Would anyone be able to recommend any excellent books to do with the Caribbean?

I have a few names of books, but I don't know if they’re any good. Due to the cost, I have to really be sure they're worth buying.

The key areas I'm interested in are: -

- Broad politics
- Key leaders
- Religion
- Civilization/culture/identity
- Economics

Also anything else that people think would be interesting.

Thanks in advance.

@Name. Will get back to you with the some books on the areas mentioned. Problem with Caribbean literature it is very island specific. So you will have to do what i do get books from each island as you visit. So can't help you with the names of just a few.

Need to speak to someone at University of West Indies level where they do regional wide studies and books for that market. But I am waiting for somene to contact me on a related matter who and will get some titles for you.

Got an excellent book in storage about "The University of the West Indies an Institution In Transition". Gives an insight into all the issues you talk about via the persepctive of preparing higher education to meet needs eg growing empthasis of teaching Latin American langauges regionally, increase empthasis on science and that type of stuff.

Can't remember the title but when I come across it, will post details.

A very good book that touches on civilisation, culture, history and politics and one of the best books I have read is Leonard Honeychurch's The Dominica Story: A History of the Island". Published by McMillan 1994.

FBniceone.gif

The Isis Papers, by Dr Francis Cress Welsing. A good read and will realy get your mind thinking. It explores some really interesting concepts, which you know but have not really considered in this concept. Give it a go



Another Kaffir Boy, quite an old book but was really heart wrenching- Life growing up in South Africa during apathied

[align=center]Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick Ph.D. [/align]
[align=center]::: Deeper Roots:::
[/align]
Price: $ 9
Introduction
[align=justify]Deeper Roots is what that other book promised to be but never was. Rather than an incapacitating and sentimental Christian tracing of ethnicity, the author reconnects the African American and his Caribbean brothers and sisters to the dynamic West-African cultural expression of the universal way of Islam. [/align]
[align=justify]Heyerdahl's Ra I, built by African boatmen from Lake Chad. It sailed from North Africa in 1969 for Barbados. It proved the feasibility of using such a boat for an Africa to America journey[/align]
[align=center]http://www.hakimquick.com/books.htm[/align]

I would like to recommend a few books:

My first book is called Black Girl in Paris it's by Shay Youngblood. After reading this book I said to myself I have to go to Paris. Shay is one of the most creative writers in the book game. She's a gifted lyricist. When you read her book you can just imagine everything she writes about. The book is about a young black girl named Eden's quest to become a writer andto meet her idol writer James Baldwin. The book is extremely touching as it depicts a young black girl's coming of age.



Another book that I HAVE to recommend is Ntozake Shange's Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo. I LOVED THIS BOOK! The book was about three sisters (all of whom are artistic in their own way) struggling to make it in this f**ked up world. Shange just like Youngblood is extremely poetic which is refreshing especially in a book game where everything is about "homo thugs", "fly girls" and gangstas.



My last book that I'm recommending is a novel that I just started reading nonetheless I am already hooked. If there are any black femminist out there you will definitely love this book. The book is called Their Eyes Were Watching God and it's by late novelist/folklorist/anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The book is about a young black woman growing up in the South at a time where women were subserviant to their men. Janie Crawford who is the lead character in the novel defies the role that she was position to play as a woman. Like I said I just started reading it but I'm already hooked.



What makes me upset is if it wasn't for associates and me searching on my own I don't think I would have ever heard of these writers and that's sad. Sunday I was looking through the newspaper where they advertise their books and I notice that when it comes to White media (and Black media to a certain extent) a lot of good black authors tend to get shut out. Why is it that when it comes to the White media Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Iyanza Vanzant are the only Black authors White Media seem to know. Even when you see the vendors out selling black books they don't promote the Shay Youngbloods, Ntozake Shanges and the Zora Hurstons. What I like about theseauthors is that besides being a hell of a writertheir bookshave a kind of diasporic feel to them plus they deal with themes that young and older black women can relate to. These are the type of books that need to be put out there. I don't feel that it has to do a lot with supply and demand but moreso with the fact that white/black media feel that black people don't want to deal with anything "deep". I don't think it's true. They put Morrison, Walker, and Vanzant out there because they already have a following so they feel safe. But frankly I'm tired of seeing the same three faces. There are many great novelist out there that came before, during, and after those three and they need to have their voices heard.

[align=left]I would like to recommend" The Lonely Londoners" bySamuel Selvon. This is a classic novel aboutthe first generation of male West Indians inLondon. It's a long time since I read the book but I suspect it still has relevance today."It has been argued that Selvons work reinforced the stereotype of arootless male West Indian engaged in marginal, often criminal activities. " I think Selvon paved the way for other writers but make up your own mind. For certain Selvons' characters live and breathetheeffects of decolonization and the dismantling of the empire.The bookflows withdryhumour and a pathos which hits hard.

"Crick, Crack, Monkey" byMerle Hodge. Hodge provides insight into the problems faced by women who are raised in a colonialist education system. It's a story of childhood exploration entwined withgender, the caste system in Trinidad and culturalidentity. It's a real blood boiler of a book, whichguides you through an emotional mine field.

And finally, I agree people do focus on writers such as Morrison and Walker but myall timefavourite has to be "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison. "It's the struggle of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove- a black girl in America whose love for it's blond eyed children can devastate all others-who prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be beautiful." I was introduced to this book last year and my copy is now dog eared andbattered but much loved. I can not begin to do justice to howprecious thisnovelis. Morrisons' words are poetry, music, dance- the words flow. It isaheart wrenching novel but I would recommend it to anyone.I LOVED IT![/align]

My son came back from nursery reciting the 'three little pigs' - you know the story, the one with the three innocent white/pink pigs and the big bad black wolf........we've been through the system and know the subliminal pitfalls....teach the next generation what the system will notniceone.gif

@Name. Still waiting for my man to get back to me. But here is a book on the Caribbean and it has a very good bibiliography, so you can chase up other books. I have mentioned it a couple of times in recent posts.

Its called "Learning To Be A Man: Culture, Socialisation and Gender in Five Caribbean Communities"

By Barry Cevannes

Published by the University of West Indies Press.

Very very interesting book on a multitude of levels and very relevent for understanding aspects of male behaviour in this country..

FBniceone.gif

I would like to recommend a book that I think most people would find very interesting. The book is called krik? krak! it's by an author named Edwidge Danticat. The book consist of nine short stories about life under Haiti's rule. Danticat imo is a powerful storyteller. I think anyone who reads this book will definitely be effected. I read the first story children of the sea and I literally cried. This book is no joke!

[b][b][b]

Hi there,

Not sure whether it's fiction or non-fiction you're after, so this recommendation has a bit of both! Try Caryl Phillips' Atlantic Sound-- a great read.

I havent read any of Carly's books but Ive read alot about him on newspapers..last time he was in holland doing research about Racism there

To see a list of books that everybody MUST read please go to the thread called "Books To Read" c