Every year, a grip of publications post a new books-you-should-be-reading list. We at Literary Citizen believe that most of these lists think way too small. That is why we’re starting our blog by spreading this particular list compiled by Denver writers Tameca L Coleman, Steven Dunn, Leah Rogin-Roper, and Carolyn Zaikowski with some additional contributions from the Facebook Hive. *
We propose readers read a whole heck of a lot more than what’s in the typical “canon.” And if anyone feels that this list is racist or sexist, we’ll counter with the following: Read the 108 books in this list, or even half of them, and then come back at us (and if you have more suggestions, leave them in the comments). Please also read Leah Rogin-Roper’s essay about spending a year not reading white dudes as a rule.
Without further ado, the list:
- Abdul, Ali. Trouble Sleeping
- Adichie ,Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah
- Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame. Friday Black
- Aidoo, Ama Ata. Our Sister Killjoy
- Ali, Agha Shahid. The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems
- Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
- Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza (also, This Bridge Called My Back edited by Anzaldúa and Cherríe L. Moraga)
- Apache, Crisosto. Genesis
- Austin, Ron A. Avery Colt is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar
- Baldwin, James. Go Tell it On the Mountain & The Fire Next Time
- Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Familuy Tragicomic
- Beilin, Caren. The University of Pennsylvania & Spain.
- Brand, Dionne. A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging
- Bridgeforth, Sharon. The Bull-Jean Stories
- Brooks, R. Alan. The Burning Metronome
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me (Bonus, read the new Black Panther series written by Coates. Bonus-bonus: Captain America)
- Case, Mairead. See You in the Morning
- Castillo, Ana. The Mixquiahuala Letters
- Chao, Geneve. Émigré
- Chassot, Joanne. Ghosts of the African Diaspora: Re-Visioning History, Memory, and Identity
- Cisneros, Sandra. House on Mango Street
- Clemmons, Zinzi. What We Lose
- Cole, Teju. Every Day is for the Thief
- Darznik, Jasmin. Song of a Captive Bird
- Davis, Angela. Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement.
- Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak!
- Dawson, Erica. When Rap Spoke Straight to God
- DeConnick, Kelly Sue. Pretty Deadly & Bitch Planet
- Dennis-Benn, Nicole Y. Here Comes the Sun
- Derricotte, Toi. The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey
- Edugyan, Esi. Washington Black
- Emezi, Awkwaeke. Freshwater
- Erdrich, Louise. Round House & Love Medicine
- Farrokhzad, Forough. Sin: Selected Poems
- Farrokhzad, Athena. White Blight
- Gaudry, Molly. We Take Me Apart
- Florian, Sandy. On Wonderland & Waste
- Gay, Roxane. Ayiti & Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
- Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Miracle of Mindfulness
- Kang, Han. The Vegetarian
- Kelly, Donika. Bestiary: Poems
- Kilanko, Yejide. Daughters Who Walk This Path
- Hagedorn, Jessica. Dogeaters
- Hammad, Suheir. Born Palestinian, Born Black
- Hernández, Jaime. Love Bunglers
- Jones, Tayari. An American Marriage
- Kapil, Bhanu. Incubation: A Space for Monsters
- Khong, Sister Chan. Learning True Love: Practicing Buddhism in a Time of War
- Kim, Myung Mi. Commons
- Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place
- King, Ruth. Mindful of Race Understanding and Transforming Habits of Harm.
- King Jr., Martin Luther. Letter from the Birmingham Jail
- King, Nia. Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of our Lives
- Kunzru, Hari. White Tears
- Marquez, García Márquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Laymon, Kiese. Heavy: An American Memoir
- Lamb, Meghan. Silk Flowers
- Lanay, Sade. Härte
- Lispector, Clarice. The Passion According to G.H.
- Lewis, Erica. Daryl Hall is My Boyfriend & Mary Wants to Be a Superwoman
- Longpre, Ella. How to Keep You Alive
- Long Solider, Layli. Whereas
- López, Julián. A Beautiful Young Woman
- Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
- McCrae, Shane. Blood & Mule
- Martinez, J. Michael. Heredities: Poems
- Morrison, Toni. The Origin of Others (also everything)
- Mukasonga, Scholastique. Our Lady of the Nile
- Murakami, Haruki. Sputnik Sweetheart
- Myint, Thirii Myo Kyaw. The End of Peril, the End of Enmity, the End of Strife, a Haven
- Nguyen, Diana Khoi. Ghost Of
- Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
- Olivares, Christina. No Map of the Earth Includes Stars
- Oliver, Akilah. A Toast in the House of Friends (and anything else you can find).
- Orange, Tommy. There, There
- Ostlund, Lori. After the Parade
- Owens, Lama Rod and Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams. Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation
- Ozeki, Ruth. My Year of Meats
- Park, Samuel. This Burns My Heart
- Paull, Laline. The Bees
- Potter, Sally. Yes: Screenplay and Notes
- Queen, Khadijah. I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On
- Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric
- Rexilius, Andrea. To Be Human Is To Be A Conversation
- Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things
- Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis (The Story of Childhood, The Story of Return & Volumes 3 & 4)
- Saterstrom, Selah. Slab.
- Scott, Gail. The Obituary
- Shanahan, Charif. Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing
- Shinkle, Katie Jean. Ruination
- Shōnagon, Sei. The Pillow Book
- Spalding, Amy. The Summer of Jordi Perez (And The Best Burger in Los Angeles
- Tamirat, Nafkote. The Parking Lot Attendant
- Thien, Madeleine. Do Not Say We Have Nothing
- Thummel, Jessica. The Cure for Lonely
- Toomer, Jean. Cane
- Zadok, Rachel & Nick Mulgrew. Water: New Short Story Fiction from Africa: An Anthology from Short Story Africa & (Bonus: check out the whole Short Story Day Africa collection.)
- Wallschlaeger, Nikki. Houses & Crawlspace
- Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing
- Webster, Chaun. GeNtry!fication: Or the Scene of the Crime
- Wedge, M.B.F. Knickpoint
- Winterson, Jeanette. The Passion
- Wicker, Marcus. Silencer
- Wurth, Erika T. Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend & You Who Enter Here
- Yanique, Tipahnie. How to Escape from a Leper Colony
- Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
- Yapa, Sunil. Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist
- Yoshimoto, Banana. Kitchen
*Initiated by Leah Rogin-Roper, and reposted with permission.