Highlights of last year's reading

• Best vintage smackdown: Domestic Manners of the Americans, Fanny Trollope
• Runner-up: The Invention of Tradition (specifically, Hugh Trevor-Roper's chapter on the kilt)
• Most beat-up ARC by the time I got it: Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore
• Should have read this when it first came out: Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
• Runner-up: Holes, Louis Sachar
• Well, now I have to read the whole series: Island of Bones, Imogen Robertson
• Runner-up: Some Danger Involved, Will Thomas
• Most awesome cover design: One Came Home, Amy Timberlake
• Best dishy history: To Marry an English Lord, Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace
• Best setup for the last book in the series: Speaking from Among the Bones, Alan Bradley
• Most worth slogging through a weak beginning for: The Fire Horse Girl, Kay Honeyman
• Journalism degree between two covers: Deadline Artists
• Perfect for high-school me: Watergate, Thomas Mallon

Haven't done a link roundup in a while...

Stuff that is not necessarily new, but intriguing. (To me, at least.)

• Melodies from isotopes
• The Ultimate Story Checklist
• Watch this video
• Polarized light as a proto-compass?
• We can always use a reminder of how awesome Mr. Rogers was
• 19th-century female math nerd FTW
• Wrenching NPR story on Native children in foster care
• UK journalism history (as relates to the hacking scandal)
• The phrase "Iron Age road" will usually get me to click
• I grew up on Ms. Magazine
• Experiments from the NYT
• Report cards from the 1920s
• Why the battle between Hamilton and Jefferson still hasn't gone away
• A key moment in the collapse of the USSR

Stuff I mostly haven't read yet

... but am sharing anyway. Partly so I can clear out my bookmarks, and partly because a quick skim makes me reasonably confident that there's something to worth reading in all of these.

• Jo Walton on "reading protocols." An older piece that Josh Christie turned up a couple weeks ago. Thought-provoking, but I still haven't formed an articulate response to it.
• "When Jill Abramson Was the Only Grownup..." This one I have read. And now I want to be a reporter again.
• Andrew Karre on the end goal of contemporary YA romance. Much more interesting than my description makes it sound. Go read it.
• Post-Artifact Books and Publishing. Haven't read this one, but Craig Mod's previous stuff has been worth it.
• A look at changes in book publishing over the last couple decades. See above, then substitute Peter Osnos for Craig Mod.
• Junot Díaz on disasters. Because it's Junot Díaz.
• Some day I plan to blog about the sheer awesomeness of Annette Gordon-Reed. For now, this.

Tab-closing

As some of these are tabs I haven't had open for months, I suppose "bookmark-deleting" would be a more accurate title. However: links, not necessarily new, that are worth following:

• The Horn Book on Augusta Baker
• Discovery of a smugglers' tunnel in Hastings
• Monkey See on cultural omnivores
• Isaac Asimov is awesome (and, apparently, lived not far from here!)
• Caleb Crain on That Photo
• Kevin Kelly has some thoughts on books
• Jane Eyre thoughts from Laura Miller
• Jane Eyre thoughts from What's Old Is New
• Why Robert Darnton was one of the historians I actually enjoyed last semester
• HNN on park ranger hats
• Awaiting: Beekeeping for Beginners (and The Pirate King)
• An old headline, but still infuriating
• This might actually make Foursquare useful
• Because I totally need to spend more time with digital history
• Speaking of which: "affective history"
• New tagline: "granola is not nongrapefruit"

Percolating blog posts

In addition to the ongoing Men of L'Engle series (new installment on the way soon!) and the upcoming chapter-by-chapter blogging of Anne of Green Gables (which still needs a clever name), there are some big-picture posts that I've been thinking about, but haven't fully pulled together:

• Making my way through the kids' nonfiction section of the library (back in the day)
• How eight years of tech and journalism innovation the world of Naked in Baghdad and the Tunisia/Egypt/Libya/Syria/Bahrain/Yemen conflicts
• Why melancholy, brooding characters are so attractive (both to their romantic interest and to the reader/viewer)

So, one of these days. Got a favorite? Feel free to nag, and it goes to the top of the pile.

