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1. A psychologist returns to Nigeria from San Francisco and tries to help his friend solve the murder of three college students in Lagos who were killed in suspicious and violent ways.

2. A nurse details her sisters history of horrible relationships and how her sister always kills her boyfriends and she has to help clean up the mess and the toll it takes on her as the police keep asking questions.

3. A collection of stories from local lagos authors. These stories have elements of detective fiction, horror, suspense.

4. The follow up to lightseekers this time we have our psychologist trying to solve the murder of a young wife of a powerful preacher.

1. the first book is a childrens book about a young dominican boy who is walking through nyc with his grandma and he sees three black woman dressed as mermaids and decides he wants to be a mermaid also

2. I love her writing and this book was so good. it is about two girls who discover they are sisters when their father dies in a plane crash in 2001. One sister is a lesbian who lives in nyc and the other lives in the dominican republic.

3. This book is written in prose and it is a diary of a dominican-american girl who rebels against her religous mothers rules all while playing second fiddle to her twin brother who she discovers is gay and being bullied .

4. a book that chronicles the lgbt community in the DR

5. six latinas meet in college in Boston in 1990 and every year they get together. the black representation come sin when Elizabeth an afro-colombian woman is outed as a lesbian and it threatens her high paying job as a news anchor woman.

6. set in 1999 nyc it follows two afro-Dominicans as they navigate their relaitonships and families with one character following in love with a gay black american man

7. a young mexican American man moves and joins a marachi high school club were he falls in love with his rival a black transgender male

8. This book is a collection of stories of puerto rican teens . It was written in 1996 so it is dated but still relevant. One of the stories follows an alternative black puerto rican boy who is bullied. The last story also revolves around a young gay man dying of aids and a girl standing up for him.

9. four latina friends travel cross country on a road trip the main character is an afro-latina who is obsessed with her boyfriend cheating on her and oblivious to her best friend having a crush on her.

10. this book came out in the 70s and chronicles Piri thomas who is a black puerto rican and how that affects how he is treated in his household. There is a section of the book where him and his friends go visit trans sex workers which imo is commentary on 1960s sexual and gende rpolitics.

These books range from urban fiction to YA to Romance to Memors and Childrens books.

This is a good source for other books also: https://www.dominicanwriters.org/

I first read this in college and it was so good I recently reread it again and got a copy from Amazon.

it is a collection of stories about puerto rican teens who are growing up in an urban city (if you read it it sounds like Spanish harlem or the bronx).

The book was written in the 90s so the language and slang is dated but the stories are good. The teens in the book deal with sex, gangs, homophobia, racism, religious hypocrisy, eating disorders, and standing up for themselves.

If you have not read it I highly suggest reading it.

First off I am not dominican and the majority of latino exposure in my community came from puerto ricans,cubans,and colombians. I did not meet a dominican until I graduated from college.

However I will forever be grateful to my 11th grade english teacher who recommended i read Drown by Junot Diaz. I remember reading the first chapter and just really falling in love with this book.

I am a black gay man and it has always been hard for me to get into books written by male authors. i did not have this problem with Drown and after reading the chapter were the book gets its name from I understand why.

For those who never read it its a collection of stories told from the perspective of a young boy named Yunior who has immigrated from the DR to New jersey in the late 70s early 80s and it follows Yunior as he reaches teenage years.

The book discusses many themes such as infidelity, child abuse, trauma from fleeing ones country, colorism, homophobia, and poverty.

What really sticks out to me is how unpc this book is. It came out in 1996 and if you read it you can tell because the language and slang and slurs are often not seen in young adult books today.

My favorite chapters are:

Fiesta 1980

Aura

Drown

How to date a a Browngirl,Blackgirl,Whitegirl,and Halfie (if this chapter was written today I dont think the book would get published today but there some truth in it)

For those who have read it what is your opinion on this book 30 years later? What is your opinion on Junot Diaz himself?

If you have not read it I highly recommend this book.

1. This book follows a group of six latina friends who met in college in Boston. They all have different backgrounds and different ethnicities and races.

The character Elizabeth is a black Colombian journalist who is in the closet about her sexuality and is outed which drives a lot of the plot. The other black representation comes with the characters Rebecca who is being wooed by a rich british black man even though she is married as well as the character Usnavys who is dark skinned puerto rican from the hood but balks when she is reminded of that fact.

This book is from 2003 so the pop culture references are dated but I will say it aged very well in its subject matter in the two decades since it was released.

2. This book is somewhat like the first one except its four friends and the lesbian woman is out on her own terms. The main character is a fierce afro-latina who plans a road trip with her girls while trying not to go crazy as she thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her. I must say this book is very funny and is a good mix up urban fiction and romance and erotica.

3. I have been a fan of Elizabeth Acevedo since I was in college and I think this book is my favorite of hers. The book is written as a long poem and split between two girls who discover they are sisters after their father dies in a plane crash in 2001.

