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The year is coming to a close and I was wondering which books of fiction that our group members read in 2009 were their favorites. Let us know about those written by people of color as well as any other favorites. They don't have to be published in 2009, just read by you in 2009.

Here are mine:

Favorite Fiction by People of Color Read in 2009

Someone Knows My Name, AKA The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill;

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden;

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich;

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice;

Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan;

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie;

Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts; and

Unaccustomed Earth Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

Favorite Fiction NOT Written by People of Color Read in 2009

Evidence of Things Unseen A Novel by Marianne Wiggins;

City of Refuge by Tom Piazza;

Serena by Ron Rash;

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell;

and Drop City by T.C. Boyle.

What were your favorites?

Favorite Fiction by Person of Color '09:

The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured man - James Weldon Johnson
The Book of Night Women - Marlon James
Zadie Smith - On Beauty
Song Yet Sung - James McBride

Favorite Fiction Not written by POC:

Saturday - Ian McEwan
A Reliable Wife - Rbt Goolrick

I realize as I go back over my books read in 09, that I've read very few duds. That's a good thing. But do best of lists cease to mean something when they get very long? I will try to pare down.

Authors of Color
Anna In-Between by Elizabeth Nunez
Through Black Spruce (I would second Wilhelmina's nomination of Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
The Plague of Doves A Novel by Louise Erdrich
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Le Thi Diem Thuy
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
Erasure by Percival Everett
Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Flowers A Novel by Dagoberto Gilb

Not by POC
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

One of the books I hope to read next year is Blindness, Rashida. I'm glad to see that you enjoyed it so much. I'll probably read Through Black Spruce as well.

I loved Blindness and didn't know Jose Saramago wasn't white. Could you enlighten me?

My list of favourite fiction for 2009:
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
the Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Hyperion by Dan Simmons

and particularly by POC:
The Dragon Can't Dance by Earl Lovelace
the Longest Memory by Fred d'Aguiar
The Known World by Edward P Jones

My to-read list is scarily long!

Actually, Hazel, you caught me on the Jose Saramago thing. Have to admit I wasn't sure which list he should go on. He's Portugese. I think it's a fairly long and complicated discussion about race politics, and one best answered by Mr. Saramago himself about how he identifies, but I completely understand putting him elsewhere.

i love that now turkish and portoguese folks count as non-white! how about we promote italians to non-white too and put umberto eco with people of color?

but seriously, isn't this a VERY DIFFICULT classification to make?

i loved, by POC:

The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Achidie
Animal's People by Indra Sinha (you've got to read this folks)
The Necessary Hunger by Nina Revoyr
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
The Long Fall by Walter Mosley (post-9/11 noir splendid)
A Person of Interest by Susan Choi
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki


by other people:
Someday This Pain will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
Lush Life by Richard Price
The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

Jo, you caught me, too. I looked at my list and said, wait, I put Saramago under POC, but Eco under white. How did I do that? And my mind started racing in circles and I just hit post and hoped that nobody else would see that. And then you and Hazel come along, being all astute and everything...

i love that now turkish and portoguese folks count as non-white! how about we promote italians to non-white too and put umberto eco with people of color? Don't you mean demote? Teehee!

I remember reading an interview with Antonio Banderas, wherein he said he'd thought he was white (living in Europe) until he moved to the US and found himself Hispanic! He was bemused.

By the way, I thought Richard Price was black!?

I read some very good books this year so it was difficult to narrow them down.

Favorite books by People of Color:

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
Unaccustomed Earth by Lahiri Jumpa
The Thief of Letters by Janet Mountain Johnson

Favorite books by authors other than People of Co;or:

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Cutting for Stone by Abrahan Verghese
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
The Grift by Debra Ginsberg

Olive Kitteridge! how could i miss Olive Kitteridge? definitely one of this year's best.

yeah, richard price, just like george pelecanos, is one of those writers who should be black, cuz they get black (my ny and dc peeps tell me).

i find the politics that have now assimilated hispanic people in europe, traditionally considered white, with hispanic people in the americans, traditionally considered of color, interesting and, as many race matters, infuriating at the same time.

italians used to be considered colored in the olden times (i think swarthy was a typical connotation for them/us), but got bleached through the years.

middle eastern people are also interesting, cuz there's a ton of immigration there, and a ton of slavic miscegenation, yet we like to think of them as "of color."

i'm really talking out of my a**. i don't know anything about this. when i go to europe and the middle east, though, i see people i would be hard pressed to identify as people of color. of course, this happens in the US all the time, too.

did i say that i recommend Animal's People to everyone? i recommend Animal's People to everyone.

