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For readers seeking to find a BIPOC author for the 2021 categories!

For example, for the 1990s best-sellers, I'm really liking the idea of reading The Memory Police!! I would never have known it counted if I hadn't seen it mentioned in a post here.

Paradise by Toni Morrison was a bestseller in 1998!

Here's the list I have so far. All of these are BIPOC.

1. Something broken on the cover: Clifford by Harold R Johnson
2. Magical Realism: The Brave by James Bird
3. Set in Multiple Countries: Indians on Vacation by Thomas King
4. Published Anonymously (going with the pseudonym thing): Hounding the Moon by PR Frost
5. Do-overs/fresh start: The East Side of It All by Joseph Dandurand
6. A different format than usual (a play): Dead White Writer on the Floor by Drew Hayden Taylor
7. Zodiac sign (Sagittarius): Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing: A Play by Thomson Highway
8. Women's prize for fiction: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
9. Features 3 generations: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
10. Oxymoron: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
11. Best seller in the 90's: Paradise by Toni Morrison
12. B&W cover: Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
13. Mostly/entirely outdoors: Wenjack by Joseph Boyden
14. Name of a song: Stone the Crow by Chris Bose
15. About an artist: From Bear Rock Mountain by Antoine Mountain
16. <1000 ŷ������ reviews: Grey Eyes by Frank Busch
17. Locked-room mystery: Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
18. About forgetting: Porcupines and China Dolls by Robert Arthur Alexie
19. Has a heart on the cover: Take Us To Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
20. Title starts with "q", "x" or "z": X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz
21. Body positivity: Hunger by Roxane Gay
22. Muslim American author: Unashamed by Leah Vernon
23. Set in a restaurant: Eat a Peach by David Chang
24. Gem/mineral/rock in title: The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
25. Dark academia: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
26. Family tree: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

I have one other planned book but it's a white author cuz I can't really find anything else...it's for the dream job prompt. I would LOVE to work in a funeral home or crematorium or something like that, so if anyone has ideas for that written by a non-white author, I would greatly appreciate the suggestions.

I would recommend Sing, Unburied, Sing for magical realism, and Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over for book about an artist or for starting over (it's right in the title).

Also, The Satapur Moonstone for gem/mineral/rock, but I would suggest reading the first one in the series first.

A Blade So Black, The Wedding Date, and Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion: a book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover
Their Eyes Were Watching God: a Capricorn author, a book about a fresh start, a book everyone seems to have read but you
The Nickel Boys and Gods of Jade and Shadow: a book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title
Home Fire: winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction
The House of the Spirits: a book with a family tree, three generations, and magical realism
In the Dream House: genre hybrid and something broken on the cover
The Beauty of Your Face: Muslim American author
Black Sun: oxymoron and indigenous author
Carpentaria: magical realism, indigenous author, and fewer than 1000 reviews on ŷ������
A Long Petal of the Sea and Pachinko: three generations and set in multiple countries
Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America: social justice issue and under 1000 reviews on ŷ������
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America: social justice issue, I really highly recommend this one
Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII: black and white cover and indigenous author
Fairview: black and white cover and it's a play if that's a format you don't normally read
Slave Play (also a play), Bootycandy (another play), and Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land: under 1000 reviews on ŷ������
How We Fight White Supremacy: social justice issue, BLM reading list, and under 1000 reviews on ŷ������

just remembered that Black Sun is also a song title

Beth wrote: "just remembered that Black Sun is also a song title"

Thank you, Beth!

Some aesthetic covers:

I'm focusing on diverse authors rather than solely BIPOC, but here are some of the books I'm doing, or have read:

