My aim is to read these books this year. What a magical wealth of stories, thoughts, strong characters, complex life views, and places to journey to. Its a collection of awesome authors and regions, including indigenous people from different countries, sexually diverse people, hardcore women, industrial workers, migrants, revolutionaries, Black activists, and people who have faced such struggles and adversity themselves that their works are full of insight, courage and non-conforming imagination. Thanks for all the suggestions, and of course there are many more than these … to be read in future years!

1. Things We Left Unsaid – Zoya Pirzad2. The Quiet Violence of Dreams – K Sello Duiker3. Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison4. Another Country – James Baldwin5. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson6. Poetry by Bobby Sykes7. Poetry by Oodgeroo Noonuccal8. My Place – Sally Morgan9. Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi10. Malcom X’s autobiography11. Dorothy Hewett’s biography12. Deadman – Kim Scott13. Swan Book – Alexis Wright14. Fortune’s Rocks – Anite Shreve15. Poems by Miyó Vestrini16. The Ballad of Ontillu – Keshava Reddy17. An Unsafe Havan – Nada Awar Jarrar18. Poetry by Faiz Ahmed Faiz19. Vanished: The Mysterious Disappearance Of Mustafa Ouda – Ahmed Masoud20. Martin Eden – Jack London21. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood22. Who Fears Death – Nnedi Okorafor23. The Lost Girl – Sandu Mandanna24. Hunting in Harlem – Mat Johnson25. The House that was Eureka – Nadia Wheatley26. Filfth – Irvine Welsh27. Pedro Paramo – Juan Rulfo28. Los de Abajo (The Underdogs) – Mariono Azuela29. Inspite of the Dark Silence – Jorge Volpi30. Poems by Nezahualcóyotl31. Poems by Yu Xuanji32. Senselessness – Horacio Castellanos Moya33. La aventura de Miguel Littín clandestino en Chile (Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín) – Gabriel Garcia Marquez34. Fire from the Mountain (La montaña es algo mas que una inmensa estepa verde) – Omar Cabezas35. Audacity to Believe – Sheila Cassidy36. Passing – Nella Larson37. A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham38. Fun Home – Alison Bechdel39. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

40. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven- Sherman Alexie

Bonus 19 (books I’ve read but that I recommend to others).

1. The Book of Embraces – Eduardo Galeano

2. Beloved – Toni Morrison

3. A Time for New Dreams – Ben Okri

4. Woman on the Edge of Time – Marge Piercy

5. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

6. Don’t Take Your Love to Town – Ruby Langford Ginibi

7. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

8. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

9. Gods Bits of Wood – Sembene Ousmane

10. Half of a Yellow Sun -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

11. The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz

12. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

13. Fledgling – Octavia Butler

14. This Earth of Mankind – Pramoedya Ananta Toer

15. Not Without Laughter – Langston Hughs

16. The Unknown Industrial Prisoner – David Ireland

17. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

18. Birth of Our Power – VictorSerge

19. In the Time of the Butterflies – Julia Alvarez