Hello lovely bookworms! If you’re in need of a good book recommendation/discovery, then I hope this article can deliver just that for you. I would love to share with you all some amazing and wonderful novels that spotlight and uplift the voices and stories of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour! Here they are, divided into three categories of “Fiction,” “Non-Fiction,” and “Kids/YA.”
FICTION
- When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget her past. But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, the Woodsman, to find that it has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. But for all its new, fancy renovations, the Woodsman still remains a monument to its oppressive racist history. Yet the darkest elements of the plantation’s past have been carefully erased.
2. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
In a small apartment in Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirty-something-year-old “millennial everywoman,” she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. Jiyoung quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her family, as she impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her.
3. Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson
Relinquished as an infant, Ruby is placed in a foster home and finally adopted by Alice and Mel, a less-than-desirable couple who can’t afford to complain too loudly about Ruby’s Indigenous roots. As a result, Ruby begins a life-long identity crisis. When her new parents’ marriage falls apart, Ruby finds herself vulnerable and in compromising situations that lead her to search, in the unlikeliest of places, for her Indigenous identity.
NON-FICTION
- Genocidal Love by Bevann Fox
Presenting herself as “Myrtle,” Bevann Fox recounts her early childhood filled with love and warmth on the First Nation reservation with her grandparents. At the age of seven she was sent to residential school. Her horrific experiences of abuse there left her without a voice, timid and nervous, never sure, never trusting, and always searching. This is the story of Myrtle battling to recover her voice.
2. Black Box by Shiori Ito
In 2015, Shiori Ito, an aspiring young journalist, charged prominent reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi with rape. When she went to the police, Ito was told that her case was a “black box.” It was untouchable, and unable to be prosecuted. Upon publication in 2017, Ito’s searing account foregrounded the #MeToo movement in Japan and became the center of an urgent cultural and legal shift around recognizing sexual assault and gender-based violence.
3. The Last Nomad by Shugri Said Salh
When Shugri Said Salh was six-years-old, she was sent to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert, away from the city of Mogadishu. Leaving behind her family, she would become the last of her family to learn a once-common way of life. But in time, Shugri would return to her family to live in the city, where she would again find herself a nomad in a strange land as she learns to navigate escalators, homeless shelters, marriage, parenthood, and nursing school.
KIDS/YA
- The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston can see the dead. But he can’t decide what’s worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments or being at the mercy of racist teachers at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from. But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student—the handsome Allister—and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake.
2. Loteria by Karla Arenas Valenti
In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an eleven-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for La Loteria, a game played between Life and Death. And although it seems her fate was sealed as soon as the cards were dealt, Clara just might have what it takes to shatter the game and choose a new path.
3. Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh
Junie Kim just wants to fit in. But when racist graffiti appears at her middle school, Junie must decide between staying silent or speaking out. When she is assigned to a history project, she decides to interview her grandparents. Learning about their unbelievable experiences as kids during the Korean War, Junie taps into the strength of her ancestors and finds the courage to do what is right.
I hope some, if not all, of these lovely novels have piqued your interest. Happy reading!