I was originally going to put hipster in the place of (insert you here) as sarcasm, but for all those who crave to be oppositional to everything it's changed. Cool? Let's get started.
A few days ago, I saw my youthful self sit right in front of me on the train. She wore skinny jeans and combat boots, a vest adorned with conscious buttons and earrings shaped like Africa. I snickered when I remembered that my style used to combat itself this way, my outfit a clear display of goth, bohemia, skater and intellectual.
I wanted to know and be everything.
What really drew me to her was what she was reading: "Native Son" by Richard Wright. I was blown away. It was summer time and a teenager bereft of academic obligation is rarely seen riding the train with a book--or a book like "Native Son." I instantly tapped her, "Great read. How are you liking it so far?"
She smiled, "I love it. My friends and I are all reading it. We've started a book club."
(Add another gasp here.)
Even when I was fifteen, I couldn't witness a girl, my age in my neighborhood, planting their reading eyes on anything that didn't start with "hood" or sound like "How To Get Your Man."
Once you've witnessed someone/thing once, it becomes a reoccurrence.
For a week, I've peered at texts in the hands of girls, who would've been nerds in the 90's, but are cold cool in this day and age--of hispter-bohemia-vintage-fashionista grunge. I'm impressed.
& considering I'm always asked what I'm reading...I've decided to scribe a list. For the poetry slam, open mic, jazz club, literary reading, writing major, cafe-latte, eclectic, painter/scriber/dancer/mathematician/business persons (did I cover enough?); these texts are ALL conversation starters. Get acquainted:
1) Drown by Junot Diaz
2) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
3) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
4) Assata by Assata Shakur
5) I Am The Darker Brother by Brown Poets & Edited by Arnold Adoff
6) Everything Langston Hughes ever Wrote
7) Anything Nikki Giovanni Scribed
8) A Quick Killing in Art by Pheobe Hoban (Basquiat & His Art Dealers)
9) Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough (Harlem Children's Zone's Story)
10) Ordinary Resurrections by Johnathan Kozol
11) There are no Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz
12) The Known World by Edward P. Jones
13) Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
14) The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
15) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
16) Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
17) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
18) The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo
19) All J. California Cooper's Short Story Compilations
20) Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
21) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
22) It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop by M.K. Asante
23) Never Drank the Kool-Aid by Toure
24) The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
25) I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde
26) Strivers Row by Kevin Baker
27) Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison
28) Race Matters by Cornel West
29) Creating Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat
30) Colored Girls... by Ntozake Shange
31) Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
32) The Other Side of Paradise by Stacey-Ann Chin
33) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
34) Big Machine by Victor Lavalle
35) Kindred by Octavia Butler
37) Sugar by Bernice McFadden
38) Milk in My Coffee by Eric Jerome Dickey
39) No Disrespect by Sistah Souljah
40) The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
41) Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic by Michael Eric Dyson

42) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
43) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
44) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Linda Brent
45) The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake
46) A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
47) Black Girl Lost by Donald Goines
48) Roots by Alex Haley
49) A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
50) Invisible Life by E. Lynn Harris
51) Ain't I a Women? Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks
52) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
53) Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
54) In the Meantime by Iyanla Vanzant
55) Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde
56) Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
57) Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
58) Monster by Walter Dean Myers
59) Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
60) The Street by Ann Petry
61) Asphalt by Carl Hancock Rux
62) Push by Sapphire
63) FlyyGirl by Omar Tyree
64) Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
65) Fences by August Wilson
66) Our Nig by Harriet Wilson
67) The Autobiography of Malcolm X
68) Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
69) Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
70) The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
71) Head Off and Split by Nikki Finney
72) The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
73) Small Island by Andrea Levy
74) Decoded by Jay-Z
75) The Autobiography of Medgar Evers
76) More Beautiful and More Terrible by Imani Perry
77) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
78) The Revisionist by Helen Schulman
79) After Theory by Terry Eagleton
80) When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
81) Our Kind of People by Lawrence Otis Graham
82) White Teeth by Zadie Smith
83) The Warmth of Other Sons by Isabel Wilkerson
84) The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
85) Jason & Kyra by Dana Davidson
86) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
87) No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
88) 1984 by George Orwell
89) You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down by Alice Walker
90) The Black Rose by Tananarive Due
91) The Conversation by Hill Harper
& some swag for the writers:
92) The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner
93) Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
94) Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul
95) The Nighttime Novelist by Joseph Bates
96) Ready, Set, Novel by Baty, Grant, Stewart-Streit
97) Writing to Heal the Soul by Susan Zimmerman
98) Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
99) Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg
100) No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty
More authors you need to GET HIP TO, if you haven't: Amiri Baraka, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Rita Dove, Henry Dumas, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Marcus Garvey, Henry Louis Gates, June Jordan, Jamaica Kincaid, Haki R. Madhubuti, Claude McKay, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Phillis Wheatley, Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
P.S.- I've read everything here and so much more...Some of the authors I mention have more than one notable, but I've only got one-hundred spots! Anything I missed? Let me know in the comments!
11 comments:
great post erica! iv only read 20. pretty lame for an hu english major but *shrug* lol. now #85 jason and kyra really surprised me. i read it in HS and as much as i enjoyed reading a fun, love story abt contemporary teens who were actually like me, i thought the writing was terrible. re-read it recently and i still think she blows at capturing teen vernacular. we werent saying dynomite and fantastic in 03 lol. for teen fiction, angela johnsons the first part last was my absolute fave back then, u should check it out. still good even as an adult :)
Thanks so much. I was actually looking for another good read that actually had substance to it :)
`Currently reading "The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon
`"There Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neal Hurston
`The Bible
`The author John Henrik Clarke has sparked my attention. I'm excited to read his works. Have you?
@Loren Zora was #52 woman! The Bible is a given, but I haven't read Fanon or Clarke yet. *adds to list*
I think the list is quite comprehensive. One suggestion that comes to mind is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Also,I love that Edwidge was included.All of her books are so good. Thanks for this..
This is an excellent list, someone invested in your nurturing and academic growth. Reading is knowledge and gives true power and insight, thanks my sister. I am going get stepping on this recommended list. Little Bee is a very good read. Thanks
@RandomThoughts Ooooo, I'll have to check that out. & I love me some Edwidge! You're welcome.
@Anonymous Little Bee is an amazing book! How could I forget? *runs to add it*
Too much awesome on one list Riva! I've read sooo many of these books. I just finished "Kindred" and recently got into Octavia Butler. I'm mesmerized. I'm also glad to see "The Bluest Eye" near the top. Thanks for making this list. Now, whenever I need something new to read, I have something to refer to.
I've read a few of these authors, though not some of these particular books. Sadly I have some of your selections waiting on my Kindle app. I need to get a move on!
I have books that I could name that you should check out, but I think I am inspired to make my own list of books for my blog. I will definitely send that link when I get to write that post.
And I wanted to start a book club when I was a teenager, but no one I knew was as nerdy as me.
You have some wonderful titles on the list! A lot of them I've read but I see some I need to get. Maybe once I finish this dissertation, I'll actually have time to read! I'll be sharing this list for sure!!
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