(Part 2) Best cultural heritage fiction books according to redditors
We found 341 Reddit comments discussing the best cultural heritage fiction books. We ranked the 158 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
https://www.amazon.com/Who-Fears-Death-Nnedi-Okorafor/dp/0756407281
>In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different—special—she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language.
Can't really fault the writer if the book summary does not mention an African region in particular.
Every Day is for The Thief by Teju Cole.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor.
The Daevabad Trilogy is good, and the second book just came out as well! Here's the first, The City of Brass
Wolf Totem, the semi-autobiographical account of a Chinese student sent to live with the Mongols during the Cultural Revolution. It’s not very short, but it doesn’t have a complex plot and could be read in small bits.
Some books:
Fairly sure that Qi Magazine can now be accessed online for free, and the Journal of Baguazhang.
I'm not familiar with books about body image but I don't think that books need to be about body image to make young black kids comfortable with their blackness - just reading about normal, well-written black characters is enough for some kids. (Even seeing a black face on the back of the book or illustrated on the cover is a good thing for young people.) There are a bunch of books out there that address the topic of fitting in and what it's like to be black in America and feel "normal," but those books are usually catered to pre-teens and I don't know enough about them to give any recommendations.
There are a bunch of good books out there by black writers (all of the ones I can think of right now are by women) that have black main characters and convey a positive message (not just about being black) that I think might help. Check out these books and their authors:
It might be The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
>We meet him late in life: a quiet man, a good father and husband, a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a landlord and barber with a terrifying scar across his face. As the book unfolds, moving seamlessly between Haiti in the 1960s and New York City today, we enter the lives of those around him, and learn that he has also kept a vital, dangerous secret. Edwidge Danticat’s brilliant exploration of the “dew breaker”--or torturer--s an unforgettable story of love, remorse, and hope; of personal and political rebellions; and of the compromises we make to move beyond the most intimate brushes with history. It firmly establishes her as one of America’s most essential writers.
Oh man, I read that book almost ten years ago, and it still breaks my heart in a way that only a couple of others have. I've always considered myself a very empathetic person, but that book made me realize that there was an enormous gap between my own personal experience and what many (most?) others on earth go through. It's not that I thought I knew everything there was to know about the world, but I always thought I could at least imagine it.
FWIW I'm an American woman, and I've always made it a point to read books by women, which I thought did give me a well-rounded view of the world. That's certainly true to some extent, but I'd never given much thought to literary diversity beyond man/woman, black/white, maybe American/European. It's amazing the blind spots we all have, and I'm sure I still have plenty.
For the lazy, along with a few others that had a similar impact on me:
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The novellas of Nescio (Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh), recently published in translation as "amsterdam stories" by New York Review Books Classics.
Of those especially 'little titans', (roughly) about a group of young friends growing up and failing to live up to the ideals of their youth.
Stilistically these little novellas are very simple, but they are very melancholic and capture the hopefulness of youth and the defeat and melancholy of growing older. I think the themes are relevant to everyone and something in it's style just endures and hits you with the same intensity, as if it was written now instead of a hundred years ago.
Here's a small excerpt, about Bavink, the painter of the group (my own shoddy translation):
> '(…) Go stand with your back to the water and listen. Can you stay out of it?'
> 'out of what?'
> 'Out of the sea?' I nodded, I could easily do that.
> 'I barely can,' said Bavink. 'That melancholy sound behind me is so strange. As if it wants something from me. God's also in that. God cries out. It's no fun, he's everywhere. And everywhere he is he's crying out to Bavink. Your own name becomes silly if it's repeated that often. And then Bavink has to paint. Then God wants a painted morsel of linen. Then Bavink cries out 'God'. And they keep calling for each other. To God it's just a game, he's endless and everywhere. He just keeps on crying out. But Bavink only has one stupid head and one stupid right hand and can only work on one stupid little painting at a time. And if he thinks that he has God then he has linen and paint. Then God's everywhere except where Bavink wants him. And then this guy comes along and writes that Bavink is blessed. And Hoyer learns it by heart and starts driveling on about it to Bekker. Talk about blessed. You know what I want? That I could make railway timetables. God would leave that guy alone, he isn't worth the trouble.'
> (…)
> The cool wind blew around us. The sea rushed deploringly, deploring without knowing why. Sadly the sea washes ashore. My thoughts are a sea, sadly they roll onto their boundaries.
> A new time would commence, we could still make great things happen. I tried my best to believe it, I really tried.
In no particular order:
Still reading The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. It's big ass book, but I'm gettin' through it.
I just bought Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. I just wanted something a bit more interesting than the academic books I usually read, but still thought-provoking. And I happen to love sci-fi/fantasy, so it's perfect fit. Plus, I feel like I need to read less white authors in general.
And of course I'm going to link my own book ( Barnes and Noble, Publisher's Page ), which is a collection of short stories, but still relevant.
Sorta. It's a book by Matt Ruff about the 50's, but the main character reads Lovecraft. Ruff is one of my favorite authors, (read Bad Monekys) and Get Out was phenomenal, so i'm really excited about this.
Rudolfo Anaya is great. I haven't read any of his books for a while, but the ones I've read are focused on Hispanic families in New Mexico and he uses a lot of magical realism. Bless Me, Ultima is a classic.
Other books we discussed were books that Redditors had recently read or were planning to read:
The Snow Child
Purple Hibiscus
For We Are Many and All These Worlds Volumes 2 and 3 of the Bobiverse (and it wasn't me who mentioned it, smartass).
