What Are You Reading? Let's Discuss

At Color Online we recommend and review works by female authors of color because we believe these stories should highlighted and discussed. However that doesn't mean that's all we read. If you check our personal blogs you will see we read many different authors. I wanted to take a moment to see what everyone is reading? Have you read a book because it was featured here at Color Online?

If so what book and did you like it? What book are you looking forward to reading?

Right now I am reading Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Its soooo good. I am loving it. This is Rhodes first middle grade novel. She is an award winning author of adult fiction. When I heard Ninth Ward was coming out I was so excited. I've never read any of the Rhodes adult fiction, though I've heard is very good (especially Voodoo Dreams) and each novel is better than the last. Ninth Ward comes out August 16th.

I just finished Laura Lippman's new mystery I'd Know You Anywhere. The book comes out Aug. 17 An advanced copy was sent to the bookstore I work at. (preview copies are the only perk to working at a bookstore) Lippman's new book is really good, I was up very late reading. Though I may be a little biased because I love Lippman's writing. The stand alone mysteries are great though I highly recommend starting with her Tess Monaghan series. The first book is Baltimore Blues.

One last question? Do you finish every book you start? I used to but not anymore. When a book starts giving me a case of readers potty mouth its time to put it down and let it go.

Sunday Salon: Healing

Hello all, it's Sunday and it's been one of the most peaceful Sundays I've have in a longtime. Does anyone listen to James Taylor? Do you know the song, “Enough To Be On Your Way”? It's based on Taylor's real experience of burying his sister in his hometown. Alice was a free spirit girl. A few lyrics are what Alice told him. She said, "It's enough to be on your way. Home, build it behind your eyes, carry keep it in your heart safe..." Today, it's enough to move on.

I had knee surgery week before last and it went well. Follow-up was Friday. The doctor and I came to a compromise. I'll take it easy for another week and start physical therapy and he signed off for me to return to work the beginning of August. Some of you know I've been actively trying to lose weight. Folks, obesity kills. I'm happy to share I'm 17.8 lbs lighter. I believe I can heal and it's been a long time coming.

Open discussion. Call or write someone you haven't talked to in awhile. There are three young women I plan to tell I love today including a much loved goddaughter.

Women Writers of Color: Lola Shoneyin

Full name: Titilola Shoneyin

Birth date: 26 February 1974

Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Website/blog: www.lolashoneyin.com

Genre: Fiction, poetry

WiP or most recently published work:
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

Writing credits:
So All the Time I Was Sitting on an Egg; 1997 (Poems)
Song of a Riverbird; 2002 (Poems)
For the Love of Flight 2010 (Poems)

How frequently do you update your site?
When there’s news...

Is your site designed for reader interaction?
No, I tend to communicate with readers through email and my fan page on facebook.

Post of note, something in particular you want readers to check out:
The poems on my website

Top 5 reads you’re looking forward to reading in 2010?
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel by Aimee Bender
Overcoming Speechlessness by Alice Walker
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell
Swallow by Sefi Atta

100 words or less how would you describe your work?
I enjoy writing about women, and the experiences of African women in particular because she is underrepresented in literature. For too long, she has been defined by cliché, sketchily captured on magazine covers that I fear the world is missing out on her rich, exciting, sometimes unique complexity. When writing therefore, it is important that I capture her ways, her words, her sighs and her triumphs, her humour. A young lady once told me that The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives was too raunchy. I was taken aback because I could only remember one occasion in the book where I had to describe a woman deriving pleasure from sex after years of painful, uncomfortable intercourse. Now that bit had to be sexy, didn’t it?

100 words on less please share your thoughts on one of the following topics:
I have a lot to thank black women writers for because it was reading their work that gave me the courage to express myself in verse. It was the honesty of their writing that told that maybe, just maybe, my story was important too. Where would I be without Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon? At university, my thesis was based on the African presence in this illuminating novel. I worked tirelessly and got an ‘A’, all the time driven by the fact that this single novel had shown me, an African, how significant my Africanness was. It was both a humbling and a liberating discovery.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

Shoneyin's debut novel of a modern Nigerian polygamist family is refreshing. Though some may be turned off by the idea of polygamy, it is a revelation to read of the dynamics of such a relationship. Baba Segi has four wives, Iya Segi, Iya Tope, and Iya Femi, and the newest, Bolanle. Bolanle is college educated unlike the other three wives and this brings her much jealousy and animosity. All the while the first and third wives, Iya Segi and Iya Femi, respectively, are plotting Bolanle's demise, their own secrets are about to be exposed. Things start to unravel for the first three wives when after years of trying, Bolanle does not get pregnant. Bearing offspring is a great source of pride for Baba Segi and Bolanle's supposed barrenness is hurting it.