(Post pic is me holding the newborn Codename: Princesa, ages ago. Just because I like the lighting. And this blog can always use more images.)

The Mitali Test

A couple weeks ago, Mitali Perkins suggested applying a version of the Bechdel Test to books, as a way of evaluating their racial and cultural diversity.

In the comments, I threw out the term "Mitali Test," which other commenters seemed to like. (I also demonstrated my inability to spell "knew," but that's another story.)

The Mitali Test asks three questions about a book:

1. Are there two or more people of color with names?
2. Do they have a significant conversation with each other?
3. Do they talk about something other than race?

I decided to apply the Mitali Test to the middle-grade and YA books in my LibraryThing collection. Here's what passed*:

• 47 and Sunrise Over Fallujah, Walter Dean Myers
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
• The Amethyst Road, Louise Spengler (This could go either way, but I say the fictionalized Roma count)
• Any Small Goodness, Tony Johnston
• Ask Me No Questions, Marina Budhos
• Before We Were Free and How Tía Lola Came to Stay, Julia Alvarez
• Bhangra Babes, Bindi Babes, and Bollywood Babes, Narinder Dhami
• Bucking the Sarge, Bud Not Buddy, and The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, Christopher Paul Curtis
• Candle in the Wind, Maureen Wartski
• A Cap for Mary Ellis, Hope Newell
• Chains and Forge, Laurie Halse Anderson
• Climbing the Stairs, Padma Venkatraman
• Cubanita, Gaby Triana
• Dark Dude, Oscar Hijuelos
• Does My Head Look Big in This? and Ten Things I Hate About Me, Randa Abdel-Fattah
• Echoes of the White Giraffe and Year of Impossible Goodbyes, Sook Nyul Choi
• Esperanza Rising, Pam Muñoz Ryan
• Estrella's Quinceañera, Malín Alegría
• Front Porch Stories at the One-Room School and Celeste's Harlem Renaissance, Eleanora Tate
• Gully's Travels, Tor Seidler
• Habibi, Naomi Shihab Nye
• Honey Blonde Chica, Michele Serros
• If Only You Knew, Denene Millner and Mitzi Miller
• Jason & Kyra, Dana Davidson
• The Kayla Chronicles, Sherri Winston
• Keeping Corner and Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet, Kashmira Sheth
• Kendra, Coe Booth
• Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, Faiza Guene
• Kim/Kimi, Hadley Irwin
• El Lector, William Durbin
• Marcelo in the Real World, Francisco X. Stork
• My Most Excellent Year, Steve Kluger
• My Sister Sif, Ruth Park
• Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies), Justina Chen Headley
• Red Palms, Cara Haycack
• The Return, Sonia Levitin
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, and The Road to Memphis, Mildred D. Taylor
• Seedfolks, Paul Fleischman (I think)
• Shadow Spinner, Susan Fletcher
• She's So Money, Cherry Cheva
• Skunk Girl, Sheba Karim
• Sweet, Hereafter, Angela Johnson
• Tangled Threads, Pegi Deitz Shea
• Trouble Don't Last, and All of the Above, Shelley Pearsall
• The War Between the Classes, Gloria Miklowitz
• White Hare's Horses, Penina Keen Spinka
• Who's Your Daddy?, Lynda Sandoval
• Why Does the Coquí Sing?, Barbara Garland Polikoff
• A Wish After Midnight, Zetta Elliott
• Wolf by the Ears, Ann Rinaldi (This was, I believe her first book, and loads better than her more recent stuff.)

Is this a comprehensive list? Hardly. But it's a start.

*I was relying on memory when I compiled this list, and it's been a while since I read a few of these. Feel free to correct me on any that don't meet all three criteria.

Ten 10-10-10 Challenge wrap-up

So, how'd I do?

Not too spectacularly, especially when you look at what Melissa and Kalen managed to pull off. I finished a total of 50 books for the challenge, and reached ten books in only two categories, history and contemporary YA.

I really slacked off after the first couple months - most of the books on these lists were there by May.

But the thing is, I didn't just read 50 books since January 1. I've recorded 91 books in LibraryThing since then, though that also doesn't represent my total reading time - as always, most of my reading time is spent rereading. I did push myself to read more new books than I otherwise would have, though, in those first few months.

