Welcome to In Reading Color, a space where we focus on literature by and about people of color.
Women’s History Month is not playing with y’all. A new report just dropped detailing how women are now publishing more books than men. Women now publish more than 50% of all books, and have since 2020. The increase in published books by women has also come with a boost for the book industry overall, which boasted “a year-on-year increase of 12.3%” in 2021 (if you’re curious, publishing made $29.3 billion in 2021). With these stats we see what we’ve already known, really, which is that diversifying the publishing industry is not only the right thing to do, but people also just really like it.
It’s only fitting for me to focus on some books by women for today’s newsletter. Since it’s such a broad topic, I’m sticking to a couple new releases.
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Bookish Goods
Indian Women In Saree Reading a Book by KalaakaArByRekh
I love the color scheme in this pretty print. $21
New Releases
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
It’s grief that leads mother Magos to cut off a piece of her 11-year-old son Santiago’s lung. It’s motherly love, and a bit of Mexican folk tale, though, that sees her nurturing the lung until it gains sentience. The Monstrilio it becomes craves flesh, but it’s also beginning to look like the Santiago Magos knew and loved. If the walls of Magos’ family estate in Mexico City, friends, and family can keep Monstrilio’s appetite in check, maybe the family will have a second chance at life.
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela
Through magical writing, Aboulela tells the story of Sudan and its experience with imperialism through the lives of seven women and men. When Akuany and her brother Bol are orphaned during a raid on their village in South Sudan, the young merchant Yaseen takes them in. As she comes of age, Akuany is sold from house to house, just as Sudan wrestles with Christianity and Islam, freedom and colonialism.
More New Releases
My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron (YA Historical, Science Fiction Fantasy, Retelling)
Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto by Clarkisha Kent (Queer Memoir)
The Faithless (Magic of the Lost Book 2) by C. L. Clark (Science Fiction Fantasy)
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez (Literary Fiction)
Now You See Us by Balli Kaur Jaswal (Literary Fiction)
Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada, Haydn Trowell (translator) (Literary Fiction)
Tremors in the Blood : Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector by Amit Katwala (Nonfiction)
Letters to a Writer of Color edited by Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro (Nonfiction)
Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn’t Enough by Dina Nayeri (Nonfiction)
Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA by Theresa Runstedtler (Nonfiction)
The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence by David Waldstreicher (Nonfiction, Biography)
Heating the Outdoors by Marie-Andrée Gill, Kristen Renee Miller (translator) (Poetry)
Drinking from Graveyard Wells: Stories (Contemporary Poetry And Prose) by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu v
Tanya: Poems by Brenda Shaughnessy (Poetry)
Rosewood: A Midsummer Meet Cute by Sayantani DasGupta (Romance)
There Goes the Neighborhood by Jade Adia (YA, Fiction)
Chloe and the Kaishao Boys by Mae Coyuito (YA, Romance)
Change the Game by Colin Kaepernick, Eve L. Ewing, Orlando Caicedo (YA Graphic Memoir)
The Jump by Brittney Morris YA, Fiction
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
The two books I mention below are perfect examples of what the article I mentioned earlier meant by more books offering “…narratives and perspectives that would otherwise have gone unwritten.”
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
In the 1950s in Philly, Ruby Pearsall is 15 and on track to attend college, thereby breaking a generational curse that plagues her family. But a love affair threatens to keep her moored in poverty. Then there’s Eleanor Quarles, who has married into an elite family in D.C. and struggles to fit in. Ruby’s and Eleanor’s paths intersect in interesting ways as they both make life-altering decisions.
Stealing by Margaret Verble
In Stealing, Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble writes of Kit Crockett’s quiet life as a Cherokee girl in the ’50s. Since her mother died, and her father has been eaten up with grief, Kitt has spent her days reading Nancy Drew stories, fishing, and gardening, until she’s taken away from her family and people and sent to a Christian boarding School. There, she experiences not only horrible abuse, but also an intentional loss of self. But by writing of her experiences, she remembers and resists.
Thanks for reading; it’s been cute! If you want to reach out and connect, email me at erica@riotnewmedia.com or tweet at me @erica_eze_. You can find me on the Hey YA podcast with the fab Tirzah Price, as well as in the In The Club newsletter.
Until next time,
Erica