Annual Southern Reading Challenge 2009

Thanks to the "Pages Turned" blog for turning me on to Maggie's Annual Southern Reading Challenge. The challenge is to read three southern books between May 15 and August 15. As a southern author myself, I am always looking to see what other contemporary writers are doing with this magical part of the country. So I joined! And I'm counting Randall Kenan's The Fire This Time as my first book. I'm still trying to decide on the other two. Hmmm... Read more!

The Sugar Babies (2007)

I could have sworn that I blogged about Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones some months ago. But when I look back at my entries, I can't find a post. So...once again...something moved through my head as if I'd actually done it.

Danticat's novel is good. But what would you expect? It is no secret among booklovers that Danticat is one of our bright young stars. This novel tells the story of a young Haitian domestic worker living in the Dominican Republic during the 1930s, in the immediate time leading up to the Haitian-Dominican massacre of 1937 carried out by then dictator Rafael Trujillo. In the novel, Annabella's fiance is a sugar cane worker.

But I'm not writing to review Danticat's novel. I'm writing (thanks to Ana-Maurine) about a recent documentary--narrated by Danticat, no less--created by filmmaker Amy Serrano about the present-day industry of sugar production in the Dominican Republic. Still composed mainly of Haitian workers with no legal status in the country, Serrano's film is described thusly, "Sugar Babies examines the moral price of sugar--present and past--from the perspective of the conditions surrounding the children of sugar cane cutters of Haitian ancestry in the Dominican republic, and the continuing denial of their basic human rights."

Hmm. Sounds like a must-see to me. Click here to see if there is an upcoming screening near you.
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The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa (2006)

Some characters stand up and demand for you to tell their stories. This is the way I felt with Gonzalo Barr's collection The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa. Barr's stories capture the complex cultural hodgepodge of Miami. It's the kind of book that makes you never look at a city the same way again. Barr won the Bakeless Prize in 2005, and I heard him read from "Braulio Wants His Car Back" that following summer. I loved that story then and I still love it. It's my favorite story in the collection. But that's not all. From a wealthy heir crippled by a dysfunctional relationship with his mother to a bartender trying to escape his past, Barr's collection is full of wonderfully complicated characters. I've always appreciated flawed characters, and Barr is unafraid to bruise his. This is definitely one worth checking out.

Click here to buy the book! Read more!

New Links

I'm updating my blog and I've added some new author links to my "Faves" list in the right sidebar, including: Ru Freeman (pictured to the left), Paul Austin, Kathryn Ma, Gonzalo Barr, Kirsten Menger-Anderson, Marie Mockett.

Click on any name above to go directly to their website!!

:-]
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The Fire This Time (2007)

I have always enjoyed Randall Kenan's fiction. The things he does with the rural southern narrative, his incorporation of myth and magic into the southern oral tradition, his incredible compassion for ordinary black folks and their ways and customs has long endeared this writer to me. The term "brilliant" is bandied about a lot to describe writers these days, especially the precocious ones or the older ones who have achieved a measure of fame and awards. But when I say that Mister Kenan is brilliant, I hope you believe me sho nuff.

So it was with this previous opinion of him that I approached his collection of essays The Fire This Time. I was cautiously optimistic, y'all. Often times, skill in one genre does not cross into the next. The title caught me first--its obvious homage to James Baldwin intriguing enough to make me buy the book. There was no Table of Contents, and so I was unsure what to expect as I dived into it.

I was not disappointed, y'all. Kenan has carefully thought about a range of issues related to black culture: from hip-hop to religion to black class mobility to the use of the word "nigger" to black political participation. And throughout the discussion, he deftly manipulates the story of Brother Fox and Brother Rabbit, the trickster figures that metaphorically represent so much of how black culture has manifested itself.

And what's more, he ends by identifying that Obama is someone special and predicting that he represents the future. The book was pub'd in 2007. Gotta love the vision. The book is smart, thoughtful, and interesting. I highly recommend. Click here to buy.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Beautiful Struggle (2008)

I've just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates' new memoir The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood (2008) and I am completely enthralled by this talented writer! I'd heard so much about Ta-Nehisi before this and had read a few articles here and there by him. But it wasn't until I read this wonderful book that I felt a sense of connection with him, and a true understanding of what makes him so uniquely talented.

Ta-Nehisi writes of growing up in West Baltimore during a period when crack cocaine was ravaging the black community, and when young black men felt tremendous pressure to conform to a very narrow view of black masculine style and behavior. For Ta-Nehisi, the difference between him and many of his young friends, was the presence of his father--Paul Coates, the founder of Black Classic Press and a veritable giant in black literary legends. The elder Coates was a radical black nationalist, and he ruled over a household defined by strict rules and daily lectures about colonialism and power and black pride. Ta-Nehisi's story is about growing into his father's ideals. Ultimately, the book is about the victory of an education-minded household over the pull of the streets. It is the challenge faced by every black parent of sons living in inner cities.

And, y'all, the other brilliance of this book is that Ta-Nehisi writes of this narrative with such poetic rhythm. I found myself as delighted by the sentences as I was by the story.

If you'd like to read some of Coates right now, go to his blog here. He writes for the Atlantic Monthly online, and it's quickly become one of my favorite blogs. But I also urge you to buy the book by clicking here.
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Elliott Bay Book Co.

I have written about Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle before, but it is only after having lived here for these past few years that I have begun to truly appreciate the wonderful work they do in promoting good literature. I have always loved to browse the shelves there...it has tall ceilings and old hardwood floors and lovely reading nooks. Even my author photo was taken here.

But I want to mention, briefly, their phenomenal readings. I don't know how many authors they bring each year, but it must be hundreds. Just this month they have Sandra Cisneros and Achy Obejas and Nancy Rawles and Ne-Tehisi Coates. Next month, I will move mountains to see Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Luis Alberto Urrea. In the past, I have seen Junot Diaz and George Saunders and Helen Oyeyemi and so many authors I admire right there in that wonderful little basement room.

Independent bookstores are closing left and right. The wonderful Karibu Books in DC closed. And I've just heard that Vertigo Books, a bookstore that made me move to DuPont Circle in DC years ago (I'm not kidding), has closed. So I ask that you support Elliott Bay Books by purchasing your next book from them. You can order online, of course!! Here is the link to the store: http://www.elliottbaybook.com
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