Vanishing Acts

[latenighton]

Does anyone else love bad weather? Like the kind that’s loud and dark and draws attention to its self like pounding rain drops and thunder and lightning that seems just so close. And you can sit near a window and it’s dark outside and maybe you’ve got a candle lit or a lamp and it’s so warm inside and you’re wearing you’re favourite sweater and watching a good show or reading a good book and it’s beautiful outside the rain and the clouds and the sound of it all and you’re just so content and cosy and happy

[reclaimthebindi]

Below is a list of some highly recommended books written by people of color (in no particular order). They span across a wide variety of genres and target audiences. Thank you to everyone who submitted their favorites and helped make this list possible! Known triggers are in parentheses next to the books they apply to, but if there is something that has been missed or there’s a book you’d like me to add, please don’t hesitate to let me know! Happy reading!  The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (rape, murder, child abuse, domestic violence) The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri Migritude - Shailija Patel The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho The God of Small Things - Arundathi Roy (child abuse, sex) Joys of Motherhood - Buchi Emecheta (starvation, poverty, gore, and suicide) Distant View of a Minaret - Alifa Rifaat (castration and death) White Teeth - Zadie Smith  Emails from Scheherazade - Mohja Kahf (sexual violence) Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz (transphobic language/violence, homophobic violence) Boy Snow Bird - Helen Oyeyemi Sister of My Heart - Chitra Banerjee Divakurani  Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi  The Meursault Investigation - Kamel Daoud Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison The Summer Prince - Alaya Dawn Johnson The Noughts and Crosses series - Malorie Blackman A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (rape, murder, child abuse, domestic violence) And The Mountain Echoed - Khaled Hosseini (rape, child abuse) The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing - Mira Karoll Born Confused - Tanuja Desai Hidier The Queen of Water - Laura Resau and María Virginia Farinango Time to Dance - Padma Venkatraman Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (implications of rape and sexual harassment) Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho Astonishing the Gods - Ben Okri Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami Fasting Feasting - Anita Desai The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi Drown - Junot Diaz Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak Honor: A Novel - Elif Shafak Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston Reservation Blues - Sherman Alexie The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie The Age of Shiva - Manil Suri The Kitchen God’s Wife - Amy Tan Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel - Sara Farizan By the Light of My Father’s Smile - Alice Walker A Case of Exploding Mangoes - Mohammed Hanif No God but God - Reza Aslan The Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki Babji - Abha Dawesar Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri (implications of rape and sexual harassment) Funny Boy - Shyam Selvadurai (violence, rape mention) The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros (sexual assault) Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Brick Lane - Monica Ali No Longer Human - Osamu Dazai A Bad Character - Deepti Kapoor (death, abusive relationships) Karma and Other Stories - Rishi Reddi The Burning Sky - Sherry Thomas Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi Climbing the Stairs - Padma Venkatraman The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison Coin Locker Babies - Ryu Murakami The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan Please Look After Mom - Shin Kyung Sook Bonsai Kitten - Lakshmi Narayan Written in the Stars - Aisha Saeed  The Hero’s Walk - Anita Rau Badami Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz Beloved - Toni Morrison Woman at Point Zero - Nawal El Saadawi The Golden Age - Tahmima Anam Season of Migration to the North - Tayib Saleh Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami Snow - Orhan Pamuk Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche The President - Miguel Asturias (extreme violence, rape) The Hungry Ghosts - Shyam Selvadurai The Skin I’m In - Sharon G. Flake Black Boy - Richard Wright Cinnamon Gardens - Shyam Selvadurai 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami (domestic violence, horror, violence) She of the Mountains - Vivek Shraya (explicit sex) Island of a Thousand Mirrors - Nayomi Munaweera (rape, violence) Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew - Shehan Karunatilaka Broken Circle - Theodore Fontaine (child sexual abuse, alcoholism, anti-Native sentiment) The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid Burnt Shadows, Kratography, Salt and Saffron - Kamila Shamsie Last Man in Tower - Aravind Adiga Birds of Paradise Lost - Andrew Lam Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie Bitter Melon - Cara Chow (child abuse) Q&A - Vikas Swarup Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat Motorcycles and Sweetgrass - Drew Hayden Taylor  Lakota Woman - Mary Crow-Dog Legend Trilogy - Marie Lu The Young Elites - Marie Lu The Wrath and the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir (rape, abuse) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Grace Lin Half of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Children of The Jacaranda Tree - Sahar Delijani The Twentieth Wife - Indu Sundaresan Destiny’s Captive - Beverly Jenkins  Tiny Pretty Things - Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (eating disorders, bullying, family issues) Lakota Woman - Mary Brave Bird (child abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual abuse) Flight - Sherman Alexie (child abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual abuse) Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangerembga (violence, eating disorders and mental illness) Redefining Realness - Janet Mock (child sexual assault, child abuse, transphobia) The Woman Warrior - Maxine Hong Kingston Under the Udala Trees - Chinelo Okparanta (homophobia, violence against queer women) The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo  The Shiva Trilogy - Amish Tripathi (rape) The Krishna Key - Ashwin Sanghi To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before - Jenny Han The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga Shatter Me Trilogy - Tahereh Mafi The promise - Nikita Singh When Only Love Remains - Durjoy Datta Nectar in a Sieve - Kamala Markandaya Chords of Strength - David Archuleta This Bridge Called My Back - Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga  Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami (rape/suicide mentions) I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou (rape) Draupadi: The Fire-Born Princess - Saraswati Nagpal The Hybrid Chronicles - Kat Zhang Esperanza Rising - Pam Muñoz Ryan Becoming Naomi Leon - Pam Muñoz Ryan The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See Out of My Mind - Sharon Draper Ghana Must Go - Taiye Selasi Difficult Daughters - Manju Kapoor Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez (violence, explicit sex, death) Birdie - Tracy Lindberg Burn For Burn - Jenny Han Mãn - Kim Thúy  Huntress - Malinda Lo  A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth From Heaven Lake - Vikram Seth Two Lives - Vikram Seth Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler (violence) The Mango Bride - Marivi Soliven (abuse) Between Two Worlds - Roxana Saberi When the Elephants Dance - Tess Holthe (rape) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami A Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez (violence, explicit sex, death) La Vie et Demie - Sony Labou Tansi - French (gore, sexual violence) L'Enfant de Sable - Tahar Ben Jelloun - French (gender violence) Girls of Riyadh - Rajaa Alsanea The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives - Lola Shoneyin I Do Not Come to You by Chance - Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani 26a - Diana Evans  Cloth Girl - Marilyn Heward Mills The Hidden Star - K. Sello Duiker kemi’s journal - Abidemi Sanusi  Imagine This - Vickie M. Stringer  God’s Bits of Wood - Sembene Ousmane Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel García Márquez (violence, explicit sex, death) The Autobiography of Malcolm X -  Malcolm X (trigger warnings for rape, racism, death) Roots - Alex Haley Sultana’s Dream - Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain The Crossover - Kwame Alexander I Am Malala - Malala Yousafzai Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia - Jenny Torres Sanchez When Reason Breaks - Cindy Rodriguez  Los Perros - Lorea Canales - Spanish The Secret Side of Empty - Maria E. Andreu  The Wake of the White Tiger - Diamond Shamsher Rana Blue Mimosa - Parijat - best read in its original language of Nepali  The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison (child sexual abuse, racism, violence, animal abuse, body image) Empress Orchid - Anchee Min Annihilation of Caste - B.R. Ambedkar Palace Walk - Naguib Mahfouz  How to Be Drawn - Terrance Hayes When My Brother Was an Aztec - Natalie Diaz (explicit sex, drug references) Boy With Thorn - Rickey Laurentiis Between The World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates (police brutality) Breath, Eyes, Memory -  Edwidge Danticat   I Too Had A Love Story - Ravinder Singh Can Love Happen Twice? - Ravinder Singh Boys Don’t Cry - Malorie Blackman If You Could Be Mine - Sara Farizan Ash - Malinda Lo Pig Heart Boy - Malorie Blackman (death) The Pearl that Broke Its Shell - Nadia Hashimi Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodsen Umrao Jaan Ada - Mirza Hadi Ruswa - Urdu Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? - Beverly Daniel Tatum Citizen - Claudia Rankin This is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth - Warsan Shire Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera

[wordsnquotes]

Write her a letter, send her a flower, love only gets old if you let it.

William Chapman (via ethereal-oblivion)

[maryiamali]

"When a person is desperate for something and that thing is "LAHASIL" that person can go insane very easily.."

[wnq-writers]

Pay attention to what is leaving and make peace with what isn’t coming back.

darlingchiild  (via wnq-writers)

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

Whatever you do, don’t run back to what broke you.

Frank Ocean  (via thatkindofwoman)

[witdeficient]

[tristamateer]

I still remember you as a little girl who overwaters plants because she doesn’t know when to stop giving.

Trista Mateer (24 of 30)

[danimotown]

What if God does not want you to find a perfect person, but find an imperfect person who will draw you closer to Him? What if God desires you to marry a person with flaws to expose yours? What if God wants to teach you the value and life found in committing to one person forever, not the exhausting pursuit of searching your entire life to find the perfect person?

Brand & Cofffe (via brandandcoffee)

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

Know that you can start late, look different, be uncertain, and still succeed.

Misty Copeland   (via saintofsass)

[pigmenting]

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”

Carl Sagan, Cosmos (via petrichour)

[kbass2112]

You’ll meet her. She’s very pretty, even though sometimes she’s sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when she smiles, you’ll love her.

Pan’s Labryrinth  (via fawun)

[deeplifequotes]

Find someone who wants to invest in you, learn from you, see you win, support your visions and fall in love with you daily.

and then in return do the same for them.  (via thatkindofwoman)

[mysharona1987]

A well-chosen book saves you from everything, including yourself.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (via dahlia–noir)

[thebookempress]

“This book will destroy you.” is like the highest praise you can give to a book. 

[draftedwords]

Maybe we were trying too hard to fix something that’s already broken that we ended up breaking it all the more.

Mae, maybe we shouldn’t have tried too hard (via maewanders)

[psych-facts]

Politeness has become so rare that people mistake it for flirtation.

Unknown (via saintofsass)