Book picks similar to
Bizarro Worlds: Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude by Stacie Williams
authors-of-color
comics
fiction-advocate-originals
za-o-lit-african-diaspora
The Poetry of Healing: A Doctor's Education in Empathy, Identity, and Desire
Rafael Campo - 1997
This work aims to bridge the clinical distance of medicine to face the pain of mortality, the brokenness of society and the vulnerability of human beings.
Memorial
Bryan Washington - 2020
Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson's a Black day care teacher, and they've been together for a few years -- good years -- but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it. Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they've ever known. And just maybe they'll all be okay in the end. Memorial is a funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you're supposed to be, and the limits of love.
Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist
Sunil Yapa - 2016
It quickly becomes clear that the throng determined to shut the city down--from environmentalists to teamsters to anarchists--are testing the patience of the police, and what started as a peaceful protest is threatening to erupt into violence.Over the course of one life-altering afternoon, the lives of seven people will change forever: foremost among them police chief Bishop, the estranged father Victor hasn't seen in three years, two protestors struggling to stay true to their non-violent principles as the day descends into chaos, two police officers in the street, and the coolly elegant financial minister from Sri Lanka whose life, as well as his country's fate, hinges on getting through the angry crowd, out of jail, and to his meeting with the president of the United States.In this raw and breathtaking novel, Yapa marries a deep rage with a deep humanity, and in doing so casts an unflinching eye on the nature and limits of compassion.
In Black and White
Alexandra Wilson - 2020
Slower this time, taking in the details of everyone's faces. I began to play the game I'd played my whole life: spot the black person. Of course, I wish it didn't matter what I looked like or where I came from, but it was obvious that no one there looked like me.'Alexandra is 25, mixed-race and from Essex. As a trainee criminal barrister, she finds herself navigating a world and a set of rules designed by a privileged few. This is her story.We follow Alexandra through a criminal justice system still divided by race and class. We hear about the life-changing events that motivated her to practice criminal law, beginning with the murder of a close family friend and her own experiences of knife crime. She shows us how it feels to defend someone who hates the colour of your skin or someone you suspect is guilty, and the heart-breaking cases of youth justice she has worked on. We see what it's like for the teenagers coerced into county line drug deals and the damage that can be caused when we criminalise teenagers.Her story is unique in a profession still dominated by a privileged section of society with little first-hand experience of the devastating impact of violent crime.
WHO CUT THE CHEESE? An Amazing Parody About Change And How We Can Get Our Hands On Yours
Stilton Jarlsberg - 2000
And since you're being compared to a rat in this book, the whole "Maze" analogy works like a charm.When you come to see the "Psycho-babble on the Wall," you can discover for yourself how to deal with change in the workplace, and how to find the Cheese that will make your life joyous and fulfilling.Failing that, if you were forced by your boss to read "Who Moved My Cheese?" before getting a pay cut or a pink slip, "Who Cut The Cheese?" will at least give you the last laugh!NOTE: "Who Cut the Cheese?" is a small gem - meaning that it's roughly 1400 pages shorter than "War and Peace," but roughly the same length as the teeny tiny original book (around 80 pages). That's why the price is low, but the "laughs per page" ratio is high!
10 Lessons from Hindu History in 10 Episodes: Tales of Grit, Heroism and Valour
Sandeep Balakrishna - 2020
This among others is a fundamental reason why a thorough and truthful study and retelling of this history is needed. The study of Hindu history is also a study of values and inspiration and a profound spiritual yearning that subconsciously continues to guide Hindus. It is also what makes India a unique and distinctive country which is not primarily defined by its politics but by its philosophy and spirituality. The essays in this work both tangentially and explicitly bring out these aspects. "10 Lessons from Hindu History in 10 Episodes" is envisaged as a popular narrative without overlooking or taking liberties with historical accuracy.
History of the World
Marvin Perry - 1984
The textbook's lively prose and clear organization help students make the connection that transform facts into an exiting, comprehensive story.Hardcover, 984 Pages.
Besharam: On Love and Other Bad Behaviors
Priya Alika Elias - 2019
. . This book is pithy, it's smart. I'm glad it exists." —Fariha Róisín, author of Like a Bird Essays by an emerging writer that touch on themes of family, culture, body image, sex, and feminism Besharam roughly translates to "shameless" in Hindi. This collection from Indian writer Priya-Alika Elias is a bold, sassy, and brilliantly written book on love, dating, body image, consent, and other issues that women today relate to and men should be thinking about. Elias reflects on, and challenges, the ideas of how women are told by society to be humble, obedient, and ashamed of their actions and desires. Her writing is fresh, feminist, and thought-provoking, disrupting taboos and exploring what it means to be a young woman in today's world.
Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream
Blair Imani - 2020
Through gripping and accessible historical narrative paired with illustrations, author and activist Blair Imani examines the largely overlooked impact of The Great Migration and how it affected--and continues to affect--Black identity and America as a whole. Making Our Way Home explores issues like voting rights, domestic terrorism, discrimination, and segregation alongside the flourishing of arts and culture, activism, and civil rights. Imani shows how these influences shaped America's workforce and wealth distribution by featuring the stories of notable people and events, relevant data, and family histories. The experiences of prominent figures such as James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), Ella Baker, and others are woven into the larger historical and cultural narratives of the Great Migration to create a truly singular record of this powerful journey.