Hey, I know people who looked at Pelecanos' picture and still didn't believe he wasn't black! I would vote him and Price (and jo, of course) into the club!

i find the politics that have now assimilated hispanic people in europe, traditionally considered white, with hispanic people in the americans, traditionally considered of color, interesting and, as many race matters, infuriating at the same time.

Yes, it's sometimes baffling, and can be embarassing. I've put my foot in it in London, calling people of Indian descent 'black'. (It was Londoners of African descent who were offended.)And I remember when I was growing up in Trinidad. Some of us were called 'Trinidad White' which meant: although you're blond and blue-eyed, your grandmother/cousins are obviously black. There's no question though, Europeans see race differently than people from the US. That's why I try to ask what people mean. No offence intended! One day, none of it will matter.

So, for my own edification, is there a tendency in the US to equate 'non-English-speaking' with 'person-of-colour'?

Gosh, reading these lists is painful - so many great books that I didn't get to this year. From what I did read, this is what I enjoyed in 2009:

By People of Color:
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
leadbelly: poems by Tyehimba Jess
Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace by Angel Kyodo Wiliams
Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir by Mamie Fields

Graphic Novels:
Bayou by Jeremy Love
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2 by Alan Moore

Non-Fiction:
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior by Geoffrey Miller

shucks, qiana, i really hoped you'd get into this discussion on the "identity" of "people of color!"

Hazel wrote: "So, for my own edification, is there a tendency in the US to equate 'non-English-speaking' with 'person-of-colour'? "

It certainly isn't just non- English speaking - no one would consider Germans or Swedes people of color. In Jose Saramago's case, I think that his name was the deciding factor. Also, the less Aryan a person looks, the more likely it is that they be thought of as a POC. For me, self-identification is the primary key, the exception being African Americans who are sufficiently European-looking that they do not identify themselves as black. If I can look at you and see a black person, don't try to be something else!

This is what happens when a non-scientific term like race sits at the heart of the way that we in the USA view one another.

jo wrote: "shucks, qiana, i really hoped you'd get into this discussion on the "identity" of "people of color!""

You're asking me to do a little too much thinking for the end of the semester, jo! Although I agree with Mina - self-identification is often key for me in cases where I'm unsure.

Unfortunately, I don't think the African-American literary "canon" (and by this I mean, what academics recognize and teach as critically important texts in this subgenre) has found a way to sufficiently grapple with non-black writers like Pelecanos and Price who do such a good job of representing black experience. I have never taught William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner in my African-American lit survey course, but I jumped at the chance to include it in my "Race, Slavery, and American Lit" course. Hrm....

I suppose this is really off topic and moves us into the realm of "representation" but that's my two cents!

It certainly isn't just non- English speaking - no one would consider Germans or Swedes people of color. In Jose Saramago's case, I think that his name was the deciding factor.

Well, it's a Portuguese name... Sorry, I don't mean to be awkward, I just don't get it. Is it Southern European= POC? So Iberia and the Mediterranean?

Unfortunately, I don't think the African-American literary "canon" (and by this I mean, what academics recognize and teach as critically important texts in this subgenre) has found a way to sufficiently grapple with non-black writers like Pelecanos and Price who do such a good job of representing black experience.

Once upon a time some South Africans were elevated to 'Honorary White' status. Perhaps there should be something similar for such writers! (TFIC)

This is what happens when a non-scientific term like race sits at the heart of the way that we in the USA view one another.

Not just the US, Mina. I've tried to convince London colleagues that 'race' is not a scientific entity, but rather a socio-political one. I'm not sure I was successful.

A Portuguese name could connote Brazil; a Spanish name could be Latino; Sven Larsen would just sound like a white guy, even if he were not! The whole thing is nutty - it won't make sense, no matter how hard you try! (For that matter, Malcolm Gladwell certainly sounds like a white guy and his books are certainly race-neutral, but he is a black guy. It's hopeless.)

You're right. This subject is impervious to logic! Ah, well.

I'm so glad I am in this group! I just looked at the broader goodreads "Best Books of 2009" getting reading to vote for the books of 2009 - and while I am not positive (and would certainly like to be shown to be wrong, here) there doesn't appear to be 1.) any authors of color to vote for 2.) I don't see very many (if any) international authors represented

So thank you for this thread!

One of the best books I've read on the origins and patent absurdity of race classifications in the U.S. is One Drop of Blood: The American Misadventure of Race by Scott Malcomson. Take that back, one of the best books I've read period.

Wilhelmina wrote: "Hazel wrote: "So, for my own edification, is there a tendency in the US to equate 'non-English-speaking' with 'person-of-colour'? "

It certainly isn't just non- English speaking - no one would con..."

it's SO interesting that you are going to happily let white people self-identify, but do not extend the same leisure to black people! it's a very political act, and one that situates you as much as them. i, for instance, would not be in any position to do that, nor should i be. i love this topic. thanks bill for reminding us that people have discussed it for a long time, and written great books about it.

