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Tuesday 2 September 2014

Black History Month Is Coming Up A Month Early For Me

By now, you may or may not have realized that even though I’m French, I have an ebony complexion. If you care to know, I’m originally from Ivory Coast. 

A long time ago, at a time when I was looking for a new fantasy book to read, it occured to me that the number of fantasy books I’ve read written by black authors was unfortunately close to none.  

So, I did what any sensible person looking for something does, I went on Google.

I typed “fantasy book black author” (or something similar to that) and many many many pages came up. Obviously, I didn’t check all of them. Nonetheless, there was one website in particular that caught my attention, The semi mad ramblings of a young black writer.

The owner of the blog, Troy L. Wiggins made a list of the six essential fantasy and science fiction book written by black authors. 

Here’s a link to it: http://afrofantasy.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/six-essential-fantasy-and-science-fiction-books-written-by-black-authors/

This list is composed of:

1) The Conjure Woman by Charles Chesnutt






2) Kindred by Octavia Butler





3) Imaro by Charles Saunders





4) Dhalgren by Samuel Delany






5) The Hundred Thousands Kingdoms by  N.K. Jemisin







And 6) Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor



I actually found Mr. Wiggins’ blog and this list anything between 6 month to a year ago (I can’t remember exactly, but I know it was a lifetime ago). Of course, I promised myself that I would read ALL the book on this list, I really did. I picked up The Hundred Thousands Kingdoms, I read about a hundred pages and then I kind of forgot about it. 

It’s not that it was bad. It’s just that I started to read other books at about the same time, and eventually The Hundred Thousand Kingdom took the backseat. 

But now that I’m getting older, I’m learning to keep my reading list tight. So, for September, I’ve decided to read at least THREE books on this list. My literary life is gonna be busy in September! 

I need to finish Some Girl Bites by Chloe Neill. I’ve been trying to finish that book for six months! 

Considering that I’m one of these readers that can finish a book in about 1 or 2 days when they're really into it or about two weeks when they're busy (if they don’t forget about it), that gives you an idea of how I felt about the first book in the Chicagoland series *whisper* terrible *look sideways*

I also promised two writers that I would review their book in September. And I wanted to read Fifty Shades of Grey (Yes I said it and I’m not ashamed *stick my tongue out*).

With that many book to read and so little time to spare, I’ll probably allow myself only three hours of sleep or maybe not. But that’s alright ‘cause I've still got a month left before starting uni and I’m not working at the moment.

Since I already have The Hundred Thousand Kingdom with me, I’ll start with it and then I’ll see where I’ll go from there. 

I’ll keep you updated guys:)

2 comments:

  1. I hope you manage to get to Kindred! It's an amazing book by an amazing author! Nevertheless, happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank You! I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdom yesterday and I loved it! I'm either going to read Kimaro or Kindred next.

    ReplyDelete

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