If the fallout from 2020 revealed anything, it’s that a lot of us need to read more widely. Do you read enough Black, Indigenous and ‘people of colour’ (BIPOC) authors, regardless of genre? If not, we got you – here’s the reading list of BIPOC authors we’re working on for the first half of 2021.
Our reading list is a mix of fiction and non-fiction covering a variety of topics, all sourced from Amplify Bookstore. An independent, small Australian bookseller, Amplify only stocks books from BIPOC authors, making it easy for anyone to diversify their reading stack.
Check out our recommendations below, and let us know what you’re adding to your reading list!
1. Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
It might seem US-specific, but Oluo’s central question – What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? – is just as valid in the Australian context.
Mediocre unravels the belief that society is built on a meritocracy. Instead, it walks back through 150 years of American history to identify how we built a world that only puts one type of person at the top, and how it’s impact is harmful to everyone… including white men themselves.
This read fits the Zee Feed MO perfectly – before you can fix something, you have to understand why it’s happening.
2. Unfree Speech by Joshua Wong
Written by one of Hong Kong’s most prolific and influential pro-democracy activists, and the U.S Capitol siege on January 6 has made this book even more important. Wong is the 24-year-old who spearheaded the 2014 pro-democracy university protests in Hong Kong, forcing the international community to pay attention to the country’s controversial extradition laws.
Unfree Speech is divided into three sections: Wong’s journey into activism; letters he wrote while a political prisoner in Hong Kong; and a call-to-action for readers.
Read this if you’re passionate, fascinated or concerned about the manipulation of the concept of free speech in Australia, the US, Hong Kong and beyond.
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3. Room For a Stranger by Melanie Cheng
Some days the soul cries out to be fed with something uplifting, nurturing. We’re putting Melanie Cheng’s heartwarming story on the must-read list for this exact purpose. Room For a Stranger is a novel that highlights multicultural Australia at its best when elderly Meg rents a room to Andy, an international student from Hong Kong.
She needs protection, he needs an affordable place to stay. The premise is simple, but it tells a bigger story about the joys of unexpected friendship and what it means to be vulnerable to another human being.
A read to leave you feeling warm, fuzzy and hopeful.
4. Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
For history buffs, international politics nerds, or anyone curious about how the current state of the world came to be, Black Wave is required reading. In it, award-winning journalist Kim Ghattas traces the ‘unravelling’ of the Middle East back to one pivotal year: 1979.
With 1979 – and three significant events that took place – as an anchor, Ghattas explains how the modern Middle East came to be defined by extremism and intolerance, as opposed to the symbol of diversity and opportunity it could have become.
No one should be reading international news coverage without an understanding of the region – we’ll be brushing up on our knowledge with Black Wave.
5. The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun
Satire! Feminism! Whistleblowers, capitalism and climate change! It’s like Yun Ko-Eun wrote this novel specifically for Zee Feed readers.
It goes like this: Yona works at Jungle, a tourism company specialising in disaster-affected destinations. When she files a sexual harassment complaint, they offer her a ticket on one of their most sought-after trips as compensation. Once there, she realises Jungle is creating environmental disasters to make it’s trips more exciting… but blowing the whistle on the dodgy practise puts her life in danger.
It’s fun, fast-paced and out-there, but with enough realistic elements to really make you think!
6. We Are Not Yet Equal: The Understanding of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson & Tonya Boulden
An essential history of five major US milestones in the fight for racial equality, We Are Not Yet Equal ensures readers understand the huge challenges that tried to stop them happening.
Written for teens, it’s an accessible way for non-Americans to understand the reality of the Jim Crow laws; the Great Migration; the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision; the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act; and how the election of President Obama led to the election of Donald Trump.
If you committed to ‘listening and learning’ about anti-racism and anti-blackness last year, read this and talk about it with your friends.