Izetta Autumn wrote: "I'm so glad I am in this group! I just looked at the broader goodreads "Best Books of 2009" getting reading to vote for the books of 2009 - and while I am not positive (and would certainly like to ..."

hmm, i don't know how many of our books were actually published in 2009... wilhelmina has started another thread with carleen brice's list of best books by african-american authors that were published in 2009. check that out!

jo wrote: it's SO interesting that you are going to happily let white people self-identify, but do not extend the same leisure to black people!

Yep, and I'm not even going to apologize for it! Actually there's a long history of white people identifying with black people for what I consider good reasons, often for love (see the musical Show Boat, for example). Years ago, I taught at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, one of the first colleges founded for higher education for African Americans. It is located in what for many years was solid Klan country. One of the long-term professors there was a white man, a Boston Brahmin disowned by his family for marrying a black woman. The people on campus all knew the story, but when he began teaching at Lincoln (maybe in the '30s?), the white townspeople used to see him walking with his wife and mutter things like, "Y'know, that's the whitest looking black man I ever saw!" Needless to say, he didn't correct them!

I don't know if I'll finish in time for it to be a 2009 read (though I think I may squeak in under the wire), but the book I'm currently reading, The Night Counter A Novel, has me absolutely enthralled, and I highly recommend it.

it looks great! thank you rashida.

My 2009 fiction list:

POC

The Book of Night Women James, Marlon
The Flowers: A Novel Gilb, Dagoberto
Graceland Abani, Chris
Purple Hibiscus Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
A Distant Shore Phillips, Caryl
Someone Knows My Name Hill, Lawrence
Kindred Butler, Octavia E.
The Gangster We Are All Looking For Thúy, Lê Thi Diem

Non POC

Aftermath Shawver, Brian
Torch Strayed, Cheryl
Oedipus the King and Antigone Sophocles
Don't Get Too Comfortable Rakoff, David
Fever Rowe, Sean

bill you definitely have a knack for the light, happy read. not. :)

Yeah..and starting 2010 with that laugh riot..Adiche's fictional account of the Biafran civil war in Half of a Yellow Sun..

William wrote: "Yeah..and starting 2010 with that laugh riot..Adiche's fictional account of the Biafran civil war in Half of a Yellow Sun.."

I thought this was a great book -- can't wait to hear your thoughts...

A Distant Shore was a great read - I really enjoyed it too. I'll have to check out Graceland and The Gangster...didn't get to them this year.

Even though Yellow Sun has been on my bookself longer somehow I got around to reading Purple Hibiscus first...I did really enjoy that one so I doubt I'll be disappointed in Yellow. I also thought Distant was a fabulous story. Have you read his more recent "Foreigners". Its got lots of good reviews.

William wrote: "Even though Yellow Sun has been on my bookself longer somehow I got around to reading Purple Hibiscus first...I did really enjoy that one so I doubt I'll be disappointed in Yellow. I also thought D..."

Yes, I read and reviewed Foreigners...really enjoyed it.

I'm coming in late to the discusssion but here are my picks:

POC:
- Midnight Robber, Nalo Hopkinson
- A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
- Blood Dazzler (poetry), Patricia Williams

non-POC:
- Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
- Runaway (stories), Alice Munro

And I agree with the 'self-identification' thing for POC, and would extend that to something that is experienced/felt as a lifelong identity. I feel like being a POC is as much about being part of a 'colored' racial group as it is about how you carry yourself in the world, and who you choose to be in community with as family, ethnic group, etc. I have to say a shared experience of oppression and an inability as a group to be able to assimilate into being, broadly, 'White' (as many Jews, Irish and Italians have done in this country at least) also factors in. For that reason, I wouldn't count Italians or Portuguese people in there (and am sure many of them would object to be put in that place!) unless of course they're mixed-race and identify that way. A good example to me of a person of color who doesn't obviously 'look' like one but strongly identifies as one is Rashida Jones. Also, many Arab folks may not 'look' like a POC (have blonde hair, blue eyes, etc.) but their collective historical and current experiences of oppression certainly make them feel very non-White, especially post-9/11.

Midnight Robber is one of my favorites, Rona, and I loved your other 4 choices also. Really good books.

Mina is there a difference in text between. Someone knows my name and the Book of Negroes? I just bought the Book of Negroes hardcover with illustrations for 24.95 in Canada. I am excited to own it.

Same book, just a change in title for the USA. Illustrations! Wonderful! Enjoy!