Other musings:

• Despite the fact that a third of the mysteries I read for the challenge were by Agatha Christie, I'm not actually much of a fan - I'm willing to suspend disbelief to some extent, but her plots were too implausible even for me.
• I keep intending to read poetry more often than I do. I had plenty of options to choose from just at home, without even heading to the library or the bookstore, but I chose to read other stuff.
• From what I can tell, three of the 50 books I read for the challenge were written by people of color. That's pretty pathetic, especially for someone who tries to be aware of things like that.

Here's the summary:

1. Shakespeare-related (2/10)
Shakespeare: The World As a Stage, Bill Bryson
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, James Shapiro

2. Poetry (1/10)
Red Bird, Mary Oliver

3. Biography (3/10)
Shakespeare: The World As a Stage, Bill Bryson
The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom
Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman, Judy Taylor

4. Contemporary young adult (10/10)
Sweet, Hereafter, Angela Johnson
A Wish After Midnight, Zetta Elliott
The Clearing, Heather Davis
The Things a Brother Knows, Dana Reinhardt
The Six Rules of Maybe, Deb Caletti
Extraordinary, Nancy Werlin
Kissing Tennessee, Kathi Appelt
My Most Excellent Year, Steve Kluger
Habibi, Naomi Shihab Nye
Only the Good Spy Young, Ally Carter

5. Children's non-fiction (7/10)
Honeybees: Letters From the Hive, Stephen Buchmann
The Boys' War, Jim Murphy
How Do You Go to the Bathroom in Space?, William Pogue
Bloody Scotland, Terry Deary
Math Doesn't Suck, Danica McKellar
The War to End All Wars, Russell Freedman
Here There Be Monsters: The Legendary Kraken and the Giant Squid, H.P. Newquist

6. Science fiction (2/10)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
Android Karenina, Leo Tolstoy and Ben Winters

7. History (10/10)
Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews, Melvin Konner
The Imperial Cruise, James Bradley
Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides
Playing the Enemy, John Carlin
Helluva Town, Richard Goldstein
Hellhound on his Trail, Hampton Sides
A Nation Rising, Kenneth C. Davis
Farmers Against the Crown, Keith Jones
The Atlantic, Simon Winchester
The Madame Curie Complex, Julie Des Jardins

8. Mystery (9/10)
Poirot Investigates, Agatha Christie
The Seven Dials Mystery, Agatha Christie
The Mapping of Love and Death, Jacqueline Winspear
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley
A River in the Sky, Elizabeth Peters
The God of the Hive, Laurie R. King
Dark Road to Darjeeling, Deanna Raybourn
The Tale of Oat Cake Crag, Susan Wittig Albert
The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie

9. Written before 1900 (5/10)
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
Roughing It, Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy

10. Pulitzer winners (4/10)
Among Schoolchildren, Tracy Kidder
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
Red Bird, Mary Oliver
War in a Time of Peace, David Halberstam

Read These Books

A couple weeks ago my little sister Dom* asked for book suggestions. I used moving as an excuse to procrastinate for a while, but finally got around to pulling together a list of some of my favorite books from this year.

(Okay, the capsule reviews are kind of cheating, since I totally intended to write more about these books. But it's better than just intending and forgetting, right?)

Poison Penmanship, Jessica Mitford. I had a copy of this book back in high school, but after it sat untouched on my bookshelves for years, I ended up getting rid of it unread. What was I thinking? This would have been the perfect thing to read every time I hit an aspiring-journalist phase. Mitford starts out with a quick version of what she teaches to j-school students, then comments on each piece - what the editor changed, what she thinks of it years later, how she got the key interviews. Very glad NYRB Classics brought this one back into print. (Source: review copy courtesy of the lovely @NYRBClassics, who's been putting up with my gushing on Twitter)

Diamond Ruby, Joseph Wallace. I probably would have picked this book up even if I hadn't first met the author through Twitter, as I spent a couple years in middle school trying to be Geena Davis in A League of Their Own. Jazz Age Brooklyn, baseball, rum runners, and plenty of real-people cameos come together beautifully, and - I'll try to say this in as un-spoilerish a way as possible - when I thought the author was about to do something terrible to one of his characters, he didn't, which just made me love him that much more. (Source: ARC)