October
Silver Sparrow
Hidden Figures
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
And Danger-Moose mentioned The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, and he had completed The Gone-Away World, which a lot of us were not able to do.
Jbcoll04 suggested Homegoing: A Novel by Yaa Gyasi a couple of posts ago, and I don't want to lose track of that, because both me and darr76 want to read that at some point.
So, be thinking about our next choice. I'm definitely going to read October, Homegoing, and I'll try Volume 2 of the Bobboverse.
Check out:
Who Fears Death is the next property GRRM is producing for HBO and has a protagonist who gains strength and ability throughout. I really enjoyed it.
Out , Grotesque and Real world, all by female Japanese novelist Natsuo Kirino. They all have female main characters. They are very dark, and they show an interesting side of the Japanese lifestyle/sense of annihilation.
Rivlary, by Nagai Kafu. A beautifully written and mean geisha tale from the point of view of the geisha.
Murakami has already been mentioned, but unless you pick up his short stories (where he is at his best, IMHO), almost all of his novels are written by the point of view of a male character. The exception is 1q84, his latest, and by far weakest, novel.
There is somebody who has thought about this.
I don't know about favorite, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of The Wandering Falcon. Maybe it's something up your alley.
The Great Passage just came out, the novel that the anime Fune wo Amu is based on. It's fiction about making a new dictionary so there are a lot of bits about the Japanese language in it, and the translation works better than I expected given the differences from English.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
http://www.amazon.com/Purple-Hibiscus-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie/dp/1616202416
Dammit, you were faster. Here's the link anyway, for those interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Look-Whos-Back-Timur-Vermes/dp/1681449528/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1500540144&sr=8-2&keywords=he%27s+back
https://www.amazon.com/The-Buddha-Attic-Julie-Otsuka/dp/0307744426/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331926094&sr=1-9
Need this book. Thanks!
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
Edit: Fantastic book about nomads on the Mongolian steppes.
I'm not saying a kid from Lesotho and a kid living in Jamaica will share an innate cultural bond - I am saying that if those two kids both come to the US, they will both be received as Black and treated accordingly, and that will create some commonality of experience between them, and that experience will be different from the experience of a kid received as White in the US. In fact, that commonality of experience might prompt them to want to, say, sit together in the cafeteria, so they can hang out with others who understand their experience from having also lived it firsthand. Have you read Americanah? It's a really beautiful book, and it talks - among other things - about the experience of immigrating to the US from Nigeria and discovering that you are "Black."
Many folks more eloquent than myself have written extensively about why colorblindness is not a helpful ideology in terms of actually ending racism - here are some links.
This book Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff is a sci-fi horror mostly about a black family from Chicago that writes these guides. The book was fantastic and I'd love to see it get more traction.
Currently, I'm reading The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad. I've only read 3 chapters so far.
> In this extraordinary tale, Tor Baz, the young boy descended from both chiefs and outlaws who becomes the Wandering Falcon, moves between the tribes of Pakistan and Afghanistan and their uncertain worlds full of brutality, humanity, deep love, honor, poverty, and grace. The wild area he travels -- the Federally Administered Tribal Area -- has become a political quagmire known for terrorism and inaccessibility. Yet in these pages, eighty-year-old debut author Jamil Ahmad lyrically and insightfully reveals the people who populate those lands, their tribes and traditions, and their older, timeless ways in the face of sometimes ruthless modernity. This story is an essential glimpse into a hidden world, one that has enormous geopolitical significance today and still remains largely a mystery to us.
De Uitvreter / Titaantjes / Dichtertje / Mene Tekel by the Dutch author Nescio. It's been published in English as Amsterdam Stories.
They're short stories. De Uitvreter (The Freeloader) and Titaantjes (Little Titans) in particular are true classics about youth, appreciating nature, and naive idealism leading either to cynical conformism or going mad. They were written like 100 years ago but are a true joy to read. Especially recommended for those with an interest in existentialist philosophy/literature.
I haven't read them, but Nalo Hopkinson has produced at least two science fiction novels centered on Afro-Caribbean characters: Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber.
I read the book (Amazon link) and enjoyed it -- very curious to see how they adapted it to anime. I have to remember to check it out.
It was well talked about in my English class in college. Animal's People has become pretty popular.
Her other book sounds really interesting too, actually.
Shavers says they're free to use Orange amplifiers, but could it be The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat.
Not wing chun specific (more general kung fu) but my Sifu recommended i read "The Sword Polisher's Record" by Adam Hsu and indeed i would recommend it too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sword-Polishers-Record-Kung-fu/dp/0804831386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405186946&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sword+polishers+record
Not sure what this is but are you referencing "Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata?
https://www.amazon.com/Convenience-Store-Woman-Sayaka-Murata/dp/0802128254
You could try Bless Me, Ultima
Or for a female writer Jane Austen. Specifically Pride and Prejudice
Given your age, requirements, and your teacher's predlilection for "dark, rapey books", I'd recommend Once Were Warriors, a seminal book from New Zealand.
There is also a very good movie based on the book.
Check out a summary on wikipedia.
Either way...good luck with your assignment!
I don't know about the movie, but there is an excellent novel about it called Animal's People.
http://www.amazon.com/Once-Were-Warriors-Alan-Duff/dp/0679761810/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1372923478&sr=8-3&keywords=once+were+warriors