After coming across the link on Eva’s blog, I ran down my own TBR list checking out what books might fit this interesting challenge. And the answer, sadly, was not that many. At least not those I added in recent months. And while I read more books by women than men last year, many of these women were of European descent. To be specific, out of the 114 books written by women that I read in 2012, only 23 were by women of colour. So I’m excited to join the Global Women of Color challenge, which Marilyn is hosting.
Here’s what the challenge says:
Subscribe or follow this challenge or blog.
Choose your level of commitment:
Structured: Read ten books by Global Women of Color, six of them from six different continents or regions.
Free Form: Read as many or as few books by Global Women of Color as you choose.
Blog: Simply follow and comment.
Leave a comment on the SIGNUP PAGE saying you are signing up. If you have decided on books to read, you may include them.
DEFINITIONS:
Women of color are descended from indigenous, non-European peoples everywhere. No test of proportion of “native blood” or genealogy.
I’ll be joining at the ‘Free Form’ level, and hope to read more than ten books.
Read:
1. Three Strong Women – Marie NDiaye
2. Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale – Belle Yang
3. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow – Wang Anyi
4. Malinche – Laura Esquivel
5. Red Scarf Girl – Jiang Ji-li
6. Sky Burial: An epic love story of Tibet – Xinran
7. Zeina – Nawal El Saadawi
8. Empress – Shan Sa
9. A spy in the house (The Agency #1) – YS Lee
10. Real World – Natsuo Kirino
11. Revenge – Yoko Ogawa
12. Funny in Farsi – Firoozeh Dumas
13. Late for Tea at the Deer Palace – Tamara Chalabi
14. Maya’s Notebook – Isabel Allende
15. The Red Chamber – Pauline A Chen
16. A Different Sky – Meira Chand
My pool:
The Lies That Build A Marriage: Stories of the Unsung, Unsaid and Uncelebrated in Singapore – Suchen Christine Lim (Singapore)
Bombay Time – Thrity N. Umrigar (India – US)
The Pleasure Seekers – Tishani Doshi (India)
Forgotten Country – Catherine Chung (Korea – US)
Inheritance – Lan Samantha Chang (China – US)
Evening is the whole day – Preeta Samarasan (Malaysia)
The song of everlasting sorrow : a novel of Shanghai – Wang Anyi (China)
Grotesque – Natsuo Kirino (Japan)
Zeina – Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt)
Mornings in Jenin – Susan Abulhawa (Palestine – US)
The sand fish : a novel from Dubai – Maha Gargash (Dubai)
Nervous conditions : a novel – Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)
So Long a Letter – Mariama Ba (Senegal)
Mr Fox – Helen Oyeyemi (Nigeria – UK)
Three Strong Women – Marie NDiaye (Senegal – France)
Silver Sparrow – Tayari Jones (African-American)
Lima Nights – Marie Arana (Peru – US)
Malinche – Laura Esquivel (Mexico)
What a wonderful lists of books. And thanks for signing up and writing about our Challenge. We are thrilled to have you with us. I have replaced my button by one that shows women of color actually reading. You can get it on the blog and also sign up with your projected list there.
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Thanks for hosting the challenge! It definitely has made me more conscious about trying to diversify my reading.
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This is a very very impressive list! One that I also envy your library has such a great stock of diverse books around the world! It would be difficult for me to do the same in my borough library. 😦
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Yes, I wish I had a library that had such books, too. I have done well finding books by women of color on used books websites like Better World Books, often for only $3 or $4, and on Paperback Books Swaps. Go to Library Thing and ask where it is available, new or used. And occasionally I ask my library to get me something on interlibrary loan.
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Interlibrary loans are pretty awesome, aren’t they? I also like that my library has a ‘request a purchase’ form on their website, and you can bet that I’ve used that a few times!
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Yes I am indeed lucky! Some of these are ebooks, and a couple of them are actually ebooks from the Singapore library. I love that I have this additional outlet to access!
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