Forge, Laurie Halse Anderson. It's a sequel, but I think it's a good starting point even if you haven't read Chains. The title refers to Valley Forge, where former slaves Curzon and Isabel are encamped with the Continental army, but also to - well, you'll find out about halfway through. And after just saying that I adore Joe Wallace for not doing awful things to his characters, one of the awesome things about Forge is LHA's willingness to put her characters in a bad situation and then make it worse, but not scare me off. And the cover is gorgeously Kara Walker-ish, no? (Source, ARC)

Hellhound on His Trail, Hampton Sides. Even though anyone who reads this probably already knows how it's going to end - the name James Earl Ray does mean something to you, doesn't it? - this book still reads like a thriller. Sides did a great job recreating the sequence of events surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assasination. (Source: ARC)

The Madame Curie Complex, Julie Des Jardins. Thanks to Colleen for putting me onto this one. For the record, I studied astronomy at a women's college, in an observatory named after a woman, using computers named after female astronomers (so much more interesting than naming them OBS001 or something like that) - so this is a topic of interest to me. Which meant I was willing to slog through some unfortunate formatting that made the book appear way more dry and academic than it actually is. Look past the footnotes at the end of each chapter (endnotes, people, please - we all know how to flip pages) and give it a try. (Source: library)

My Most Excellent Year, Steve Kluger. As Stephen** points out in his Guys Lit Wire review, this book requires some degree of suspension of disbelief, but it's so worth it. The book is funny, the story moves along, and - well, just trust me on this one. (Source: acquired in the ABA lounge at BEA 2008, and yes, it took me this long to get around to it. Should have read it sooner.)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson. I finally got around to reading this one after Ron Charles' rave in the Washington Post, so I have to admit I'm pretty much cribbing from him when I say that this book works because it's a wide-eyed story of a second chance at love. And the intercultural angle (he's English; she's Pakistani) comes off well, without being either forced or condescending. (Source: ARC)

Android Karenina, Quirk Books. Sorry, but I can't bring myself to list the authors here as "Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters." I'm so not a fan of the "remake classics with paranormal elements" thing from the past year or so. I want nothing to do with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. And yet... my boss handed me this one, and I decided to take a look - and liked it. It's sort of Imperial Russia steampunk loosely based on Anna Karenina, and the aliens/robots/cyborgs storyline actually works. You probably have to have read the original to appreciate it, though. (And no, it did not change my feelings about P&P&Z and its cousins one bit.) (Source: ARC)



*My Wellesley little sister, not an actual sister. I don't have any of those.
** My actual little brother.

10-10-10 Challenge update

Well, none of the categories are 0/10 any longer:

1. Shakespeare-related (2/10)
Shakespeare: The World As a Stage, Bill Bryson
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, James Shapiro

2. Poetry (1/10)
Red Bird, Mary Oliver

3. Biography (1/10)
Shakespeare: The World As a Stage, Bill Bryson

4. Contemporary young adult (9/10)
Sweet, Hereafter, Angela Johnson
A Wish After Midnight, Zetta Elliott
The Clearing, Heather Davis
The Things a Brother Knows, Dana Reinhardt
The Six Rules of Maybe, Deb Caletti
Extraordinary, Nancy Werlin
Kissing Tennessee, Kathi Appelt
My Most Excellent Year, Steve Kluger
Habibi, Naomi Shihab Nye

5. Children's non-fiction (4/10)
Honeybees: Letters From the Hive, Stephen Buchmann
The Boys' War, Jim Murphy
How Do You Go to the Bathroom in Space?, William Pogue
Bloody Scotland, Terry Deary

6. Science fiction (1/10)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne

7. History (9/10)
Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews, Melvin Konner
The Boys' War, Jim Murphy
The Imperial Cruise, James Bradley
Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides
Playing the Enemy, John Carlin
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
Helluva Town, Richard Goldstein
Hellhound on his Trail, Hampton Sides
A Nation Rising, Kenneth C. Davis

8. Mystery (5/10)
Poirot Investigates, Agatha Christie
The Seven Dials Mystery, Agatha Christie
The Mapping of Love and Death, Jacqueline Winspear
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley
A River in the Sky, Elizabeth Peters
The God of the Hive, Laurie R. King

9. Written before 1900 (3/10)
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
Roughing It, Mark Twain

10. Pulitzer winners (3/10)
Among Schoolchildren, Tracy Kidder
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
Red Bird, Mary Oliver

(Post pic from my collection; location unknown but probably Yosemite.)