When Rap Spoke Straight to God
Erica Dawson - 2018
There’s Wu-Tang and Mary Magdelene with a foot fetish, Lil’ Kim and a self-loving Lilith. Slurs, catcalls, verses, erasures—Dawson asks readers, “Just how far is it to nigger?” Both grounded and transcendent, the book is reality and possibility. Dawson’s work has always been raw; but, When Rap Spoke Straight to God is as blunt as the answer to that earlier question: “Here.” Sometimes abrasive and often abraded, Dawson doesn’t flinch. A mix of traditional forms where sonnets mash up with sestinas morphing to heroic couplets, When Rap Spoke Straight to God insists that while you may recognize parts of the poem’s world, you can’t anticipate how it will evolve. With a literal exodus of light in the book’s final moments, When Rap Spoke Straight to God is a lament for and a celebration of blackness. It’s never depression; it’s defiance—a persistent resistance. In this book, like Wu-Tang says, the marginalized “ain’t nothing to f--- with.”
If You Love It, It Will Grow: A Guide To Healthy, Beautiful Natural Hair
Phoenyx Austin - 2012
Phoenyx Austin, a physician and natural hair guru, we now have a fabulous book that explains how to grow and maintain healthy and longer afro-textured hair. And with a head of gorgeous natural hair herself, Dr. Phoenyx proves that she's not only talking the talk, she's walking the walk!In this book, you will learn:• How afro-textured hair grows and why it's unique from other hair types • How to stop hair breakage and hair loss that plagues many women with afro-textured hair • How to best use nutrition and other health-based principles to maximize hair growth potential • How to develop a life-long and flexible hair regimen based in holistic hair care • How to leverage the power of Ayurveda, an ancient form of alternative medicine that has helped women grow beautiful hair for thousands of years In truth, If You Love It, It Will Grow is more than a book, it's a philosophy! There is a great interconnectedness between how women feel about their hair and how they feel about themselves. Growing healthy, longer and beautiful natural hair is absolutely within your reach. It's all about giving your hair what it needs- that extra bit of TLC. If You Love It, It Will Grow! Praise for Dr. Phoenyx Austin "If You Love It, It Will Grow isn't simply a clever title...it's the truth! I hope that you enjoy If You Love It, It Will Grow as much as I have and that Dr. Phoenyx's expert advice is as good to your afro-textured hair as it has been to mine!" - Jamilah Lemieux. Editor, EBONY.com “A wonderful addition to natural hair and I highly recommend that you check it out!” Natural Chica (aka Mae)
Wages Of Sin
Suzy Spencer - 2000
Martin and her boyfriend, William M. Busenburg, killed Busenberg's best friend to fulfill Stephanie's fantasy of murdering someone. Martin, raised as a devout Southern Baptist, and Busenburg, a convert to Evangelical Christianity, were arrested within days of the murder. Busenburg confessed twenty-two months later and was sentenced to 40 years. Martin confessed five months after Busenburg and received a 50-year sentence.Includes 16 pages of never-before-seen photos.
Darkly: Blackness and America’s Gothic Soul
Leila Taylor - 2019
The persistence of white supremacy and the ubiquity of Black death feeds a national culture of terror and a perpetual undercurrent of mourning.If the gothic narrative is metabolized fear, if the goth aesthetic is romanticized melancholy, what does that look and sound like in Black America?
The Devil of Williamsburg
Allison Yarrow - 2013
There, an insular community of Satmar Hasidim shirk the Internet, the president and the rules of secular America, even hiding crimes within the community from police and the courts. The narrative centers on two women—the traditional heroine, a young and beautiful newlywed, who challenged her community's rules and her abuser's many supporters to throw him behind bars, and the abuser’s wife, who continues to stand beside her husband and profess his innocence. Convicted sex abuser Nechemya Weberman's 103-year sentence was a record for a Hasidic man in a Brooklyn court and a victory for Brooklyn’s longtime district attorney, who had been accused of cowtowing to religious leaders. The story also provides a rare glimpse into the cloistered Satmar Hasidic community, which claims to be the world's largest ultra-Orthodox group with 150,000 followers worldwide. Cover designed by Evan Twohy.
A Map to the Door of No Return
Dionne Brand - 2001
It is an insightful, sensitive and poetic book of discovery.Drawing on cartography, travels, narratives of childhood in the Caribbean, journeys across the Canadian landscape, African ancestry, histories, politics, philosophies and literature, Dionne Brand sketches the shifting borders of home and nation, the connection to place in Canada and the world beyond.The title, A Map to the Door of No Return, refers to both a place in imagination and a point in history – the Middle Passage. The quest for identity and place has profound meaning and resonance in an age of heterogenous identities.In this exquisitely written and thought-provoking new work, Dionne Brand creates a map of her own art.