It’s week 4 of Nonfiction November! You can find all the details here
This week’s topic:
Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).
Immigration and citizenship has been on my mind of late.
I read a lot of fiction about the immigration experience (like Americanah, The Namesake, The Book of Unknown Americans), but not much in terms of nonfiction. These are some of the books I have read that fit into this category.
The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian was a short read about ‘citizens of the world’ including the buying and selling of passports, and the Bidoon, who are the stateless people of countries like the United Arab Emirates.
I read The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea a while ago (it was published in 2004) but I still remember the horror of reading this book about this group of men who attempt to cross from Mexico into Arizona.
The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe was a fascinating tale about a $40 million smuggling business run by a middle-aged woman known as Sister Ping.
Some books I would like to read:
Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives (Voice of Witness) compiled by Peter Orner
Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them by Philippe Legrain
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero
The Boys from Little Mexico: A Season Chasing the American Dream by Steve Wilson
We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future by Deepa Iyer
The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee
Do you have any recommendations?
I actually grabbed In the Country We Love the other day when it was an Audible deal. Normally I rarely like their deals, but that one sounds like it would be an interesting read.
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[…] #nonficnov: Immigration reads […]
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Oh wow, these sound amazing. I’m especially interested in The Cosmopolites — I was reading about the Bidoon recently and wanted to know more. Oh what a great list. You are so dangerous to my TBR pile!!
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