Favorite Reads BY AUTHORs of color
by culture staff | illustration and design by nina miller
The television and film industry is feeling the pressure to diversify the cast and stories they showcase, but literature is also not immune to this growing trend. Included in this section is a list of several works by people of color that provide compelling stories, emotional themes and break the mold of undiversified media.
“The Icarus Girl” By Helen Oyeyemi (2005)
“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” By Lisa See (2005)
8-year-old Jessamy Harrison is biracial, born to a Nigerian mother and an English father. She is an unusual child, prone to temper tantrums and prefers to stay alone in her room writing haiku than play with other children. On a family visit to Nigeria, she meets and becomes playmates with Titiola, whom Jess calls TillyTilly. However, when she returns home, TillyTilly is suddenly back in England as well. This novel is a disturbing depiction of childhood, as well as the lure of the unknown.
Lily and Snow Flower are a laotong pair; they are meant to share a bond deeper than siblings or friends, deeper even than husband and wife. Set in the 1800s in China, readers follow Lily’s life, as she and Snow Flower share the joy and suffering of foot binding, marriage, children and ultimately a betrayal that could shatter their relationship. See masterfully leads from the horrors of the Taiping Rebellion, to the wonders of friendship and back again.
“North of Beautiful” By Justina Chen (2009)
“A Thousand Splendid Suns” By Khaled Hosseini (2007)
Terra Cooper is a teen artist stifled by her verbally-abusive father and a port-wine stain obscuring one side of her face. She gets into a car accident and in her recovery crosses paths with Jacob, a Chinese-born adoptee who is also searching for an identity outside of life’s struggles. Using cartography, art, a trip to China and (surprisingly) caramel macchiatos, Terra reroutes her own future.
Hosseini tackles the plight of Afghan women in this New York Times bestseller, while also chronicling 30 years of Afghan history. Born a generation apart, Mariam and Laila are brought together by war. The women are further joined by shared opposition against their abusive husbands. Hosseini explores joy, war, suffering and how the love that one woman feels for her family can be powerful enough to lead to courageous acts of self-sacrifice.
22 | the buzz