How the story unfolds is in chapters that reveal back story on each wife before and after she married Baba Segi. Each of these women were filled with various desires like learning to read and being educated, the affections of a young man, and even wealth. The wives are the important characters here and that's fine because a tale involving polygamy does bear more implications on the status of women. It's pleasing that the female characters are fully realized and even the two most vindictive are shown to have some humanity. Baba Segi was probably the type of characterization you'd expect of a wealthy polygamist-- demanding and unattractive. Shoneyin has written this novel with great honesty and realism and it was a joy to read. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is a fabulous piece of literature from a fantastic writer poised to have a brilliant career.

disclosure: I received this book from the publisher.

Harlem Summer

Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers 2007
Scholastic

Incredible Quote "Mark, you are a young black man. Sometimes, living here in Harlem, we walk on the sunny side of the street and sometimes we walk on the shady side. I know that because I've been black a whole lot longer than you. Anything you've seen-I've lived. But I also know that you got to be careful on both sides of the street." Daddy pg. 130

It's summer in Harlem in the year 1925. It's hot and exciting. Mark Purvis is sixteen and looking forward to his summer, as long as he doesn't have to work at his uncle's funeral parlor. Mark ends up getting a job working for The Crisis where he meets the "New Negro". He could care less about being a "New Negro", he doesn't even know what that means. He does know that he wants to play his saxophone with Fats Waller. Before Fats hears him play, he offers Mark a chance to earn some quick cash. Except it goes horribly wrong and now gangsters are after Mark and his friends. They want their money or they want Mark and co. dead. It's sure to be an amazing summer.

By now I think most of you know that the Harlem Renaissance is my favorite time period in American history so I was really excited to read this novel. I didn't really have any expectations of the story, I just wanted to get a better idea of what Harlem was like during the 1920s and on that front this book did not disappoint. I could feel the heat rising off the sidewalk and imagine all the nightclubs and aspiring musicians lining up to perform in the clubs. One of the most fascinating things about this book (for me anyway) was the characterization of DuBois. Many of you may know that there was a huge rift between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. Basically Washington wanted Black Americans to focus on being teachers, farmers, etc. He didn't really have a problem with segregation either. DuBois wanted Black Americans to enter politics, business and higher fields of education. He abhorred segregation. Both Washington and DuBois believed in education, they just wanted to sue the power of education differently. Anyway, I'm firmly on DuBois' side but this book portrays him in a mostly unflattering light. Everyone was terrified of him and he's seen as demanding and cold. I thought it was very interesting but I still love him for his ideas and starting The Crisis (one of the main Black newspapers of the time).

The story is funny, Mark tends to exaggerate and he doesn't always realize how grave a situation he's in. I did find it annoying how his luck always seemed to be good. Everything worked out for him, but the book could have been really sad if that wasn't the case. However I didn't mind it too much since I'm not in the mood for sad reads right now. Each chapter has a engaging title that makes you want to keep reading to figure out what it means. My personal favorite was "I Am Taken To Jail Like A Common Thug, Given The Third Degree, But Am Saved By My Reputation As An International Gangster, Bad Man, And The New Breed of Criminal." (pg. 134) The characters aren't as well developed as I would have liked. It very much seems to be written for young readers as an introduction to Harlem during the '20s, Mark meets some of the most famous people of the time. He also visits famous places, reads famous newspaper, etc. I just wish we learned more about the characters, instead they are simply commented upon as they pass by.

Harlem Summer is a lively story about a little known period of American history, the Harlem Renaissance. The fact that it reads like an introduction to the Harlem Renaissance both helps and hurts it. Older readers may roll their eyes at Mark's convenient connections to everyone famous in Harlem, but it's a great way to whet readers appetite for more. I wish the novel was longer so I could have learned more about Queenie (a Black female gangsta), Countee Cullen, Dubois, etc. I also wanted to know more about mark's family, his father is hilarious but his brother Matt remains a shadowy figure. I did like that Mark's mother and father both played a prominent (often amusing) role in his life. Prepare to visit Harlem and meet a character who has the best luck and gets in the wackiest scrapes.

