BHM: Black Lit Meme

Black History Month was always a time of fun for me growing up. It was the ONLY time my after-school readings matched my in-school readings. So in that spirit, I'm making my very first meme of Black literature. This is just a meme--by no means is this an exhaustive list of all the shades of Black lit. I wrote a list of as many titles as I could think of and find and then cut it down to mix of 50 popular, historic, and controversial Black novels, poetry, and nonfiction. (I cut the "scholarly" books first!) I used a number of lists to help me so if you want more information on what the critics say you Should be reading, check out, "Great Books for Entering Black Freshmen" and The Black Book Review Online's Top 100.

BHM: Black Lit Meme

The Instructions:
Bold the books you've read.
*Star the titles you own or you've read more than once.*
Italicize the books plan to read.
Strike out any books you have no interest in reading.
??Use question marks to indicate titles/authors you've never heard of??

I'm taggin to start the ball (but all are welcome to play): Yvette, abd me, Prof Me, abdmom, Dr. Crazy, beckyb, nubian, ArticulateDad, jo(e), Ragey, melyssa, and LaLecturess.

The List:
Assata: An Autobiography--Assata Shakur
The Autobiography of Malcolm X--Malcolm X/Alex Haley
The Bondwoman's Narrative--Hannah Crafts/Henry Louis Gates
The Bluest Eye--Toni Morrison
Cane--Jean Toomer
Cane River--Lalita Tademy
Chasing Destiny--Eric Jerome Dickey
The Coldest Winter Ever--Sister Souljah
The Color Purple--Alice Walker
Crossing the Mangrove--Maryse Conde
*Death and the King's Horseman--Wole Soyinka*
Devil in a Blue Dress--Walter Moseley
*Dreams of My Father--Barack Obama*
The Fire Next Time--James Baldwin
Fences--August Wilson
Holler If You Hear Me--Michael Eric Dyson
Invisible Life--E. Lynn Harris
*Invisible Man--Ralph Ellison*
*Joys of Motherhood--Buchi Emecheta*
Jubilee--Margaret Walker
*Kindred--Octavia Butler*
Krik?Krak!--Edwidge Danticat
Life and Def--Russell Simmons
*The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass--Frederick Douglass*
Mama--Terry McMillan
Manchild in the Promised Land--Claude Brown
Measure of Our Success--Marian Wright Edelman
Men Cry in the Dark--Michael Baisden
The Mis-Education of the Negro--Carter G. Woodson
Native Son--Richard Wright
*Nervous Conditions--Tsitsi Dangarembga*
Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word--Randall Kennedy
??Omeros--Derek A. Walcott??
On The Down Low--J. L. King
Our Nig--Harriet E. Wilson
Race Matters--Cornel West
A Raisin in the Sun--Lorraine Hansberry
72 Hour Hold--Bebe Moore Campbell
Sex Chronicles--Zane
*Sister Outsider--Audre Lorde*
So Long a Letter--Mariama Ba
Soul on Ice--Eldridge Cleaver
The Souls of Black Folks--W.E.B. Du Bois
Shine--Star Jones Reynolds
*The Street--Ann Petry*
*Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston*
Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe
Thomas and Beulah--Rita Dove
*Up From Slavery--Booker T. Washington*
*When and Where I Enter--Paula Giddings*