LITERATURE
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Alice Wong, this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. This is a groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience. Disability Visibility brings together the voices of activists, authors, lawyers, politicians, artists, and everyday people whose daily lives are, in the words of playwright Neil Marcus, "an art . . . an ingenious way to live”.
The Fire Next Time
A classic treatise on civil rights, this book written by James Baldwin and published in 1963 was originally a letter to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the so-called emancipation of black America. It contains two essays: "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation" and "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region of My Mind". A new edition of this book features photojournalist Steve Schapiro’s visual record of the struggle of Black Americans and provides a model for how to report in the Black Lives Matter era.
Minor Feelings: an Asian American Reckoning
Cathy Park Hong believes not enough has been said about Asian Americans. Her perspective in this essay collection is clear: “Asian Americans inhabit a vague purgatorial status . . . distrusted by African Americans, ignored by whites, unless we’re being used by whites to keep the black man down.” She thinks that Asians are perceived to be emotionless functionaries, and yet she is always “frantically paddling my feet underwater, always overcompensating to hide my devouring feelings of inadequacy.” In her book she portraits a ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human.
FAIREST
Is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a “sun child” from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. Throughout her journey, Talusan shares poignant and powerful episodes of desirability and love that will remind readers of works such as Call Me By Your Name and Giovanni’s Room. Her evocative reflections will shift our own perceptions of love, identity, gender, and the fairness of life.
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements
The author, Charlene Carruthers provides in this manifesto a vision for how social justice movements can become sharper and more effective through principled struggle, healing justice, and leadership development. Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist.
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
Written by Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror deals with the subject of minority perspectives of multicultural America, incorporating quotes, folk songs, letters, telegrams, and photographs into the text. It deals with, in roughly sequential order, Native Americans, African Americans, pre- and post-slavery era, Irish, Mexicans, Chicanos, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, and ties up the book with a current (for the time the book was written - 1993) summary of where minorities are now. Each chapter talks about the history of a different ethnic group, and covers over a period of time.
Rage Becomes Her
Soraya Chemaly wrote this conversation-shifting book urging 21st-century women to understand their anger, embrace its power, and use it as a tool to re-understand women’s anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change. Chemaly interweaves the experiences of women of color and lampoons the sexism that occurs in the workplace, in online communities, in families, and more. Women are angry, and it isn't hard to figure out why. We are underpaid, overworked, thwarted and diminished.
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
Judith Heumann is one of the most influential disability rights activists in US history. In this book, she tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life.Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann's memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong.
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
The author, Robin Di’Angelo coined the term “white fragility” in 2011 to describe any defensive instincts or reactions that a white person experiences when questioned about race or made to consider their own race. In White Fragility, DiAngelo views racism in the United States as systemic and often perpetuated unconsciously by individuals. She recommends against viewing racism as committed intentionally by "bad people".
The Stonewall Reader
June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots.
more literature
Creativity, Inc - This is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation. More Info.
Me and White Supremacy - A Personal Anti-Racism tool | Layla Saad. More info.
Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Difficult Conversations walks you through a step-by-step proven approach to having your toughest conversations with less stress and more success. More info.
Search Inside Yourself - Increase Productivity, Creativity and Happiness - Chad-Meng Tan. More info.
Rapport - The four ways to read people - Emily Alison + Laurence Alison. More info.
Creativity Inc - overcoming the unseen forces that stand in the way of true inspiration - Ed Catmu. More info.
Daring Greatly - how the courage to become vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and Lead - Brene Brown. More info.
Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People: Written by Helen Zia, this book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. More info.
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. More info.
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir: Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele explore through their own stories how Black Lives Matter movement was born. More info.
Untamed: Activist, speaker, and bestselling author, Glennon Doyle explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us. More info.
The Buddha in the Attic: This novel that represents the stories of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” nearly a century ago. More info.
Assata: An Autobiography: On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. More info.
Rainbow Milk: The story follows nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing. More info.
The Making of Asian America: A History: This is the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day. More info.
The Water Dancer: Surrealist story set in the pre–Civil War South, concerning a superhuman protagonist named Hiram Walker who possesses photographic memory, but who cannot remember his mother. More info.
I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays: A deeply personal collection of essays exploring Nigerian-American author Bassey Ikpi’s experiences navigating Bipolar II and anxiety throughout the course of her life. More info.
We Have Always Been Here: A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one’s truest self. More info.
Song of Solomon: This novel published in 1977 by Toni Morrison is a multicultural text, with elements of Native American culture intertwined with African-American culture in Shalimar, Virginia. More info.
Detransition, Baby: This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can’t reach. More info.