Rebecca wrote: "Mina is there a difference in text between. Someone knows my name and the Book of Negroes? I just bought the Book of Negroes hardcover with illustrations for 24.95 in Canada. I am excited to own it. "

I have the original Canadian first edition and purchased the illustrated version too...I didn't read the American version - I'm assuming there were no changes other than the cover art and title.

So Phyllis is the First edition the illustrated version or are there other ilustrated versions? I suppose for the US the title is not "politically correct" ah ha. Thanks mina I sure will its GORGEOUS.

Rashida wrote: "I don't know if I'll finish in time for it to be a 2009 read (though I think I may squeak in under the wire), but the book I'm currently reading, The Night Counter A Novel, has me a..."

Thank you, Rashida. This looks delightful, and I've added it to my list.

And I agree with the 'self-identification' thing for POC, and would extend that to something that is experienced/felt as a lifelong identity. I feel like being a POC is as much about being part of a 'colored' racial group as it is about how you carry yourself in the world, and who you choose to be in community with as family, ethnic group, etc. I have to say a shared experience of oppression and an inability as a group to be able to assimilate into being, broadly, 'White' (as many Jews, Irish and Italians have done in this country at least) also factors in. For that reason, I wouldn't count Italians or Portuguese people in there (and am sure many of them would object to be put in that place!) unless of course they're mixed-race and identify that way.

Rona, that makes a lot of sense. So, it's about self-perception. Am I on the inside? Or am I seen by insiders as 'other'? What I found in London was that some POC seemed to see other POC as 'insiders'.

I love The Plague of Doves!! The novel remains unparalleled as far as the storytelling among the books on my reading list of 2009.

A close second is Unaccustomed Earth. I rarely read or like a second book by an author if the first book fell flat for me, but this one surprised me. (I wasn't a huge fan of The Namesake--the movie solved some of the problems I had with the book--surprisingly).

Qiana wrote: "Gosh, reading these lists is painful - so many great books that I didn't get to this year. From what I did read, this is what I enjoyed in 2009:

By People of Color:
[book:Someone Knows My Name|875..."

I also loved Bayou.
When I was finished reading it - I passed it on to my 11 yr old grandson who also enjoyed it and called me up and said he was ready for the sequel.

Rona wrote: "I'm coming in late to the discusssion but here are my picks:

POC:
- Midnight Robber, Nalo Hopkinson
- A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
- Blood Dazzler (poetry), Patricia Williams

non-POC:
- H..."

O like Atwood's writing but I still think The Handmaid's tale is her best work (at least it is my fav)

I read a number of very good books this year.

Here are my favs by POB:
The Book of Night Women - Marlon James
Before I Forget - Leonard Pitts
An Elegy for Easterly - Petina Gappah
Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie
The Vagrants - Yiyum Li
Ruined - Lynn Nottage
The Wasted Vigil - Nadeem Aslam
I Am Not Sidney Poiter - Percival Everett
Brown Girl in the Ring - Nalo Hopkinson
Children of the Water - Carleen Brice
The Other Lands - David Anthony Durham
The Calligrapher's Daughter - Eugenia Kim

Fav 2209 Reads by non-POC
Under This Unbroken Sky - Shandi Mitchell
Hold Love Stron - Matthew Aaron Goodman
Serna - Ron Rash
Atlas of the Unknowns - Tania James
Mudbound - Hillary Jordon
Lowboy - John Wray

great list beverly!

Impressive!

"Cultural" Fiction
The Vagrants - Yiyun Li
Ruins - Achy Obejas
I Do Not Come to You By Chance - Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
Finding Nouf - Zoe Ferraris
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
Wife of the Gods - Kwei Quartey
The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdich
Under This Unbroken Sky - Shandi Mitchell

Fiction/Historical Fiction/Speculative Fiction
The Book of Night Women - Marlon James
The Well and the Mine - Gin Phillips
Rampart Street - David Fulmer
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafron
Hold Love Strong - Matthew Aaron Goodman
A Visible Darkness - Michael Gregorio
Ruined - Lynn Nottage
Before I Forget - Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2) - David Anthony Durham

Short Stories
Ford County - John Grisham
An Elegy for Easterly - Petina Gappah

Graphic and Non-Fiction
Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans - Roland Laird, Taneshia Nash Laird, Elihu "Adofo" Bey

Satire
I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts - Larry Wilmore
I Am Not Sidney Poitier - Percival Everett

Not Released in 2009 - But Still Enjoyed
The Wasted Vigil - Nadeem Aslam
Mudbound - Hillary Jordan
Rush Home Road - Lori Lansens
Beulah Hill - William Heffernan

okay, i'm floored. you guys rock.