One sister lives in NYC the other lives in the DR and they both grapple with the fallout of realizing their father was not the perfect papi he portrayed himself to be.

If anyone else has any suggestions please drop them below

I work at a library and I am putting a display for Hispanic heritage Month in the non fiction and biography section and one thing that really stood out to me was how a lot of well known Dominican -american celebrities dont really highlight themselves being dominican like puerto ricans and Mexicans highlight their communities and ethnicities.

For example I plan on putting biographies of Hector Lavoe, Marc Anthony, Big Pun , Salma Hayek, Celia Cruz, Jlo, Roberto Clemente etc and one going through these books it so many pictures of these celebs at different cultural events concerning their communities.

Almost all the puerto rican celebs have pictures of them at the PR Day parade or on the Island and a lot of the Mexican celebs also highlight their culture and communities in their work even Americanized ones like Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez.

I noticed when it comes to Dominican American celebs they dont really be at Dominican events . I did not see any of them at the Dominican pride parades, or even highlighting the Dominican republican at all.

I also noticed when it comes to movies and books puerto ricans are the main group that gets highlighted in Hollywood and in the music industry and maybe thats cause PR is apart of America .

When it comes to someone like Zoe saldana (who i am personally a fan of ) a lot of people did not know she was Dominican until she won that oscar cause majority of her career she has been playing AA women or sci-fi roles.

Jharrel jerome is another actor who got famous playing AA dudes in movies (loved him in Moonlight) but I never seen neither him or Zoe play a dominican just like I never seen Ice Spice highlight herself being domincan or doing Dembow music .

I know she not everyone cup of tea but Cardi B the only celeb (junot diaz and Elizabeth Acevedo are two consistent domincan authors) who highlights their community and has gone to dominican events and highlights it in their art.

So in the words of Sophia Petrillo (golden girls joke lol) picture it a black gay 11 year old boy goes with his auntie to a maroon and gold kingdom called Bethune Cookman . The era is 2007 and his auntie takes him and his older brother to visit the campus during their homecoming celebrations (and so she can be messy and meet up with her old ninjas but thats a conversation for another time).

The young boy observes the kingdom while he walks around and is not really impressed with the campus and the people who inhabit it. He is turned off by the site of the buildings and how loud everything is, and the final straw is an older male student laughs and points at the little boy and mimicks the strut the little boy has while walking. The little boy vows to never attend this school as long as he lives.

Well some years pass and the little gay boy grows into a young teenager. When it is time to continue his studies he decides cheap is best cause going in debt is not good for your health. So he gets a full ride scholarship to a community college gets his AA and again going in debt is not cute so he decides to transfer to the local pwi on another full ride and gets his BA debt free and still with no grey hair.

However the year he graduated a horrible plague hit the land and well his post grad plans got ruined. Thankfully the same community college he got his AA gave him a job and for five years he was able to build connections.

However the young man was restless and wanted to move up at his job and he needed a magical document called a masters degree. So he decided he was ok taking on debt this time and tried three kingdoms.

The first kingdom FSU impressed the young man because of the colors and connections but it was ruled by vampires called Republicans so while he was accepted he turned it down

The next kingdom was down the road from FSU called FAMU and it was the kingdom that most of the young mans family had attended and the young man himself had been to many FAMU events growing up. The young man was excited bout getting in but when it came to talking to advisors, dealing with finacial aid advisors it turned him off to the school. The rudeness, unprofessionalism was too much and the young man sadly turned it down (and let the administration know about his experience).

The final kingdom was ironically that same kingdom he vowed never to return. He applied just in case and well this was the just in case. He got into Cookman and while he still had his reservations he was impressed with the fact he was able to have discussions with finical aid and advising immediately or two days when he contacted them. He also was impressed that they expanded and he could get his degree online. He decided to give this kingdom a chance and even though he is nervous he gone step on faith .

I say this to say sometimes that school that aint impress you might be the one to come through in the end.

So I decided to start reading some of the authors who were regularly read by my aunts and mom and E Lynn Harris is one of those authors.

I saw this book at a local bookstore for only $3 and i decided to read it. The is 30 years old and when you read it you can tell its from the 90s.

The plot is simple a football player in chitown is confused about whether he is gay or straight and has trauma from his gay twin brother dying of HIV so he decides to be celibate.

He is accussed of assault by a young attractive female reporter who he curved and a gay sportswriter and a female lawyer trying to rise up at her law firm support him even though it gets messy.

The main cast is black and I must say the fact that the accusser is a black woman was a smart choice as it does make the reader think about toxic masculinity in sports, consent, slut shaming, and yes the believe all women.

i dont want to give the ending away but If this book came out today rather then 1996 I think the ending would be drastically different as we are in the post me too movement.

I do love that Harris made the sportwriter openly gay and openly atheist and explored the dynamics of black gay and straight men. I also applaud Harris for having a women grapple with believing women and being a feminist all while defending a man who is accused of assault.

I highly recommend this book