The "Books with POC MC's" Recommendations Thread

slhuang · Apr 25, 2013

The recent discussions of representation in literature in other threads got me thinking -- a lot of us on this board are writing books with POC MC's. And more than that, a lot of us seek out books with POC MC's, and think it's important to read them, and to support authors who write them. So I thought, why not have a recommendation/promotion thread for books featuring POC?

Suggested rules of the thread:

1) Authors are more than welcome to post about their own works!
2) Books must have a POC protagonist and preferably a predominantly POC cast. I don't think this should be the place for the "all-white high school with the one black best friend" books.
3) The POCs should, in the poster's opinion, be human, non-stereotyped portrayals.
4) Give us the title and genre, and optionally describe what you like about the book and the portrayals of the characters of color.
5) Short stories and novellas welcome too.
6) Feel free to recommend books other posters have already recommended (let's make it a love fest!), or to come back and add your thoughts on a book you found here.

We can alter the above guidelines at the suggestion of other posters. What do you all think?

(p.s. -- I looked to see if this had been done before and I couldn't find it -- closest I found was people asking for specific sorts of recommendations. But if it has been done, someone bump that thread . . . because I want me some cool recs! ::anticipates reading list:: )

slhuang · Apr 25, 2013

And I'll kick it off by listing a few recommendations from my recent reading:

Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson (novel) -- speculative fiction, dystopian with supernatural elements, I'd say, but I think both SFF fans and literary fiction readers would enjoy it. Y'know, scifi geeks (including me) always go on about worldbuilding -- well, I thought Hopkinson's worldbuilding was the most real-feeling dystopia I'd ever read. Her collapsed version of Toronto felt frighteningly possible. And for anyone who gets anxiety about how to write POC "right," this is a fantastic example of a book in which all of the characters (and almost the whole cast is POC) are so extremely human, all in different ways -- some of them are flawed and weak one way, and some of them are flawed and weak in other ways, and some of them are evil, and some of them are desperate, but they're all very, very human -- and when they find the strength to fight you root for them that much more.

The House of Aunts, by Zen Cho (short story; links to free online copy) -- Malaysian vampire story, and hands down the best vampire story I've ever read. Ah Lee goes to class and does her homework and fights with her aunties, and finds being dead extremely, heartbreakingly lonely. And then she gets a crush on a boy. (And the bonds between Ah Lee and her aunties are some of the most lovely familial ties I’ve ever read.)

The Phoenix, by Ken Liu (short story; links to free online copy) -- literary fiction that takes place in China. Uh . . . I went to link to this and ended up rereading the whole thing; it's that good. It's also a short story I have tried and failed to write a sufficient recommendation for before -- basically, all I can say is, go read it now.

lolchemist · Apr 25, 2013

Haha, don't kill me but:

Modelland by Tyra Banks - MC is black and a huge amount of the remaining characters are minorities. The book itself is pretty good. It's a YA fantasy with very surrealistic elements.

Kitty Pryde · Apr 25, 2013

I believe we do have a thread on this. when i get home i can merge threads.

Kim Fierce · Apr 26, 2013

"The Divide, Book 1: Uprising" (by me) Dystopia: Every character is multi-racial. MC Serenity has a white father and black mother. I don't get into full details of specific races in book 1,because the MC is denied information, but in book 2 you get every character's specific details, as other characters who are more knowledgeable explain things to Serenity, who has been brainwashed by the government.

My "Amelia's Revolution" Steampunk short story has a white MC, but in the sequel the MC is Lenape, and I am going to write a part 3 with a black MC, and will most likely have a part 4 with another Lenape MC as well.

I have specifically been looking for more PoC books to read, by the way. So this thread will help!

Oh! And I have an upcoming short story in August which features a male black MC.

AKyber36 · Apr 26, 2013

I finished reading a book called Red Jade by David Huang not too long ago. It's the third book in the Detective Yu series about a NYPD Chinese-American cop who grew up in Chinatown and who knows a lot about the Triads and Tongs. It's crime, dabbles in noir, and reads somewhat like a mystery/thriller. Majority of the protagonists and important secondaries are PoC (dominantly Chinese), so it's a nice take on usual mystery/crime fiction. I also love that the MC is a Chinese-American male who's just so human and not a stereotype.

Second recommendation: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. A pinnacle of cyberpunk fiction, and I also got interested by the MC. Hiro Protagonist is half black, half Japanese computer geek/genius who deals with a very serious issue in the cyber-world. He starts out being a mafia pizza boy, which was already awesome, and the novel's plain fun. Another character is Aleutian, which was also a welcome surprise.

Third recommendation: The Takeshi Kovacs cyber-noir series by Richard Morgan. The MC is Slavic-Japanese, and the whole system of "sheathing" effectively deals with race and identity. The MC even has a moment when he has to reconcile himself again to being Slavic-Japanese but his sheath doesn't look like what he would be. I found it intriguing, and Tak Kovacs basically reads as a jaded and cynical hard man in a brutal world. Might not be to everyone's taste because there are some extremely macho moments in the series that make you eyeroll (or Tak's holding the idiot ball), but I like it.

