This week, I’ve gone off-piste to talk about some books by non-white authors. For no apparent reason.

I’ve picked out books I love: four and five-star reads. I’ve picked ten different authors and some different genres, in hopes that everyone can find something that sounds interesting if they go exploring and try to pick up one of these.

1. Redemption in Indigo, by Karen Lord. I don’t remember this book well enough and reading my old review leaves me itching to reread it. I loved it and the fable-like structure and narration.
2. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. The whole trilogy is great, and I’m sure her later books that I haven’t read are great, but this is where I started and I was totally riveted.
3. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. This got a lot of hype, but I really felt it was worth it… and it’s topical as hell right now.
4. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge. If you want to read a more British examination of racism, this is a great starting point.
5. The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark. This is a novella, and when I finished I was dyiiiing for more.
6. Fledgling, by Octavia Butler. This was a disturbing and difficult read, and it left a huge impression on me. Kindred is being recommended a lot, and I rated it higher at the time, but Fledgling is the one that stayed with me.
7. The Colour Purple, by Alice Walker. Okay, this one is totally and absolutely obvious, but I took so long to read it. Still, it got my rare accolade of five stars, and I couldn’t leave it off the list. It’s moving and beautifully written, making such great use of dialect and the epistolary form.
8. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Same here. This is such an obvious one — but I have to say that nobody ever really sold this book to me, and the same thing happened with The Color Purple. I was told I should read it and not why, beyond “it’s important”… and that isn’t always the most enticing. I found it genuinely riveting, though, so definitely don’t dismiss it because it’s viewed as a classic.
9. Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly. This book is obviously pretty well known by now, but when I read it, I was completely boggled by this history of women that I’d never heard of, never dreamed of. And from what I hear, the movie bears only a glancing resemblance to the truth, so if you’ve only seen the movie… do yourself a favour!
10. The Salt Roads, by Nalo Hopkinson. My memories of this book are full of sense-memories, tastes and smells and colour. And while it isn’t as topical as The Hate U Give, for instance… you’ll find it has a lot of resonance.

Aaand in the process of this I realised that I still have a few other books by some of these authors that I haven’t even read, which is a lovely thought.

I think all of these are in the US, but Twitter has a list of Black-owned bookshops you can order from going around, if you’d like to order any of these.

This week’s prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is “opening lines”, and I definitely have some favourites to share, ranging around my shelves! I’m sure I’ve done a favourite first lines before for TTT, but it’s been so long — and I have some new answers.

1. Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers: “The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth. After being acquitted of murdering her lover, and indeed, in consequence of that acquittal, Harriet Vane found all three specifics abundantly at her disposal; and although Lord Peter Wimsey, with a touching faith in tradition, persisted day in and day out in presenting the bosom for her approval, she showed no inclination to recline upon it.”

   This one gets me every time — it’s funny and playful, and though the mystery at the heart of this book is rather sad and pathetic, there are some amazing bits playing Peter and Harriet off against each other for wit and banter, and I adore it.

2. The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, by K.J. Charles: “I am, my friends agree, a fairly easy-going sort of chap, not quick to anger or to fear. Thus, when I came to live in Caldwell Place, I paid no mind to the screams in the night, which could well have been foxes or cats (never mind that they sprang from the empty air of my bedroom). I scarcely objected to the muffled moans, which could have come from a neighbour’s pleasures (if the house had not stood alone, with no neighbour for a mile to either side). But I did feel it was a bit much when the walls began to bleed.”

   Bahahaha. This is not technically quite the opening lines, but shush.

3. A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab: “Kell wore a very peculiar coat.
   It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible.”

   Had me at hello.

4. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

   It’s not just that I love the book, but also that I love the story of that opening line (scribbled on a student’s exam paper during marking) and I love the way it immediately begs a whole bunch of questions.

5. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell: “The Jesuit scientists went to learn, not to proselytize. They went so that they might come to know and love God’s other children. They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God.
   They meant no harm.”

   Technically not the opening lines, but from the very brief prologue, and a complete oh shit what — …which the book amply lives up to!

6. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith: “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

   I will never be over this book, though it’s been a long time since I read it. “Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.” Opening and closing lines are burned into my heart!

7. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente: “Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents’ house, where she washed the same pink and yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her, and flew to her window one evening just after her eleventh birthday. He was dressed in a green smoking jacket, and a green carriage-driver’s cloak, and green jodhpurs, and green snowshoes. It is very cold above the clouds, in the shanty-towns where the Six Winds live.”

   Whimsical and fairytale-like and yet also with unusual details. Sign me up!

8. All Systems Red, by Martha Wells: “I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

   Murderbot, your style speaks to me from the very first moment.

9. The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin. “Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.”

   I still haven’t read this book properly, but this opening line still sticks in my head.

10. The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff: “From the Fosseway westward to Isca Dumnoniorum the road was simply a British trackway, broadened and roughly stalled, strengthened by corduroys of logs in the softest places, but otherwise unchanged from its old estate, as it wound among the hills, thrusting further and further into the wilderness.”

    This is perhaps a more personal choice than the others: not the most compelling opening for someone who doesn’t know the delights that lay ahead (Marcus! Cottia! Cub!) — this book is a window into my childhood, when this was one of the books I read to bits, and one of the ones that has stood up best because of Sutcliff’s careful sketching in of the Romano-British world as she understood it. I have no visual imagination and yet there are some scenes in this book I could almost draw.

So there you go! What are your favourite first lines? Did you do something different for this week’s theme, if you joined in? Link me!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is about books you’ve abandoned… so let’s have a look at my Shelf of Abandoned Books. The thing is, I’m a mood reader, so for one reason and another it’s fairly common for me to end up putting down a book in the middle. Here’s the tour!

1. Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Fantasy, set in a sort of China analogue. This is actually a reread and I have no idea why I stalled. I think I just got busy? It’s actually a book I really enjoy, and the opening always sticks with me so much — the idea of the loneliness Tai feels there, lying the ghosts to rest… I don’t even seem to have left a bookmark in! Mystery.
2. Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White. Fantasy romance. I definitely just got distracted with this one — it has dragons! It was cool! But then stuff happened.
3. Hild, by Nicola Griffith. Historical fiction, about Hild of Whitby. There are things I loved about this — mostly the lush language — but ohhh it’s so slow.
4. A Conspiracy of Truths, by Alexandra Rowland. Fantasy, featuring a crotchety old man being cranky and a cinnamon roll who keeps falling in love with pretty boys. I thiiiink I was just pretty depressed and meh about a lot of things, and I wasn’t able to concentrate for long enough to just finish this. Oops. It’s one I’m more or less constantly thinking about picking back up! Even though it must be coming up on a year since I started it.
5. The Subversive Stitch, by Rozsika Parker. Non-fiction about embroidery and femininity. I had this from the library stacks (and oh gosh they were suspicious about signing it out to me; I guess I do not look like their idea of someone who can take care of an old book) and ended up just returning it because I was getting through it so slowly. I have my own copy now, but I think I’ll have to restart it. I’ve lost the thread (ha) of the argument.
6. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. Speculative fiction — Jesuits in space, only it’s dead serious. And heartbreaking. This was a reread, and I just couldn’t face what I remembered was coming…
7. The Story of Wales, by John Gower. Non-fiction, about the history of Wales. Just kind of lost interest; it’s not the most riveting.
8. The Firebird, by Susanna Kearsley. Romance with a touch of fantasy and historical fiction; they’re mindreaders who get on the track of a historical story, trying to figure out what happened. I love Kearsley normally; I think I just wasn’t in the right mood for it.
9. Salt, by Mark Kurlansky. Non-fiction. It’s basically the history of salt, and it’s really scatterbrained and kinda meh. Also, someone mentioned that they have doubts about the accuracy of his books, and he doesn’t seem to have much sourcing, and… I’m sceptical now, and will probably DNF this for good.
10. Banewreaker, by Jacqueline Carey. Fantasy, another reread: basically a take on What If Sauron Had A Point. It does a really great job, but I seem to have just fallen out of it. I think maybe I picked up something else… oops!

So there you go — now you know how capricious I can be! Do you DNF books? Or shelve them for later? Or are you with a book to the bitter end, no matter what?