Expanding Literary Horizons

Sometime last year I made the decision to read more books from perspectives that were unfamiliar, i.e. non-white and/or male authors. I did it for personal edification, political goals, and creativity. It has opened doors in my mind that may otherwise go untouched. I have made an effort to read books about other places and histories. Here is a complete list of the books I have read since this goal (and remembered to write down):

• Something Will Happen You'll See - Oikonomou
• vignettes of Greeks suffering from economic collapse in 2010

• An Unnecessary Woman - Alameddine
• an old Lebanese womans struggles with her marginalized role in society

• The White Woman on the Green Bicycle - Roffey
• a story of love and colonialism in Trinidad

• Chicago - Al Aswany
• four Egyptians in the same medical program handle complications in Chicago post-9/11

• The Handmaids Tale - Atwood
• dystopian novel of a religiously patriarchal society

• Drown - Díaz
• short stories on the struggle of identity for Dominican-Americans

• The Book of Unknown Americans - Henríquez
• intertwined lives of Hispanic immigrants and their marginalized place in society

• Between the World and Me - Coates
• visceral reflections on the experience of living in a black body in contemporary America

• Angela Merkel - Qvotrup
• biography of Angela Merkel's life and late ascent into politics

• Just Mercy - Stevenson
• stories on exonerating those who were wrongly crushed by the legal system

• Two Old Women - Wallis
• Inuit tale of two senior women left to die, who show the true spirit of surviving

• The New Russians - Smith
• in-depth study of perestroika in Gorbachev's Russia, leading to Yelstin's ascent

• Second Person Singular - Kashua
• the conflicted identity and marginalized life of Palestinian-Israelis

• The Cellist of Sarajevo - Galloway
• vignettes reflecting on humanity during the siege of Sarajevo

• The Pope's Daughter - Fo
• the story of Lucrezia Borgia and her role in shaping Europe

• The Buddha in the Attic - Otsuka
• stylized storytelling of Japanese women immigrating and ultimately being sent to internment camps

• A Bit of Difference - Atta
• a privileged Nigerian struggles with her identity in London and travels home for work only to rediscover her roots

• Every Day Is For the Thief - Cole
• a homecoming to Nigeria

• The Opposite House - Oyeyemi
• a woman struggles between the internal worlds of her Cuban home and her mother's Nigerian-Cuban roots in Santerian practice

• Flame Tree Road - Patel
• the poor son of a widow fights for success in Indian society and forges a path for women's equality in a conservative society

• A Strangeness in My Mind - Pamuk
• chronicles the evolution of Istanbul and Turkey at large through the story of a yogurt and boza seller who must walk the streets to feel connected to the reality outside his mind

• The Revolt of the Masses - Ortega y Gasset
• a socio-political hypothesis of what causes the social and cultural maladies of western Europe in the 20th century, though published in 1930

• Petals of Blood - wa Thiong'o
• interwoven story of 4 suspects in a high profile murder in Kenya; their tale paints the devastating picture of a people struggling with the legacy of colonialism

• Kitchen Confidential - Bourdain
• famous first book about life as a chef, from his perspective

• The Paradox of Choice - Schwartz
• an exploration of studies that show how too much choice can reduce satisfaction

• Imperium - Kapuściński 
• Polish foreign correspondent travels through post-Soviet Russia to discover its residue

• Neopolitan novels (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay) - Elena Ferrante
• the story of two women's friendship over the course of their lives, centering on the character of their Naples neighborhood

• My Beloved World - Sotomayor
• autobiography of the Supreme Court justice's childhood and ascent to the highest legal office

• Temporary People - Unnikrishnan
• avant-garde fiction on Malayalam guest workers in the Middle East

• The Lives of Others - Mukherjee
• a family epoch that illustrates the tensions of tradition and modernity in upper-caste Indian society

• America's Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st Century Diplomacy - Kralev
• an exploration of what the Foreign Service does, its limitations, its successes, and reflections on the changing vision for its goals

• The House of the Spirits - Allende
• a family with a mother who has spiritual gifts follows the course of history as governments fall and family integrity withers

• Epiath of a Small Winner - de Assis
• the author writes his autobiography from beyond the grave, to his own amusement

• Faith at War - Trofimov
• on-the-field reporting of Muslim tensions throughout the world and their impact on Western civilization

• Bad Blood - Carreyrou
• a pulpy true story of Theranos' beginnings and infamous unraveling

• An Anthropologist on Mars - Sacks
• another installment of Sacks' tender writings on the wonders of the human brain, in all its variation

• Girl at War - Nović
• a girl survives the Croatian-Serbian conflict and emigrates to America, but her suffering never quite fades

• In the Realm of the Diamond Queen - Lowenhaupt Tsing
• anthropological dissertation on the Meratus Dayaks in Indonesia that challenges traditional boundaries of theories and their implications on understanding on-the-ground reality of cultural negotiation

• Pieces of a Man - (James Weldon Johnson)
• a collection of stories from black authors that dig into the strength and traume of black Americans

• Boss - Royko
• the sordid, true tale of Richard D. Daley's rise to power and his iron grip on Chicago power

• Oksana, Behave! - Kuznetsova
• a child immigrant from Ukraine fights her way through life while questioning her own behavior

• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - Perkins
• the true, but also unbelievable, story of a man who works on behalf of the government but will never show up on any budget line; his mission is the flip side of diplomacy

• Homegoing - Gyasi
• spanning generations, a Ghanaian family is torn apart by tribal warfare and its role in the slave trade, leading to two starkly different paths across history

• The Brothers K - Duncan

Books in the Queue:

• The Door - Szabó
• Zeno's Conscience - Svevo
• To the Lighthouse - Woolf
• Love of Beginnings - Pontalis
• The Bluest Eye - Morrison
• Autobiography of a Geisha - Masuda
• Mr. Kafka and Other Tales from the Time of the Cult - Hrabal
• War & War - Krasznahorkai
• Damascus Nights - Schami
• The Hidden Life of Trees - Wohlleben
• You Are Not a Gadget - Lanier
• Kids These Days: The Making of Millenials - Harris
• Three Women - Taddeo
• A Place for Us - Farheen Mirza
• Achtung Baby - Zaske
• There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather - Akeson McGurk