Silver-Midnight · Apr 26, 2013

Even though I've only read two of her books so far (due to lack of time), and those were The Ice Cream Girls and Goodnight, Beautiful, I highly recommend Dorothy Koomson. She's a really good writer. She typically writes with having at least one black female protagonist from what I've seen; a lot of her books feature interracial relationships too. The genre of her books are typically Chick Lit but there are some Mystery or Suspense elements too sometimes.

Polenth · Apr 27, 2013

I'd suggest we have a separate thread for people to recommend their own work. It's a lot harder for people to step into a thread of mainly recommendations, which will mainly be the big authors, and plug their own work. And I don't think we're trying to make it hard.

(I do have some recommendations, but I'll post them a bit later once I've sorted them.)

aruna · Apr 28, 2013

I really enjoyed the "Marriage Bureau for Rich People" series! It's light reading, but very moving; set in South India, it has an all-Indian cast and you can learn a lot about the relationships between Hindus and Moslems beyond the usual cliches. These are shortish, amusing, sometimes painful books about everyday Indian life.

That said, I have my perennial favourites, which are Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance and Family Matters, as well as Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. And many others to many to mention, but I will over time.

And don't forget my own books! My first novel Of Marriageable Age is going to be released very soon as a self-published ebook, edited and revised and made much better than in the first HarperCollins edition. My editor back then could have done a MUCH better job, I discovered on re-reading it after 10 years! I'll announce the "launch" when it happens.

Silver-Midnight · Apr 28, 2013

Amy Tan is also a favorite of mine. She typically writes Chinese/Chinese-American culture. I haven't gotten a chance to read much more of her books. However, what I have read, I did like.

Kim Fierce · Apr 29, 2013

I would really like to read the ones AKyber listed, especially Snow Crash, sounds awesome!

slhuang · Sep 5, 2013

Polenth, I hope you don't mind me reccing that great blog post you just wrote here:

100 Diverse Speculative Authors

So here are a hundred speculative fiction authors with some work in English. They are diverse in various ways including (but not limited to) sex, gender, class, sexuality, race, religion, country of origin, disability and neurotypicality.

I want all these books right now.

Yorkist · Sep 5, 2013

I mostly read SF/F and historical fiction:

Silver-Midnight said:
Amy Tan is also a favorite of mine. She typically writes Chinese/Chinese-American culture. I haven't gotten a chance to read much more of her books. However, what I have read, I did like.

Amy Tan is a favorite of mine, too! I've read every novel of hers (not the memoirs, though). Favorite is definitely The Bonesetter's Daughter, which is, IIRC, magical realism.

Lisa See is known for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (historical fiction), also featuring Asian characters, and while it is a lovely book, by far my favorite of hers is Peony in Love (toes the line between magical realism and fantasy).

Alma Alexander's The Secrets of Jin-Shei, which I think I recommend once a week, is fantasy set in sort-of imperial China. Eight PoV characters, all women, 7 are Asian and one might be Russian or something, it's unclear. Nice reversal of the token trope!

Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (sci-fi, dystopian coming-of-age novel) is my favorite of hers so far, but I'm enjoying Dawn and look forward to Kindred.

Michelle Moran's Egyptian trilogy is fantastic historical fiction.

Chinua Achebe's books are modern contemporary and/or historical fiction set in Africa. He's obviously a genius. He, along with Naguib Mahfouz, are IIRC the only African writers to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

I haven't read one yet, but I'm looking forward to perusing Aruna's books when I have a chance. She's around here somewhere. Also chomping at the bit to read Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death.

aruna · Sep 5, 2013

I third Amy Tan, and also the novels of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, set in Nigeria.
I am actually more interested in the cultures represented by these novels than be the actual race of the characters -- I purposely seek such books out, as they are vastly underrepresented. Books such as Zadie Smith's White Teeth or Monica Ali's Brick Lane, set in London with multicultural characters, don't interest me much, but they did make a huge amount of noise when they were first released. It's as if the literary set will only accept "exotic" characters if they are seen through the prism of white Britain.

I haven't read one yet, but I'm looking forward to perusing Aruna's books when I have a chance. She's around here somewhere.

Thanks Yorkist! There have been some delays (for good reasons!) and I don't expect OMA to come out before November.

aruna · Sep 6, 2013

Right now, I'm reading "Because we are -- a Novel of Haiti". it takes me right there, which is what a book should do. The proceeds of the novel are going to humanitarian projects in Haiti, so I particularly liked buying this one.

Polenth · Sep 6, 2013

slhuang said:
Polenth, I hope you don't mind me reccing that great blog post you just wrote here:

100 Diverse Speculative Authors

I want all these books right now.

I shamelessly plugged in the other thread, so I don't mind...

Though I do note it's a broad list, so not all the authors and characters will be PoC/non-white. Picking out some to get started that are both by PoC authors and about PoC characters:

Aliette de Bodard - On a Red Station, Drifting (novella)

Shweta Narayan - Nira and I (short story)

Nnedi Okorafor - Zahrah the Windseeker (young adult novel)

Drew Hayden Taylor - The Night Wanderer (young adult novel)

Sunflowerrei · Sep 7, 2013

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston--it's a memoir and it's been awhile since I read it, but Hong Kingston weaves in Chinese myths and fictional elements into the writing. I remember it as a lovely book and a great example of creative non-fiction.