Disclosure: My family bought it with their own money

New Crayons

New Crayons is a metaphor for multicultural lit. The excitement of getting a new book is kind of like the excitement felt as a child opening a new box of crayons. I got three children's titles to start the week out.

She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader by JG Annino
She Sang Promise is the compelling and inspiring story of Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, one of modern Americas first female elected tribal leader. With its lyrical, poetic text, and rich, vibrant illustration, this is a book to charm and amaze young readers.

The Other Half of My Heart by Sundee Tucker Frazier
The close relationship of a pair of biracial twins is tested when their grandmother enters them in a pageant for African American girls in this new story from Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner Sundee T. Frazier


Finding My Place by Traci L. Jones
"Fourteen-year-old Tiphanie Baker's parents, former civil rights activists, are 'big on doing their part to uplift the race' and firmly expect Tiphanie to do the same. In the fall of 1975, she leaves her comfortable neighborhood and moves to a nearly all-white school in Denver's suburbs, where she 'never felt so Black--and so friendless--in my entire life.' While her parents revel in their prestigious new jobs, Tiphanie becomes an object of curiosity and animosity at school, until another outcast, Jackie Sue (self-described 'walking talking trailer trash') befriends her.


So as not to neglect adult fiction here are two titles, I will be adding to my new crayons box very soon.

The Invisible Mountain by Carolina Robertis - I wanted to read this one in hardcover but missed it. It got great reviews.

"The history of Uruguay through the 20th century sparks personal tragedies amid political intrigues and cultural upheavals in this enchanting, funny and heartbreaking debut novel. Three generations of women populate this sweeping saga: Pajarita, the miracle child who at the dawn of the new century disappears and then reappears in a tree, born twice, as the residents of her small town say; Eva, Pajarita's daughter, who suffers a cruel childhood and learns to spin her painful experiences into a new life of art and adventure as a poet; and Salom, seduced by communism and nearly losing everything fighting for the cause she believes will save her country. This novel is beautifully written yet deliberate in its storytelling. It gains momentum as the women's lives spin increasingly out of control while Uruguay sinks into war, economic instability and revolution. An extraordinary first effort whose epic scope and deft handling reverberate with the deep pull of ancestry, the powerful influence of one's country and the sacrifices of reinvention." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Half Life by Roopa Farooki

I loved the author's debut Bitter Sweets and this sounds really good.
"In this compelling tale, novelist Farooki follows Bengali doctor Aruna Ahmed Jones, who has impulsively married a British physician, hoping to forget a tragic romance with her old friend Ejaz 'Jazz' Ahsan, who she left behind in Singapore's Little India. A recovering drug addict, Aruna has suffered from bipolar disorder and had a string of miscarriages during her time with Jazz, leaving her in a delicate state of mind; inspired by a letter from Jazz's adopted dad, who, in a parallel plot, is dying in a hospital in Malaysia, Aruna decides to leave her husband and return to Singapore to face Jazz and the terrible news that tore them apart. Farooki's hypnotic narrative is driven by a delicate, probing intensity, full of grace and poignancy." Publishers Weekly All summaries and reviews are from powells.com. What new crayons did you get this week?

Black Authors - Single Focus Promotion

Black authors are usually only marketed to Black readers. This is an injustice to the artist and the art lover. Literature is art that should be shared, loved and appreciated by all those that deem it beautiful. Unfortunately, many Black authors don't get a chance to reach as many people as they can. Yes, I know this happens to all authors though if you walk into any bookstores and look at the display there is no denying that this impacts Black authors more.

I've been following author Carleen Brice's blog White Readers Meet Black Authors since the beginning (2008). Brice did a fun video called Welcome White Folks. Its an introduction to the African American section in the bookstore. I don't remember a time when African American literature hasn't been separate from literature written by author of other ethnicity's.

When I was in high school I like it. I always knew the books I wanted to read could be found in the back of the bookstore. Now, I am not a fan. I realize that there are a lot of really talented authors with a limited audience thanks to this separate but not equal separation. Also many Black readers are being cheated as well. I love Black authors but would hate to only read Black authors or limit myself to one section in a bookstore.

