Author: Shade Lapite

5 Black Beach Reads for 2016

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I’ve seen a number of black reading lists for summer 2016 and I have to say, they feature an overabundance of weepy, traumatic or painfully intellectual recommendations. It doesn’t take a data analyst to find the causal link between the dearth of black genre fiction and the lack of light-hearted (yet clever) summer reads. Here, I’ll draw the correlative line for you. Luckily, my spidey senses are always attuned to the light-read frequency so here are five genre novels for you to enjoy in the sunshine.

Chapters celebrates black writing

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I was moseying around the Chapters in downtown Toronto today, just killing time before meeting a friend. It was great to see the variety of black authors on display for Black History Month. The Motorcyclist Carl Black is an intellectual and artist, a traveller, a reader and an unapologetic womanizer. A motorcyclist. He burns for the bohemian life, but is trapped in a railway porter’s prosaic— —existence. Taking place over one dramatic year in Halifax, Nova Scotia, The Motorcyclist recounts Carl’s travels and romantic exploits as he tours the backroads of the east coast and the bedrooms of a series of beautiful women. 

What I’m reading this week

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During summer my Twitter feed informed me Shonda Rhimes would be writing a memoir. I made a mental note to get it next year when it was released. I should have known that a woman who successfully juggles three primetime TV shows would be just as efficient about putting together a book. Still, I gave a squeal of delight when my friend waved the hardcover tome at me in the quaint bookshop we had been picking through.

3 Nigerian Travelogues

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Any writer who sets out to capture the essence of the changeable, frenetic, off-the-Richter-scale nation that is Nigeria sets themselves a tall order. However, Noo Saro-Wiwa, Teju Cole – and more recently – Ifeanyi Awachie have each produced insightful, perceptive chronicles of their travel experiences in the West African country.

10 Black Beach Reads

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It’s that time of year. Time to pack a bag, pick a good book and head off to a sunny locale. However, summer isn’t off to a great start. My Twitter timeline blew up last week as a number of influential, literature-loving publications unveiled their summer reading lists. Like many others I was amazed at how strikingly white the lists were, especially when so many incredible books have been released in 2015 by writers of colour. So here’s the remedy, 10 book suggestions designed to compliment sun-loungers across the globe. Don’t forget your sunscreen.

Skies of Ash delivers the black, female detective the world’s been craving

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Detective Elouise ‘Lou’ Norton works the homicide beat in South LA. Sometimes investigations pull her down into The Jungle, a neighbourhood once named for the surrounding vegetation, but now known for the drugs and gangs that give it a wild air. Other times her work daws her into the affluent neighbourhoods nestled in the surrounding hills. It is in these hills that she’s called to investigate a house fire.

Q&A with Christina C. Jones

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I first heard of Christina C. Jones when she wrote a guest post for Quanie Miller’s blog on Five Ways To Build Your Author Platform. I nodded agreeably to all her advice, then did a double-take when I came to the Author Profile at the end and read that she’d written nine books since 2013. I immediately raced over to Amazon to read an extract from her latest novel at the time, the romantic suspense story  Catch Me If You Can. I swiftly confirmed that she was not only a prolific writer but also a highly talented one.

Q&A with Havana Adams

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When I was a kid I would use a torch to read under my quilt long after ‘lights out’. Some books were just too good to leave unfinished. Reading Black Diamond, Havana Adams’ current release, took me right back to those days. I started reading it for a review but I Could. Not. Put. It. Down. The story of abandoned twin girls whose lives take vastly different turns after one is adopted by a Hollywood star and the other by a cruel pastor, sucked me in like quicksand. It was utterly brilliant from start to end.

10 new black books to read in 2015

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Maybe you’ve made a resolution to read more novels in 2015. Or possibly to read more widely, to explore new authors, new perspectives, alternative world views. I have compiled a list of 10 books scheduled for release in 2015 by 10 very individual authors. Whatever your goal, there’s something on this list that will meet it. 1. Disgruntled by Asali Solomon 3 Feb 2015 A coming-of-age story that follows pre-teen Kenya Curtis from her settled life in Philadelphia, through the breakdown of her afrocentric parents’ marriage and into the white, elite high school where she matures into womanhood. Kenya is a larger-than-life personality and her experiences lead to explorations of race, feminism and sexuality that are witty and fresh.   2. God Help the Child by Toni Morrison April 2015 Toni Morrison’s 11th novel explores how childhood trauma can ripple down through the entire length of a life. 3. Pleasantville by Attica Locke April 2015 It’s election night in 1996 in Pleasantville, a neighbourhood populated with well-heeled blacks. It has been a heated campaign and …