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A Selected Multicultural Fiction Reading List
some with annotations
-all books available at the Melrose Public Library-
(also check the shelves for additional books by the same authors)
| The Hand I Fan With Romantic, sexy, magical story set in the fictional smalltown of Mulberry, Georgia. |
1996 | Tina McElroy Ansa |
| Go Tell it on the Mountain | 1953 | James Baldwin |
| Cloudsplitter Historical novel about abolitionist John Brown from the perspective of his son, Owen. |
1998 | Russell Banks |
| Theory of War: A Novel | 1993 | Joan Brady |
| A Dry White Season | 1989 | Andre P. Brink |
| Big Girls Don't Cry One woman's search for love and purpose in a world where it's difficult to have both. |
1996 | Connie Briscoe |
| The Good Earth | 1947 | Pearl Buck |
| Gorilla, My Love: Short Stories | 1972 | Toni Cade Bambara |
| Brothers and Sisters A black/white friendship in post-riot L.A. |
1994 | Bebe Moore Campbell |
| Monkey King Cultural conflict in a Chinese-American family |
1997 | Patricia Chao |
| Rattlebone Life in a 1950's all black town as described by 3 of its citizens |
1994 | Maxine Clair |
| The Crown of Columbus Adventure novel of the quest for Christopher Columbus' lost diary |
1991 | Michael Dorris Louise Erdrich |
| Invisible Man Story of a young black man's journey of self discovery in the South and North. |
1952 | Ralph Ellison |
| Spartacus Story of the great slave revolt against the Roman Republic. |
1958 | Howard Fast |
| A Lesson Before Dying Two black men struggle to live and die with dignity in 1940s Cajun Louisiana. |
1993 | Ernest Gaines |
| The Shadow Lines Story of two Indian families, one in Calcutta and one in London. |
1990 | Amitav Ghosh |
| Burger's Daughter A young woman's slowly evolving identity in apartheid South Africa. |
1979 | Nadine Gordimer |
| Free Man of Color |
1997 | Barbara Hambly |
| Presumed Dead Mystery set in the Chicago Police Dept. where the author is a lieutenant. |
1994 | Hugh Holton |
| Short Stories of Langston Hughes | 1996 | edited by Harper |
| Novels and Stories (including Their Eyes Were Watching God) |
1995 | Zora Neale Hurston |
| Typical American Life on the road with a Chinese immigrant family. |
1991 | Gish Jen |
| Middle Passage Fictional account of a free black man who is mistakenly put on a slave ship. |
1990 | Charles Johnson |
| The Floating World A coming of age story through the eyes of a 12 year old Japanese American girl. |
1989 | Cynthia Kadohata |
| Lucy (1990) Journey of a 19 year old girl from rural West Indies to North America. |
Jamaica Kincaid | |
| The Poisonwood Bible A white family's story of undoing and remarkable reconstruction after arriving as missionaries to the Belgian Congo in 1959. |
1998 | Barbara Kingsolver |
| Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book | 1989 | Maxine H. Kingston |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | 1960 | Harper Lee |
| And All Our Wounds Forgiven Love story about a charismatic black civil rights leader. |
1994 | Julius Lester |
| Spring Moon Set in China from the 1890's through the 1970s. |
1981 | Bette Bao Lord |
| Palace Walk First of a trilogy depicting the life of a Muslim family in Cairo during the British occupation of the early 1900s. |
1990 | Naguib Mahfouz |
| Dreams of My Russian Summers | 1997 | Andrei Makine |
| Wooden Fish Songs Three women telling the story of a Chinese immigrant to America. |
1995 | Ruthanne L. McCunn |
| Praisesong for the Widow | 1983 | Paule Marshall |
| How Stella Got Her Groove Back | 1996 | Terry McMillan |
| Fragments of the Ark A South Carolina slave escapes from Confederate Charleston to the Union Navy. |
1994 | Louise Meriwether |
| Song of Solomon Novel exploring family bond and conflict through 4 generations of black life in America. |
1977 | Toni Morrison |
| Devil in a Blue Dress: An Easy Rawlins Novel | 1990 | Walter Mosley |
| The Flight of the Tiger Surreal humor used to expose oppression in the village of Hualacato, Argentina. |
1981 | Daniel Moyano |
| The Holder of the World Intriguing meeting of two very different worlds - Puritan America and India. |
1993 | Bharati Mukherjee |
| The Women of Brewster Place audio recording |
1993 | Gloria Naylor |
| Blanche Among the Talented Tenth Domestic turned detective Blanche White confronts murderous secrets among the black upper class. |
Barbara Neely | |
| The God of Small Things | 1997 | Arundhati Roy |
| Betsey Brown: A Novel Lyrical coming of age novel, set in 1957 St. Louis, about a teenaged black girl who endures the trials of school integration. |
1985 | Ntozake Shange |
| The Joy Luck Club | 1989 | Amy Tan |
| The Do Right Man A black man's search for love and career. |
1997 | Omar Tyree |
| The Good Negress A teenager struggles to rise above her family's oppressive expectations. |
1995 | A.J. Verdelle |
| Possessing the Secret of Joy | 1992 | Alice Walker |
| Jubilee Civil War plantation life through the eyes of a black woman. |
1966 | Margaret Walker |
| The Wedding Issues confronting a black upper middle class family on Martha's Vineyard. |
1995 | Dorothy West |
| The Homewood Trilogy |
1985 | John Edgar Wideman |
| Devil's Gonna Get Him Murder mystery. |
1995 | Valerie Wesley |
| Native Son | 1940 | Richard Wright |
| Red Sorghum Three generations caught in the brutal unrest of 1920s-1930s rural China. |
1993 | Mo Yan |