Reading The Tea Lords in close proximity to Lawrence Hill's novel The Book of Negroes raises the question of what stories one prefers to hear told. The Tea Lords chronicles life on an Dutch colonial tea plantation in Java in the 1870s, from the plantation owner's perspective. The Book of
A dozen years ago, Olive Senior's Gardening in the Tropics was on my list of favourite books for that reading year. Insomniac Press, 2007 Afterwards, I read some short stories (Discerner of Hearts is wonderful), but I lost track of her work, and hadn't even realized the extent of it
Last summer, walking in Little Jamaica in Toronto, I picked up a copy of a community newspaper with a cover image of protesters overseas burning the cover of Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes. HarperCollins, 2007 Book burning: it's a headline-grab alright. It certainly captured this reader's attention.
Both The Hanging of Angélique and Black Indians discuss what is not commonly discussed, what has been habitually overlooked, what has been deliberately concealed. They are the sort of non-fiction that compels readers to nudge and/or wake those around them, with a stream of indignant DidYouKnow's and CanYouBelieve's. HarperCollins, 2006 Afua
Balzer & Bray Imprint - HarperCollins, 2011 Heart and Soul is an absolutely gorgeous book. Kadir Nelson's artwork is riveting. And don't ask me where I've been while he was winning Caldecott Honors, or an NAACP Image Award. Or while he received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a