Unsung YA

Taking a page from YAnnabe and others, some favorite overlooked YA. Follow the link to see other bloggers' far more detailed lists.

Diary of a Chav, Grace Dent
Climbing the Stairs, Padma Venkatraman
Gamma Glamma, Kim Flores
Fact of Life #31, Denise Vega
The Kayla Chronicles, Sherri Winston
The Primrose Way, Jackie French Koller
Not a Swan, Michelle Magorian
Trouble, Gary Schmidt
The Seventh Raven, Peter Dickinson
The Pistachio Prescription, Paula Danziger
The Brightest Light, Colleen O'Shaughnessy McKenna
The Dancing Meteorite, Anne Mason
Sister to the Wolf, Maxine Trottier
In Lane Three, Alex Archer, Tessa Duder
Children of the River, Linda Crew
The Amethyst Road, Louise Spiegler
Just Jane, William Lavender
Tomorrow, the River, Dianne Gray
Jim Thorpe, Original All-American, Joseph Bruchac
Who's Your Daddy?, Lynda Sandoval
Honey Blonde Chica, Michele Serros
Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta
Carpe Diem, Autumn Cornwell

Not a best-of list, just a list

Inspired by the fab Sarah Miller's look back at her year in books, these are the ones that stood out for me:

Awesome new-old author discoveries:

Edith Wharton
Oscar Wilde
Yeah, somehow I hadn't gotten around to reading her books until this year. But I finished The House of Mirth not long before BEA, which made walking around Washington Square Park with Guinevere that much cooler. And how did no one ever tell me how funny Wilde is?

Biggest shift in emotions from beginning to end of book:

The Actor and the Housewife, Shannon Hale
Until this book I would have told you Shannon Hale doesn't make me cry. Look at that cover. What could possibly be tearjerking here? Bah. Don't be fooled by all the funny bits and the great writing and the awesome story. Many tears fell at the end.

Books that made me think about a new career path:

Talking Back, Andrea Mitchell
Written in Bone, Sally Walker
I gave up on the idea of being a journalist not long after I finished college, and being an archaeologist even earlier. (Kind of hard to do when you don't like to get dirty.) But these books almost made me reconsider.

Possibly my new favorite researcher:

The Frog Scientist, Pamela S. Turner
Does anyone want to argue whether Tyrone Hayes has the best hair among frog experts? No, I didn't think so. He's also got cute kids he pulls into his work, a lab full of grad students that seems like it was made to be written about, and photogenic test subjects. One of these days I'll review this book properly.

Book that I wouldn't have read if I'd been given proper warning:

Mr. Pip, Lloyd Jones
Everybody was excited about this one. I finally got around to reading it for Twitter Book Club, but seriously: "this book takes place in a war zone" is not sufficient advisory for those of us who don't like reading about graphic violence.

Book that might make me eat my words:

Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
After The Beekeeper's Apprentice, I stopped saying that I don't like mysteries. Now I might have to rethink my stance on dystopias. (I've already promised I'll finally give Hunger Games a try.)

Book I wanted to like as much as everyone else did:

When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
I'm not saying it was in any way a bad book - I listened to it through the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, and was totally engaged. (And also paying attention to the road - don't worry!) But the logic of time travel in this world really didn't work for me. On the other hand, it's the reason I'm still thinking about it months after finishing it.

Most satisfying series conclusion:

The Spellmans Strike Again, Lisa Lutz
I adore Izzy Spellman, and I still like her when she decides to grow up. (Yeah, the book isn't out yet, but this list is based on what I read in 2009.)

