This post originally appeared on Book Riot, but I think it’s worth sharing here as well.  

Inspired by a by a study by Lee & Low Books that showed the absence of authors of color on the New York Times top 10 bestseller list, Book Riot made it a priority to share more books by authors of color, starting out the year with a list of Book Riot readers’ favorite authors of color. It’s a great list, but pretty heavily populated by fiction writers. I wanted to expand on that with a some nonfiction by authors of color, if that’s where your reading tastes lie.

The list today focuses on memoirs, while a second list in a couple of weeks will focus more on “straight” nonfiction. This list certainly isn’t exhaustive – I would love to hear more suggestions in the comments – but it is, I hope, a decent place to get started.

1. The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life—to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why?

2. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared ‘light-skinned’ woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother’s past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage.

3. Nine Years Under: Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home by Sheri Booker

Sheri Booker was only fifteen years old when she started working at Wylie Funeral Home in West Baltimore. She had no idea that her summer job would become nine years of immersion in a hidden world. Reeling from the death of her beloved great aunt, she found comfort in the funeral home, and soon has the run of the place, from its sacred chapels to the terrifying embalming room.

4. The Ministry of Guidance Invites You To Not Stay: An American Family in Iran by Hooman Majd

With U.S.–Iran relations at a thirty-year low, Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd dared to take his young family on a year-long sojourn in Tehran. The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay traces their domestic adventures and closely tracks the political drama of a terrible year for Iran’s government.

5. The Grace of Silence: A Family Memoir by Michelle Norris

While exploring the hidden conversation on race unfolding throughout America in the wake of President Obama’s election, Michele Norris discovered that there were painful secrets within her own family that had been willfully withheld. These revelations inspired a bracing journey into her family’s past, from her childhood home in Minneapolis to her ancestral roots in the Deep South.

6. Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

In 2004, at a beach resort on the coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala and her family—parents, husband, sons—were swept away by a tsunami. Only Sonali survived to tell their tale. This is her account of the nearly incomprehensible event and its aftermath.

7. Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

As far back as she can remember, Azadeh Moaveni has felt at odds with her tangled identity as an Iranian-American. In suburban America, Azadeh lived in two worlds. At home, she was the daughter of the Iranian exile community, serving tea, clinging to tradition, and dreaming of Tehran. Outside, she was a California girl who practiced yoga and listened to Madonna. For years, she ignored the tense standoff between her two cultures.

8. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Baeh

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

9. What I Talk About When I Talk about Running by Haruki Murakami

While simply training for New York City Marathon would be enough for most people, Haruki Murakami’s decided to write about it as well. The result is a beautiful memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid memories and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer.

10. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Setrapi

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming–both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland.

11. Shut Up, You’re Welcome: Thoughts on Life, Death and Other Inconveniences by Annie Choi

Annie Choi hates musical theater. She thinks sandwiches are boring. She likes camping, except for the outdoors part. At fifteen, her father made her read the entire car manual before allowing her to sit in the driver’s seat. Her neighbor, who has no cur­tains, is always naked. And she once chased down a man who stole her handbag. All this is to say that Choi is one part badass and one part curmudgeon, with a soft spot for savage bears. Mostly she wants to ask the world: WTF?!

12. In the Absence of Sun: A Korean American Woman’s Promise to Reunite Three Lost Generations of Her Family by Helie Lee

Helie Lee often had heard her grandmother speak of an uncle, lost decades ago when he was a child during the family’s daring escape from North Korea. As an adult, he was still living there under horrid conditions. When her grandmother began to ail, Helie became determined to reunite her with her eldest son, despite tremendous odds. Helie’s mission became even more urgent when she realized that her first book, the bestselling novel Still Life with Rice, about the family’s escape, might have angered the North Korean government and put her uncle in danger.

Title: Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art
Author: Carl Hoffman
Genre: Nonfiction
Year: 2014
Publisher: William Morrow
Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration
Rating:

Bloggers Recommend: Since Michael Rockefeller disappeared while hunting for art in the jungles of New Guinea, rumors have circulated about his death – potentially in a ceremonial act of cannibalism. In this real-life mystery, journalist Carl Hoffman connects with new generations of an ancient tribe to uncover the events that led to Rockefeller’s death. It’s an illuminating and nuanced look at what happens when cultures collide.

Review: Michael Rockefeller, the youngest son of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. After graduating from Harvard University and serving a short stint in the U.S. Army, he joined an expedition to New Guinea to help with a documentary on the Dani tribe. After returning home briefly, he headed back to the region to study the Asmat tribe and add to his father’s collection of “primitive” art.

On November 17, 1961, the boat Rockefeller was in capsized off the coast of New Guinea. When it appeared no one was coming to the rescue, Rockefeller left the boat to swim about 12 miles for shore. His last words to his expedition partner — “I think I can make it” — are the last words he said to anyone. His expedition partner was rescued, but despite a massive manhunt, Rockefeller was never seen again.

In Savage Harvest, journalist Carl Hoffman travels to the jungles of New Guinea to try and uncover the myster of Rockefeller’s disappearance using a collection of missing documents and first-hand interviews with the descendants of the Asmat warriors who may have found Rockefeller and, in an act of retaliation and spiritual balancing, killed and eaten him.

One of the things that works best about Savage Harvest is that it is both a strong historical mystery and a compelling contemporary travel adventure. Hoffman has new information about Rockefeller’s disappearance that sheds new light on what may have happened to him and knows how to write a story about venturing into a culture that is drastically different than the one most of his readers will be familiar with. I enjoyed the way he balanced those threads in the story. 

