil rights movement.  Beautiful essay advocating for pluralism and explaining the need for it.

Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup.  An autobiographical slave narrative written by a man who was born in the north, kidnapped, brought south, and made into a slave.  The book was  turned into a movie a few years ago.  The movie was pretty good (at least until Brad Pitt appeared and made the whole thing seem like an over-acted high school play) but made some important changes from the book, I guess to make it palatable enough for a white audience.  Presenting 19th-century Philadelphia as a raceless utopia was just weird.  More importantly, the story Northup told in the book was much harsher than the movie captured.  For example, Northup described how he was forced to whip other slaves.  See the movie, but definitely don't skip the book.  

Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler.  Dystopian fiction, written in 1993 and set in 2020 and after.  It is scarily prescient (a presidential candidate with a slogan, "Let us help make American great again"), and unlike dystopias like The Hunger Games, it feels entirely realistic. Despite tragedy in the plot, it is ultimately a hopeful series and also just a fun read.  

Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin.  This novel is about a gay, black American living in Paris.  It's a classic that puts even the best modern novels to shame.  Beautiful sentences, symbolism that is important but not overdone . . . this book is simply a work of art for the ages.

Indigo, by Beverly Jenkins.  Historical romance set on the underground railroad.  Great characters, great romance, and honestly a relief to read an underground railroad book about black heroes and heroines instead of white saviors.

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas.  This is a young adult novel that is topical (the heroine witnesses police shoot her friend and has to decide whether to testify about what she saw) but is complex and compelling.  It also educated me about Tupac Shakur when I had not realized that there was anything worthwhile to know about him or his music.  (How wrong I was.)  

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  Essays written while Obama was president.  Lyrical.  Coates' most recent book is a novel, The Water Dancer.  I'm about 10,573 on the library waitlist for it, so I'll probably buy it.

The Last Black Unicorn, by Tiffany Haddish.  Haddish is a comedian turned actor, and I love everything she's ever been in.  The Last OG is one of the greatest TV shows I have ever seen. This is her memoir of growing up in foster care and her difficult young adulthood.  It's not funny, mostly, but it is a good read. 

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead.  Just barely alternative history about a runaway slave.  A bit of magical realism, a bit of Les Miserables. 

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