1. A book that published in 2021 The Gilded OnesThe Gilded Ones. There are a number of Listopias as well: /search?utf8...
2. An Afrofuturist book The Fifth Season
3. A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover/9. A book with a family tree/20. A book on a Black Lives Matter reading list/ 33. A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child) Homegoing (Butter Honey Pig Bread, A Suitable Boy and Brown Girl Dreaming are other options for this).
6. A book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the titleJade City (alts: Gods of Jade and Shadow)
8. A book that has won the Women��s Prize for Fiction Half of a Yellow Sun or nominees
10. A bestseller from the 1990s Malice. On the thread we were discussing bestsellers from Asia. Thanks to Preeti, who linked this:
30. A book set somewhere you��d like to visit (removed 2021) /13. A locked-room mystery The Honjin Murders (backups for locked-room mystery: The Tattoo Murder Case, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, Salvation of a Saint)
14. A book set in a restaurant Gil's All Fright Diner
15. A book with a black-and-white cover A Promised Land (backup: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous)
17. A book that has the same title as a song/16. A book by an indigenous author Black Sun
334. A book about a social justice issue Transcendent Kingdom
27. A book about do-overs or fresh starts/28. A magical realism book/24. A book by a Muslim author//9. A book everyone seems to have read but you Midnight's Children
32. A book whose title starts with ��Q,�� ��X,�� or ��Z�� Queenie (other options: Queen of the Conquered, The Queen of the Night)
35. A book in a different format than what you normally read (audiobooks, ebooks, graphic novels) I'm listening to the Caravan podcast for this.
38. A book about art or an artist The Henna Artist

What is BIPOC? It is a new term to me!

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color

Thanks for creating this thread! I'll list a few that I've found for the tougher prompts:

3. Heart/diamond/spade/club on the cover:


5. Dark academia:
Catherine House

6. Gem/mineral/rock in the title:
It Is Wood, It Is Stone
House of Stone
Gods of Jade and Shadow

9. Family tree:
Love Medicine
Homegoing

11. Forgetting:
The Memory Police

13. Locked-room mystery:
The Honjin Murders

14. Set in a restaurant:
Number One Chinese Restaurant
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

17. Same title as a song:
Leave the World Behind
Telephone

19. Body positivity:
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
F*ck Your Diet: And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me

22. Set outdoors:
Blue Bear Woman (won't link for me)
Paddling with Spirits: A Solo Kayak Journey
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

23. Something broken on the cover:


25. Published anonymously:
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

26. Oxymoron in the title:
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

31. Blogger/vlogger, etc.:
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq

32. Q, X, Z title:
Queen Sugar
Quesadillas
Quichotte
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

38. Art/artist:
Grown
The Henna Artist

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban could also work for an online personality.

Layne, There is a book called Life as a Casketeer by funeral home directors in New Zealand. They are both Maori and I believe the book covers their background as well as traditional Maori beliefs around death and funeral customs etc. They have a tv show which I think is on Netflix so I��m hoping the book is available outside of NZ.

Thanks for that, Serendipity! I'd never heard of it, but it sounds good! Gonna have to track down a copy.

Mostly commenting to follow, but here are some of fave authors and prompts they might fit:
Stone Sky Gold Mountain (Miranda Riwoe) - Gem in the title
The Yield- Three generations; genre hybrid (it's both a dictionary and a novel). Won Australia's biggest fiction prize and a bunch of the smaller ones for good reason.
The Borrowed - locked room mystery (this is really, really good puzzle crime fiction set in Hong Kong)
Living on Stolen Land Amberlin Kwaymullina - Fresh Starts
Songspirals: Sharing women's wisdom of Country through songlines - Set outdoors.
The Tiniest House of Time - three generations, multiple countries
Questions of Travel - starts with Q, multiple countries. (Also note that the Qu'ran starts with Q in most English versions!).
The White Girl by Tony Birch (three generations, black and white cover)

There are lots of Indigenous authors writing Magical Realism including Carpentaria as mentioned above which is AMAZING, Catching Teller Crow and I'd count the Indonesian Man Tiger as well.

Lauren wrote: "Thanks for creating this thread! I'll list a few that I've found for the tougher prompts:

..."


I read Zami: A New Spelling of My Name for a women's studies class wayyyy back when I was in college (back when it was still a fairly new publication LOL), and I LOVED it!! I loved it so much I bought it for a friend as gift (I've always wondered if she read it - she never mentioned it). I was young, so this was the first time I'd ever read a book like that - perhaps it does not have the same enormous impact today. But I still recommend it! Audre Lorde was a giant among women!