Hoffman also does a great job of explaining how and why cannibalism was an important part of Asmat culture until very recently. It’s tempting to think of the Asmat as “savages” — as many in Rockefeller’s time did — but to do so dismisses the complicated and nuanced culture that they developed. Rockefeller found himself vulnerable and alone in a dangerous place, but Hoffman convincingly shows how the behavior of men who came to New Guinea before him are at least partially to blame for his eventual fate.

Other Reviews:

If you have reviewed this book, please leave a link to the review in the comments and I will add your review to the main post. All I ask is for you to do the same to mine — thanks!

Time and Place // 8:40 a.m. at my dad’s computer in the Twin Cities

Eating and Drinking // Nothing yet, I’m saving room for the birthday brunch we’re having in a couple of hours

Reading // I had a slow, but great, week of reading. I finished Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi, a re-imagining of Snow White set in New England in the 1950s, on Thursday night. Since then I’ve been reading Postcards from Cookie by Caroline Clarke (April 15 from Harper), which follows on a lot of the themes of race and motherhood from Boy, Snow, Bird. I love unexpected book connections like that.

Watching // My sister and I went to see the Veronica Mars movie yesterday afternoon and it was exactly what we we, as fans and Kickstarter backers, were hoping for in a movie from the show. I won’t talk about it much because of spoilers other than to say that it was awesome and so worth the money we spent to help have it made.

Listening // I finished an audio book this week! I’ve been putzing through Paddle Your Own Canoe, a memoir by Nick Offerman, on my drive to the Twin Cities on Friday night. I liked it a lot, but because the book as a whole was so meandering I never had any forward momentum pushing me to finish it.

Blogging // This week I shared a review of Busted by Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker and brought back the Nonfiction Recommendation Engine. It was a good week of blogging, despite being totaly distracted by the beautiful weather we had for a couple of days.

Promoting // Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit is organizing a blog tour for National Poetry Month. I’m all signed up for a post and you should be too!

Hating // I had a tough week at work this week — lots of (in my opinion) unwarranted criticism about how we’re doing — but I managed to leave most of that at work to enjoy my weekend at home.

Loving // My sister and I got pedicures yesterday morning and spend our day of shopping and movies wearing sandals. There’s still snow on the ground, but whatever. I love my sparkly teal toenails.

Avoiding // This is the time of year when all I want to do is stuff my face with Cadbury Creme Eggs. I need to stay away from those delicious little sugar bombs.

Wanting // I wish my weekend was a day longer, but I’ll get over that soon enough.

Anticipating // My sister made two kinds of cupcakes for my dad’s birthday — carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with cookie dough frosting. I can’t wait to try them both!

Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?

Many months ago, I tried to launch a feature that I, uncreatively, called the Nonfiction Recommendation Engine. Basically, I asked readers to fill out a short list of questions that I’d use to develop a couple of personalized book recommendations. The feature got a great response, but after two posts (Part I and Part II) I lost steam and the posts stopped coming.

I really liked this feature, so I’m committing to bring it back regularly. Forgive me for my negligence – I hope these recommendations are still worthwhile!

First up is a request from Katie at Book Addict Katie: 

I’m looking for a book on civilization/culture, especially the Renaissance. I’ve read The Swerve: How the World Became Modern and I loved the topic, but I found the book lacking in actual evidence. It was more hypothetical than actual findings. I’m looking for something not too academic, but definitely something that has citations or footnotes. Something that’s easy to read, but has actual facts to back it up

Man! This one is a challenge. My depth of reading for history is pretty slim, especially when it comes to the Renaissance. But I do have two suggestions, one new suggestion and one that I’ve previously mentioned. 

First, I suggest Blood Work by Holly Tucker. The book is a history of blood transfusion in France between 1665 and 1668. At that time, French and English scientists were in a race to see who could perform a successful transfusion the soonest, first focusing on animals and then people, and a mysterious death that took place with one of the first recipients. Tucker is history professor, so the book is definitely well cited, but also very readable.

Second, I think Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sorbel would be great. The book is a biography of Galileo and his daughter, a cloistered nun, and a look at the world when Galileo was turning it upside down. Everyone I know who loves science writing loves Sorbel, and a brief skim through this book (which has been sitting on my shelves for ages!) makes me think it will be wonderful.

Second, we have a request from Jenn at Give a Hoot, Read a Book: 

I’m surprisingly interested in Nazi Germany and WWII and such. I say surprisingly, because I had a horrible time in history classes. The Book Thief was one of my top favorites in 2011. I can’t think of any others off-hand that I’ve read. I do have Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany on my to-buy list, so I’m more interested in the off-beat stories like that, I think. Please don’t recommend The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich!! My dad has been trying to get me to read that one for years! I guess I just don’t want those “old man” war books, if you know what I mean. I’d say more light and personal, but it’s obviously going to be a little serious if it’s about Nazis. 🙂

I am totally with you on avoiding “old man” war books. I have a really hard time with a lot of World War II history books for precisely that reason; I like quirky stories and stories about people more than I like stories about battles and strategies. Happily, I have two books that may fit the bill – both are set during the World War II time period, but don’t actually focus much on the war itself.

The first is one of my favorite books from 2013, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. The book is set, in part, at the the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and tells the story of how a group of working class college students from the University of Washington challenged the elite crew teams of Europe during the games. It’s an amazing underdog story that I totally adored.

The second is The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey, the story of how a rich family tried to hide some of their family secrets, including a plot that protected one of their sons from fighting on the front lines during the war. This one is a great historical mystery set in the time period Jenn is interested in.

Whew! It feels good to have another one of these posts out there. My real hope with this series is that other blog readers will jump in and help out too, making each post a big list of great nonfiction for people to consider. Please add your recommendations to the comments and I solemnly swear that I will get another one of these up soon.