Carl Brandon Society’s Black History Month Reading List

Many good books to choose from here. Enjoy!

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THE CARL BRANDON SOCIETY recommends the following books of speculative fiction by writers of African descent for Black History Month:

DARK MATTER: A CENTURY OF SPECULATIVE FICTION FROM THE AFRICAN DIASPORA (Sheree R. Thomas, ed.): An important book. It shows that people of color were indeed represented in the speculative literature world back in the day.

SLY MONGOOSE Tobias S. Buckell: Fourteen-year-old Timas lives in a
domed city that floats above the acidic clouds of the Venus-like planet Chilo. To make a living Timas is lowered to the surface in an armored suit to scavenge what he can in the unbearable pressure of Chilo’s dangerous surface, where he’ll learn a secret that may offer hope to a planet about to be invaded.

FLEDGLING Octavia E. Butler: A different take on the vampire novel.

THE GOOD HOUSE Tananarive Due: The story of a house, magic, and pure terror.

MIDNIGHT ROBBER Nalo Hopkinson: Caribbean folk in space, coming of age, magnificent aliens, how ‘reality’ becomes folk tales. Magnificent.

THE SHADOW SPEAKER Nnedi Okorafor: When fifteen-year old Ejii witnesses her father’s beheading, her world shatters. In an era of mind-blowing technology and seductive magic, Ejii embarks on a mystical journey to track down her father’s killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face to face with an earth turned inside out — and with her own magical powers. WAS ON 2008′S LIST.

THE ICARUS GIRL Helen Oyeyemi: The first book by a talented new author. Set in England and Nigeria, this the tale of magic gone wrong and twisted around an unsuspecting child.

WIND FOLLOWER Carole McDonnell: Loic, the son of the wealthy headman of the Doreni clan, falls in love at first sight with Satha, the
impoverished but proud daughter of his father’s old Theseni friend.
Loic requests an immediate marriage and Satha’s parents agree, but for Satha, passion takes longer to ignite, and Loic’s father’s jealous
third wife plots to destroy their happiness. The two must reaffirm
their faith in each other and the Creator God to find their way through
their troubles.

SONG OF SOLOMON Toni Morrison: A novel of southern-fried magical realism that rivals anything our esteemed neighbors in the Southern Hemisphere have produced.

FILTER HOUSE Nisi Shawl: A long-awaited collection of short stories by a Carl Brandon Society founder. Shawl’s roots in African American community of the Great Lakes area, and her commitment to using speculative fiction to decode power relationships and uncover magic come through loud and clear in this wonderful book.
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Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

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The last Black History Month selection presented here for this year is Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire. It is a wonderful narrative told in the form of letters from a mother to her daughter. Zenzele is also a portrait of the struggle for independence and hope for both the individual and an entire culture.

From Library Journal:

Maraire, a Harvard-educated native of Zimbabwe now living in the United States, has written a beautifully poignant first novel about what it means to be a woman in Africa. The novel is written in the form of a letter from a mother to her daughter, Zenzele, who is just beginning her studies at Harvard. The mother writes of her girlhood in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe’s colonial name), the struggle for Zimbabwe’s independence, and her hopes and fears for the next generation. She has watched villagers send the best of her generation to Europe or America for an education, with the hope that they would return with their newly learned skills to better the lives of their compatriots. Instead, she is saddened when they do not return home to live but come back only for visits, seeming to have lost all remnants of African culture. The mother offers her own stories in hopes that her daughter, while creating herself, will never forget whence she came.

Biography: (from http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Maraire.html)

J. Nozipo Maraire was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1966 during the transition of the country from colonial Rhodesia under Britain to the independent country now called Zimbabwe. Maraire’s grandparents, parents, and other close family members were directly involved in the war for independence from both the British and the white elite. Maraire left Zimbabwe during the war. She lived and went to school in Canada, the United States, and Jamaica. Maraire stayed in Zimbabwe until she was 18 when she moved to Boston to study at Harvard University. While growing up, she had dreamed about studying medicine in America. However, her plan had been and still is to return to Zimbabwe as a doctor who could help improve Africa’s health care and economy. Maraire’s dream came true when she went to Columbia Medical School after receiving an undergraduate degree from Harvard.

Black History Month Feature # 2 – Futureland by Walter Mosley

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From The Barnes & Noble Review:

Throughout his literary career, Walter Mosley has demonstrated a breathtaking versatility, first making his name with hard-hitting mysteries exploring the modern African-American experience and then boldly delving into the world of science fiction with the dazzling Blue Light. Here he again ventures into the sci-fi arena to give us a splendid collection of nine loosely connected stories featuring a near-future America brimming with ultra-technology and insurrection. Political travails have escalated into fierce social disorder, and every institution in the nation is privatized, from prisons to schools to Eden-like retreats where hedonism and slavery go hand in hand. Mosley brings the talents he’s already known for in the mystery field and sets them to work in a world where revolution is as prevalent as home computers.

The stories that make up Futureland deal with the likes of Vortex “Bits” Arnold, a convict on Angel’s Island, where prisoners wear electronic snakes attached directly into their nerve centers, so that any inappropriate thought is immediately dealt with. We meet Fera Jones, the female heavyweight boxing champion who must follow either her own course or the one set for her by a feminist group bent on creating a new world order. There’s also Ptolemy “Popo” Bent, a child genius trying to find God in radio waves, and his uncle, Chilly Bent, who makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure his nephew’s future.

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This book is sure to delight those that are longtime fans of science fiction as well as those that are unfamiliar with the genre. Walter Mosley is a celebrated and skilled writer of multiple genres and Futureland is certainly one book that is sure to go down in history as a classic in the science fiction arena.

Walter Mosley