Book one that hooked me on a new series:

Heist Society, Ally Carter
Teenage master thieves presented in a way that's simultaneously total fantasy and realistic. And fun. Did I mention fun? I started rereading this one as soon as I finished it. The Gallagher Girls are good, but Kat is awesome.

Adaptation that makes me okay with the fact I haven't read the original:

The Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids, Michael Pollan
I read In Defense of Food, but so far haven't gotten into the original Omnivore's Dilemma. The young-reader adaptation seems to capture all the essentials of the story without getting too caught up in the technical details.

Best tongue-in-cheek narrative voice:

The Case of the Mistaken Identity, Mac Barnett
Not only does this book do a great job of spoofing the Hardy Boys style with its book-within-a-book, it also brings a delightfully dry humor to the difficulties of becoming a boy detective in the modern world.

Book that made me think the awards committees know what they're doing:

The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed
The book deserved every award it got. And probably some others I've never heard of. Yes, it really is that good.

Book that made me care about Darwin:

Charles and Emma, Deborah Heiligman
I know it's Darwin's bicentennial, but I'm just not that into him. This look at his marriage, though, was awesome. I particularly like the fact that Emma Darwin was not above bribing her kids when it came to winter wear.

Book with an awesome illustrator:

I and I Bob Marley, Tony Medina
The biography-in-verse didn't do much for me, but Jesse Joshua Watson's illustrations rocked. (As they do on the covers of the Hank Zipzer books.) I was thrilled to find out he sells paintings and prints through his website. Next time I have some decorating to do, I'll be looking there.

Online gag that worked in book format:

Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float, Sarah Schmelling
The whole blog-to-book thing is overdone. I think we can all agree on that. And not everyone can make a joke last for a hundred pages or more. Sarah Schmelling managed to pull it off (and inspire some worthy imitators) while reminding us how much absurdity there is in classic lit.

Journalists who make it work in book form:
The Defining Moment, Jonathan Alter
Rome 1960, David Maraniss
Magazines are having their troubles, but there's a lot to be said for the style of writing their best journalists learn. The storytelling and short chapters make The Defining Moment more than just another book about FDR. As for Maraniss, take a look at what he got his Pulitzer for before writing him off as just a sports guy.

Best book handed to me by the author:
Any Which Wall, Laurel Snyder
Yes, it's true. Laurel Snyder is absolutely as awesome as she seems on Twitter.

Writers of color

Borrowing this list from Color Online, via The HappyNappyBookseller. X means read, # means on the TBR list, and ! means loved.

Susan’s Unofficial List of Great YA by or About Women of Color:

1. When Kambia Elaine Flew In From Neptune by Lori A. Williams
2. Every Time A Rainbow Dies by Rita Williams-Garcia
3. No Laughter Here by Rita Williams-Garcia
4. Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia
5. If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson (X)
6. The House You Pass On The Way by Jacqueline Woodson
7. Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith (#)
8. From The Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson
9. Sold by Patricia McCormick
10. Heaven by An Na
11. The Parable of The Sower by Octavia E. Butler (!)
12. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (#)
13. Persepolis by Majane Satrapi (X)
14. The Rock and The River by Kekla Magoon (!)
15. Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins (!)
16. Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis (#)
17. A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott (#)
18. Down To The Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole
19. Don’t Get It Twisted by Paula Chase
20. Jason & Kyra by Dana Davidson (!)
21. Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper
22. Kendra by Coe Booth (!)
23. Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger (#)
24. Does My Head Look Big In This? By Randa Abdel-Fattah (X)
25. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
26. Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim (X)
27. The Meaning of Conseulo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
28. In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (!)
29. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (!)
30. First Part Last by Angela Johnson
31. Pemba’s Song by Marilyn Nelson
32. Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan
33. M + O 4EVR by Tonya Hegamin (#)
34. Lucy The Giant by Sherri L. Smith
35. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (X)
36 Throwaway Piece by Jo Ann Hernandez
37. White Bread Competition by Jo Ann Hernandez
38. Across A Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande (#)
39. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
40. Ash by Malinda Lo
41. The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake

It's hardly a comprehensive list of the writers of color I've read and loved, let alone my ever-growing TBR list, but it's a start.