Beloved: Inspired by an event that actually happened: Margaret Garner, a slave in Kentucky, escaped and fled to the free state of Ohio in 1856. More info.
The Prophets: A novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. More info.
Born a Crime: This autobiographical comedy book written by the South African comedian Trevor Noah explores his experience of growing up in his native South Africa during the apartheid era. More info.
It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way: Story of Gyo, a girl that goes up quiet and lonely at the beginning of the twentieth century. She learned from her relatives the ways in which both women and Japanese people lacked opportunity. More info.
Sister Outsider: In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Audre Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. More info.
Yellow Peril: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear: It refers to the skin colour of east Asians, developed into a vague form of xenophobia that taps into the racist notion that “they all look the same”. More info.
All My Mother’s Lovers: A unique meditation on the universality and particularity of family ties and grief, and a tender and biting portrait of sex, gender, and identity. More info.
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name: From the author's vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde's work is cyclical. More info.
The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism: Authors assess racial stereotyping and discrimination from dozens of interviews across the country with Asian Americans. More info.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness: "Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole. More info.
With Teeth: A surprising and moving story of two mothers, one difficult son, and the limitations of marriage, parenthood, and love. A candid take on queer family dynamics. More info.
Dressed in Dreams: A Black Girl's Love Letter to the Power of Fashion: From sneakers to leather jackets, a bold, witty, and deeply personal dive into Black America's closet. More info.
Native Speaker: First novel by Korean-American author Chang-Rae Lee. It explores the life of a man named Henry Park who tries to assimilate into American society. More info.
The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You: Author, Dina Nayeri combines her own experience with those of refugees she meets as an adult, telling their stories with tenderness and reverence. More info.
The Queens' English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases: A landmark reference guide to the LGBTQIA+ community’s contributions to the English language—an intersectional, inclusive, playfully illustrated glossary featuring more than 800 terms and fabulous phrases created by and for queer culture. More info.
Homegoing: The story follows two families separated by the brutality and complexities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. More info.
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. More info.
In the Country We Love: Is a memoir by American actress Diane Guerrero that follows her upbringing in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was raised by two parents who were undocumented immigrants from Colombia. More info.
American Street: This is a young adults novel focused on a girl named Fabiola Toussaint who emigrates with her mother from Haiti to live with her aunt and 3 cousins in Detroit. More info.
Sing, Unburied, Sing: Set in the twenty-first-century rural South, this chilling book shows us that the horrific legacy of racial terror is very much alive today. More info.
The Distance Between Us: What's it like to cross the border with your family? Reyna Grande's story begins with her parents' trek across the border in search of the American Dream. More info.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo: The unforgettable love story of a mother blinded by loss and her husband who insists on their survival as they undertake the Syrian refugee trail to Europe. More info.
How We Fight For Our Lives: Winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction, Saeed Jones’s beautiful memoir tells how he — as a young, Black, gay man from the South — had to fight to claim his own identity. More info.
Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa: A boy who grows up among poor Mexican farmworkers and loses his mother at age 12. This is a tale of coming into his identity as a gay man living in a machismo culture. More info.
A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir: The author chronicles what her Cuban-Colombian family taught her about love, money, and race while also figuring out what it means to be an American and a woman. More info.
The Vanished Birds: A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time. More info.
Black Skin, White Masks: A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, this book is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. More info.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club: A story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the Red Scare. More info.
Americanah: Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. More info.
Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child: tells the world what it's like to be the child of a family of migrant farm workers, detailing the day-to-day life of a family who struggles in the fields while also having little education and speaking another language. More info.
Behold the Dreamers: Modern epic following a Cameroonian couple trying to make it in New York. Their arrival, however, coincides with the Great Recession. More info.
Broken Horses: The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, producer, and six-time Grammy winner opens up about a life shaped by music in this candid, heartfelt, and intimate story. More info.
Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life: It centers itself around the idea that not only is Drag Race the queerest show in the history of television, but that RuPaul and company devised a show that serves as an actual museum of queer cultural and social history, drawing on queer traditions and the work of legendary figures going back nearly a century. More info.
American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood: In her father’s Peruvian family, Marie Arana was taught to be a proper lady, yet in her mother’s American family she learned to shoot a gun, break a horse, and snap a chicken’s neck for dinner. More info.
Pachinko: Pachinko is a tale of immigration within a different context than stories of coming to the U.S. The multigenerational epic follows a Korean family who moves to Japan in the early 1900s. Their roots in Korea follow them, as they remain in a society that labels them outsiders, and estranged from their country of origin. More info.
‘All In: An Autobiography’: An inspiring and intimate self-portrait of the champion of equality that encompasses her brilliant tennis career, unwavering activism, and an ongoing commitment to fairness and social justice. More info.