Today, I wanted a book to read while I ran a few errands. I decided to pick up Trading Dreams at Midnight by Diane Mckinney- Whetstone. I've already read and loved it and decided to revisit it. Mckinney-Whetstone inspired this post, she is a very skilled writer. Her novel Tumbling is one of my all time favorites. Though, Trading Dreams at Midnight is McKinney- Whetstone's fifth book, I know many people reading this have never heard of her. That makes me so sad.

To read everything or everyone is impossible. I haven't nor to do I plan to read every African, Asian, Indian, Latino author I hear about. But thanks to single focus promotion many aren't given the opportunity to hear about Black authors and decide for themselves if they want to read their stories.

I used to not recommend Black authors to White readers, I suppose I was feeding into the whole separation and I wondered/ worried what customers would think about the recommendation. That all changed when I started following White Readers Meet Black Authors.

Now I am like you loved Wally Lamb's I know This Much True, you should read 72 Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell. Or you like Janet Evanovich's- Stephanie Plum series you should try Kyra Davis's - Sophie Katz's series.

It feels good to suggest stories I love without hesitation. To be fair to my customers, I don't think I was giving them enough credit. Many readers just what a good story. (surprise) I still get a few blank stares but happens with many book suggestions no matter the race of the author.

Enjoy the video



Before I started blogging my reading selection was not as diverse as it could be. Now reading novels by author of so many different backgrounds is one of the best things that came out of blogging.

Sensitive Reader - Books I couldn't enjoy

I am a sensitive reader. I am not talking about crying, though I am a crier. When I read books I am acutely aware of the characters that resemble me, be it gender or race. I find myself looking out for them. Even more so when a female character is created by a man or a Black character is created by a non Black author. This year I read a mystery one of my co-workers loved, called A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn. Set in South Africa. Its 1952 and new apartheid laws are being enforced. I liked the main protagonist Emmanuel Cooper. My problem with the book was with how Davida, only Black South African female featured in the book was treated.

I didn't care for the way Davida, was a used and abused pawn for everyone including her father. Davida is also drawn as a weak character. When I told my co-worker why I didn't like A Beautiful Place to Die, she said it was small part of the story. Maybe my co-worker's right and I am simply being the overly sensitive reader that I am. Big or small I couldn't ignore my feelings for how this character was treated.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Little Bee is a young Nigerian refugee living in Britain. Sarah and her husband took their holiday at resort near Little Bee's village and something very bad happened. Somehow Little Bee finds herself living with Sarah. Both characters have been through and lost a lot but its Little Bee who ends up comforting Sarah most of all. That just made me so mad. I thought Little Bee, a young girl living in a detention center in another country deserved someone to lean on.

Off topic but, the beach scene for this book is talked up, so my expectations were high. When I finally read it I was underwhelmed. If a scene is going to be hyped up, the author better bring it. My first thought after reading the beach scene was dude, have you not read The Kite Runner.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson. This mystery series is an international bestseller but it there was way too much sexual violence against woman for me. There were three sadist in this one book. In Swedish the original title translates to Man Who Hate Women.

Off topic - with all the unnecessary graphic sexual violence, I thought this read more like an American mystery as opposed to a Swedish one. If you are looking for a good Swedish mystery try Before the Frost by Henning Manknell or The Martin Beck mysteries by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. The Beck mysteries are very good. The first one Roseanna was written in 1965. The series was released a few years ago, and they've lost nothing with time.

I got the idea to do this post thanks to Paul Mooney's autobiography Black is the New White. It wasn't that well written to begin. Mooney continuously equates beauty with fair skin. When he refers to his female cousin as very light light and attractive. I was done. Its been awhile since I looked at the book, Mooney could've used one light, though I am 90% he used two. I am 100% sure very was used. When I stopped reading Black is the New White over one sentence, my first thought was I am a sensitive reader.

I will never apologize for this. I am open to hearing other points of views but who I am will always influence how I see a novel.

Are you a sensitive reader? Is so what books were you unable to enjoy?

