reading list: no white dudes 2016

originally published on medium.com in may of 2016. for a full list of books i ended up reading that year check out the goodreads list.

Inspired by Haley’s post from last year, I decided to challenge myself to only read books by authors who are not white men. This includes authors of all non-male genders, as well as men of color. I’m a huge sci-fi and fantasy fan, and through this exercise I’ve discovered some fantastic authors that I never would have known about otherwise. My goal is to read 75 books by authors in this category in 2016. You can follow along on Goodreads, or check back as I update this list with reviews (linked from the titles) and recommendations!

Read

The Good

• The Mists Of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (fantasy)
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson (nonfiction, social justice)
• Monstress, Marjorie M. Liu (comic, fantasy) (edit: Vol 1. is out now)
• The Three-Body Problem & The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu (science fiction)
• The Girl in the Road, Monica Byrne (speculative fiction)
• The Secret History, Donna Tartt (fiction)
• Xenogenesis 1–3: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, Octavia Butler (science fiction)
• The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (fiction)
• Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, Janet Mock (nonfiction, memoir)
• Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing Of The Dog, Connie Willis (science fiction)
• American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel, memoir)
• My Brilliant Friend & The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante (fiction)
• Synners, Pat Cadigan (cyberpunk)
• Uprooted, Naomi Novik (fantasy)
• Kindred, Octavia Butler (science fiction)
• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel (speculative fiction)
• The Firesteel, Ash Huang (fantasy)
• A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Usrula K. Le Guin (young adult fantasy)
• Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit (essays)
• The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine N. Aron (nonfiction, self-help)
• Dead Man Walking, Helen Prejean (nonfiction, social justice)

The Alright

• Yes Please, Amy Poehler (nonfiction, memoir)
• Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari (nonfiction, sociology)
• Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (science fiction)
• The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood (fiction)
• Fire Watch, Connie Willis (science fiction, short stories)
• Find Me, Laura van den Berg (speculative fiction)

The Bad

• Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho (fantasy)
• Graceling & Fire, Kristen Cashore (young adult fantasy)

On Deck

• Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson (fantasy)

To-Read

• The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (fantasy)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (fantasy)
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (fantasy)
• Mélusine, Sarah Monette (fantasy)
• Trouble and her Friends, Melissa Scott (cyberpunk)
• The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt (fiction)
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, Lindy West (memoir)
• The Girls, Emma Cline (fiction)
• We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement, Andi Zeisler (nonfiction, feminism)
• more to-read can be found here!

p.s. — Reading 75 books in a year can get expensive. Fortunately, most of what I’ve read has been available as a free e-book from the San Francisco Public Library. They even have Kindle books available! It’s so convenient, and I urge everyone to take a look at what their local library has to offer!