Angie Thomas is releasing Concrete Rose in 2021. Thanks for this list!

Saving Ruby King - A book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title
The Sun Is Also a Star Nicola Yoon - Libra - A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign -

I would thoroughly recommend Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo for same title as a song.

Samantha wrote: "Angie Thomas is releasing Concrete Rose in 2021. Thanks for this list!"


what's everyone's thought on whether "Concrete Rose" is a title with a "gem, mineral, or rock" in the title? Is concrete a type of manufactured rock?

Nadine wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Thanks for creating this thread! I'll list a few that I've found for the tougher prompts:

..."


I read Zami: A New Spelling of My Name for a women's studies class wa..."

Good to know; I'll move this one the list since I really should have read Audre Lorde by now. Thanks for sharing!

Nadine wrote: "Samantha wrote: "Angie Thomas is releasing Concrete Rose in 2021. Thanks for this list!"


what's everyone's thought on whether "Concrete Rose" is a title with a "gem, mineral, or rock" in the titl..."

That would be close enough in my book. I generally approach the prompts with a touch of flexibility. ;)

Nadine wrote: "what's everyone's thought on whether "Concrete Rose" is a title with a "gem, mineral, or rock" in the titl..."

Google is telling me that the official geologist definition is that rocks can't be man-made, which means concrete doesn't count. But concrete production involves a lot of rocks (limestone, sandstone, other crushed stones). It's very rock-adjacent. I personally wouldn't use it but your mileage may vary.

Just some suggestions to help make filling a couple of the prompts a little easier:

For the zodiac prompt, someone in another thread suggested not just your astrological sign (eg I am an Aries), but also trying the Chinese Zodiac (I was born in the year of the horse) - this will help to broaden our choices with authors of color, and especially because I've found that a lot of newer and younger authors don't share their birth month.

For the prompt same title as a song (if you already have a TBR), I just typed book titles into Spotify's search bar to see what came up - there were SO many more than I expected!

For the family tree prompt, someone recommended searching Amazon for the book and using the "look inside" feature; I found this to be a great (but a little tedious) way to figure out if the books on my TBR fit this prompt :)

Kelly wrote: "For the family tree prompt, someone recommended searching Amazon for the book and using the "look inside" feature; I found this to be a great (but a little tedious) way to figure out if the books on my TBR fit this prompt :)"

May I ask what you've got planned for this one?

Layne wrote: "Kelly wrote: "For the family tree prompt, someone recommended searching Amazon for the book and using the "look inside" feature; I found this to be a great (but a little tedious) way to figure out ..."

I haven't decided yet, but my list includes Madeleine Thien - Do Not Say We Have Nothing, or Taiye Selasi -Ghana Must Go. I also have some books that have a cast of characters in the beginning (An Atlas of Impossible Longing, The Sleeping Dictionary, and There There) and two with a list of occupants (Last Man in Tower, The Flea Palace) but since those are not true family trees, I'll probably go with one of the first two.

For a different take on the prompt, I recently read An American Marriage by Tayari Jones which has a literal tree that is significant for the family in the book.

Thanks for sharing! An American Marriage sounds especially interesting!

Here's another contender for black & white cover (and this one is truly black & white, no grayscale - for those of you who are purists!!):

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

whoa, I love that title

Also, I posted this in the other topic, but I'll post it here too: The classic Korean folktale The Story of Hong Gildong would work for the anonymous author prompt.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn Just started this book today and I'm hooked.
It's an Arthurian Legend ya retelling.
The main character is 16 enrolled in an early college program, making this a good fit for dark academia.
Also there's a lot about family lines so you could use this for the family tree prompt as well.

Anyone have any good suggestions for the dream job prompt, if my dream job is librarian or bookshop owner or similar? I have The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry but haven't seen any others.

(Me) Moth is a novel in verse, so it could work for the "different format" prompt. It comes out in August. Great cover too:




Kelly wrote: "Anyone have any good suggestions for the dream job prompt, if my dream job is librarian or bookshop owner or similar? I have The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry but haven't seen any others."