New Crayons

New Crayons is a metaphor for multicultural lit. The excitement of getting a new book is kind of like the excitement felt as a child opening a new box of crayons. I used to love getting new crayons. I still remember the kid who had the sharper in the back of the crayon box was the junk,the stuff the man or to say it proper like - very popluar. Enough of whatever that was I just did back to the new books.
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

In her noteworthy debut, Lee filters through a lively postfeminist perspective a tale of first-generation immigrants stuck between stodgy parents and the hip new world. Lee's heroine, 22-year-old Casey Han, graduates magna cum laude in economics from Princeton with a taste for expensive clothes and an "enviable golf handicap," but hasn't found a "real" job yet, so her father kicks her out of his house. She heads to her white boyfriend's apartment only to find him in bed with two sorority girls. Next stop: running up her credit card at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Casey's luck turns after a chance encounter with Ella Shim, an old acquaintance. Ella gives Casey a place to stay, while Ella's fiancé gets Casey a "low pay, high abuse" job at his investment firm and Ella's cousin Unu becomes Casey's new romance. Lee creates a large canvas, following Casey as she shifts between jobs, careers, friends, mentors and lovers; Ella and Ted as they hit a blazingly rocky patch; and Casey's mother, Leah, as she belatedly discovers her own talents and desires. Though a first-novel timidity sometimes weakens the narrative, Lee's take on contemporary intergenerational cultural friction is wide-ranging, sympathetic and well worth reading.

Black Pain by Terrie Williams

Black Power masks Black Pain, says Williams, a social worker and founder of a successful public relations firm. Back when black was beautiful, we felt comfortable in our dark skin and 'nappy' hair. Decades later, that sense of pride has morphed into bling that hides the pain of poverty and racism. The result has been depression expressed through violence, addiction, suicide as well as obesity and hypertension. The stoicism blacks are taught in order to not appear weak in the eyes of other black people only leads to denial and isolation. Williams argues persuasively that blacks are not alone. She begins with her own tribulations with depression. From there, she examines how depression is expressed by black men, women and children, and shares the stories of scores of others: rich, poor, successful, incarcerated. This liberal insertion of case reports coupled with a plethora of block quotes can bog down the text. However, Williams is dedicated to convincing her fellow African-Americans that assistance is readily available, whether through counseling, medicine or self-help There is no need for you to suffer alone or in silence. Help is out there.

Mary Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria by Kyra Hicks

Martha Ann is twelve years old when Papa finally saves enough money to purchase her freedom from slavery. In 1830, the family leaves east Tennessee to begin a new life in Liberia. On market days, Martha Ann watches the British navy patrolling the Liberian coast to stop slave catchers from kidnapping her family and friends and forcing them back into slavery. Martha Ann decides to thank Queen Victoria in person for sending the navy. But first, she must determine how to make the 3,500-mile voyage to England, find a suitable gift for the Queen, and withstand the ridicule of family and friends who learn of her impossible dream. Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria is the true story of Martha Ann Ricks, an ex-slave who spent fifty years saving spare coins to fulfill her dream of meeting the Queen of England.

The first two titles are followed by PW reviews from amazon, The third a summary from amazon. What new books did you get this week? And lets just pretend this was posted on Sunday.

Dear Greenwillow Books

Dear Greenwillow Books,

I understand that you are worried about the sales of Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon and the potential sales of its sequel, Fury of the Phoenix. Oh, I know that you are not worried that Asian-inspired YA fantasy will not sell. If that was your worry, then you would never have chosen to publish Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix in the first place.

The hardcover edition of Silver Phoenix has an Asian model on the cover. The paperback edition of Silver Phoenix and the hardcover edition of Fury of the Phoenix both use a Caucasian model on the cover. I take that to mean that you are worried that American readers will not buy books with Asians on the cover.




Whitewashing a book cover does injustice to the book because it misrepresents the book and misleads readers. Moreover, there is racism at work in the whitewashing of book covers because of the underlying assumption that Asian faces are "not good enough" to sell books, or that Asian faces will somehow "turn off" non-Asian readers and keep them from buying the book.

Honestly? Those assumptions HURT.

Here's an idea, Greenwillow: Worried about the sales of an Asian-inspired YA fantasy novel? Next time try to refrain from whitewashing the book cover, which is morally wrong. Try selling more copies of the book (with an Asian model on the cover of course, or no model on the cover at all) in Asia. There are ONE BILLION children and teenagers in Asia. Worried about having to translate the book? There's no need to worry! There are MILLIONS of Asian children and teenagers who speak, read, and write in English. And try selling more copies of the book to the millions of people who are part of the Asian diaspora all over the world.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Off to buy multiple copies of the hardcover edition of Silver Phoenix,

Tarie Sabido