Cane River by Lalita Tademy--novelized version of the author's family history, so...historical fiction-ish? Starts in pre-Civil War, French-speaking Louisiana on a plantation, tracing a family, mostly mother to daughter--from African-American slaves Elisabeth and her daughter Suzette to Suzette's half white daughter, who also has children with a white man and gets the family their own little farm after Emancipation, to Emilie, the first in the family to be educated.

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber. Sirine is a half-Iraqi chef working in a Lebanese restaurant in Los Angeles. She lives with her uncle, who teaches at the university with an Iraqi professor named Hanif. Sirine and Hanif become interested in each other. This book really gets into the Arab-American community and identity; the characters are absolutely real people.

aruna · Sep 13, 2013

Just wanted to say that Because We Are, the book I recommended on post 15, is really, really good. And though it is written by a white man, he gets the characters (the MC is a young Haitian girl) spot on. And not a white person plunging in to save the day in sight! IN fact, not a single white character up to now (halfway). Whites are mentioned now and then, but they are just the blancs. I love the use of French creole, loving guessing the original of words like dyab and dako and translating the Haitian chapter quotes!

I do have some quibbles about the structure and style, however. I don't like the jumping back and forth in time when the characters are the same kids just a few years apart. And mixed present and past tense. And dashes instead of quotation marks (always hated that).

I'm old enough to remember the sinister Papa Doc times and the Tonton Macoute and that whole spirit pervades the book. So if you like me you like books that show you another country, go for this one!

Silver-Midnight · Sep 14, 2013

Yorkist said:
Amy Tan is a favorite of mine, too! I've read every novel of hers (not the memoirs, though). Favorite is definitely The Bonesetter's Daughter, which is, IIRC, magical realism.

I'm reading that right now actually. I think I'm about half way and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I just wish I had more free time to read it. :Shrug:

(I'm in university/college.)

--

I also recommend Alice Walker. I read The Color Purple a little while back and I enjoyed it.

I really want to read some Octavia Butler books when I do find the time.

I read a shorty story by Toni Morrison. However, I didn't enjoy that as much as I thought I would honestly. However, she also writes a lot of POC characters and even tends to use magical realism in her books as well, if I remember correctly.

Lavern08 · Sep 14, 2013

Sunflowerrei said:
Cane River by Lalita Tademy--novelized version of the author's family history...

OMG! - I totally forgot about this ^

Read it years ago, and it was fascinating.

Sunflowerrei · Sep 14, 2013

Lavern08 said:
OMG! - I totally forgot about this ^

Read it years ago, and it was fascinating.

She wrote a follow up called Red River, about her father's side of the family but I haven't read it.

Rachel Udin · Sep 28, 2013

I just found a list...
http://www.reads4pleasure.com/2010/12/colorful-chick-lit-challenge.html

PoC Chick Lit, yay. (BTW, Chick Lit I define as more career-oriented than Romance and often played to be funny. The main struggle is often balancing work and romance. Not so much how many stereotypical things about women can you cram in....)

Corinne Duyvis · Sep 29, 2013

slhuang said:
Polenth, I hope you don't mind me reccing that great blog post you just wrote here:

100 Diverse Speculative Authors

I want all these books right now.

Yes! Fabulous post (and not just because I'm on it). Thanks, Polenth

This week, I finished The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson, which was a really intriguing read. It's speculative YA that deals with race, disability, and queerness in pretty explicit ways. I love that it's actually addressed rather than saying "the characters are X and Y and now we will never mention this again, it has no impact on their lives whatsoever, these are not the droids you're looking forrrr."

KidCassandra · Oct 9, 2013

Octavia Butler is one of my favorites. My favorite is Fledgling, but that doesn't quite fit these requirements because, iirc, only the protag was a POC. I just read Kindred, however, and enjoyed that.

Try Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia, a book about several generations of Cuban women dealing with the revolution and loss of culture upon emigrating to the US.

Or So Far from God, by Ana Castillo, a magical realism novel set in a New Mexico chicano community.

My favorite recent read was The Grass Dancer, by Susan Power, a book set on a Dakota Indian reservation.

EMaree · Oct 10, 2013

SANCTUM by Sarah Fine is YA urban fantasy with a POC main character. And, rarity of rarities in YA, the cover clearly shows it.

The "Books with POC MC's" Recommendations Thread

Inappropriately math-oriented.

Inappropriately math-oriented.

Shooting stars.

i luv you giant bear statue

Attack me with everything you have.

Mushroom

On a wing and a prayer

Attack me with everything you have.

Inappropriately math-oriented.

On a wing and a prayer

On a wing and a prayer

Mushroom

On a wing and a prayer

Sit Down, and Shut Up!

My New Cat Is Too Big for Shoulders

learning how to BIC

a demon for tea