I don't have a BIPOC author for this, but the deuteragonist of Carter & Lovecraft is an African-American woman who runs a bookstore.

Here are some suggestions, all books I've read:

16. There There - Indigenous author; fiction told from multiple perspectives leading up to a Pow Wow where their stories collide.
24. We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir A Muslim-Canadian author, Canadian instead of American (I'm sure it counts!); nonfiction memoir recounting moving from Pakistan to Canada and discovering her sexuality.
31. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don��t Know Malcolm Gladwell is known for his podcast, so he's kind of an online personality. This is nonfiction and a series of short stories and anecdotes about trust and communication between people.
34. Between the World and Me on the social justice issue of institutionalized racism; similar to a memoir but told letter-style.
35. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood This category is for books in different varieties. If you haven't listened to an audiobook before, this is the one! Trevor Noah narrates and does all the voices in different accents and it is hilarious and thought-provoking.

These are all completely different from each other and really great reads! I highly recommend each of them.

Kelly wrote: "Anyone have any good suggestions for the dream job prompt, if my dream job is librarian or bookshop owner or similar? I have The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry but haven't seen any others."



Paris Minton owns a bookstore in Walter Mosley's Fearless Jones series of mystery novels. (The series is named for Fearless, but Paris is the narrator of the stories.) And if you like audiobooks, Don Cheadle reads the audiobook of Fear Itself!! I wish he'd read the full series, he's awesome.

In the regular threads, I'm trying to add a * to the books I know have BIPOC authors to help with this search.

I'm doing this challenge, and maybe Pop sugar too.
I've been doing this for years, never knowing it was a challenge lol!

Looks like there will be crossover, so you may get good ideas for Native/ First Nations authors throughout the year for whatever you need.

Does To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite come under BIPOC?

Yes, I believe so

Tanvi wrote: "Yes, I believe so" Thank you :)

If you are trying to read Indigenous authors for the challenge:

Here is one for the Q, X, Z title:

The Qallunaat Book of Knowledge. by John Ningark. By a First Nations author.

Just read Vi by Kim Th��y.
This was a Giller Prize nominee a few years back. It's a memoir of Vi's experience in Vietnam, immigrating to Montreal, and obtaining her education. It was written in French and I read an English translation.

You could try for dream job: a lawyer. Set in a restaurant, because some chapters are. Immigrating to a new country counts as a fresh start. The book is set in multiple countries notably Vietnam and Canada. Anyway here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Here are some of my BIPOC choices for prompts:

16. A book by an indigenous author - Trail of Lightning
18. A book about a subject you are passionate about Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America or Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life
23. A book with something broken on the cover - Imagine Us Happy
24. A book by a Muslim American / Muslim British author - We Hunt the Flame

Kelly wrote: "Layne wrote: "Kelly wrote: "For the family tree prompt, someone recommended searching Amazon for the book and using the "look inside" feature; I found this to be a great (but a little tedious) way ..."

Oh man, Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi is a real tour de force.

Layne wrote: "I have one other planned book but it's a white author cuz I can't really find anything else...it's for the dream job prompt. I would LOVE to work in a funeral home or crematorium or something like ..."

Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home
This would fit the bill for you if you want Funderal Home Job and a book written by a WOC

I saw, sadly, that Hank Aaron passed away today. The author of the book The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, Howard Bryant, is a black man. The Last Hero is a song by Alter Bridge (I googled it). Or it could work for a subject you're passionate about, if you're passionate about baseball (like I am!)

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth is also a novel in verse, which could work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a book about forgetting? I��m really struggling with this one.

Tanvi wrote: "The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth is also a novel in verse, which could work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a book about forgetting? I��m really struggling with this one."

Years ago I read The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. It wasn't a favorite of mine, but it's generally highly rated.

Tanvi wrote: "The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth is also a novel in verse, which could work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a book about forgetting? I��m really struggling with this one."

Y��ko Ogawa ha written a beautiful bookThe Housekeeper and the Professor. I just started it amd really enjoying it so far. It is perfect for the forgetting prompt!

ETA: I can't type lol.