Redpath Book Display: Works of Fiction by BIPOC authors

According to McGill’s International Student Services, as of the 2020-2021 academic year, there are 11,942 international students enrolled at McGill from over 150 countries. In order to celebrate our internationally diverse study body, this month’s Redpath Book Display is dedicated to works of fiction by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) authors from a wide variety of countries. Our physical book display in the Redpath Library features works such as:

Hot Comb, by Ebony Flowers, is a graphic novel and collection of stories that examine the coming of age of a young Black girl living in the United States.

Celestial Bodies, by Omani author Jūkhah Ḥārithī, won the Man Booker Prize and tells the story of three sisters growing up in the village of al-Awafi.

No Knives in the Kitchens of this City, by Khālid Khalīfah, is set in Aleppo, Syria, between the 1960s and the 2000s and examines the lives of one family during that time period.

Harbart, by Nabāruṇa Bhaṭṭācārya, is a beloved cult novel in India, translated from Bengali into English for the first time.

Ms Ice Sandwich, by Mieko Kawakami, is a novella by an up-and-coming Japanese author.

Blackass, by A. Igoni Barrett, is set in Lagos, Nigeria, and is about a Black man who wakes up on the morning of a job interview to discover that he has turned into a white man.

In the Pond, by Ha Jin, is a piece of satire about a Chinese factory worker who becomes famous for drawing a political cartoon.

Five Little Indians, by Michelle Good, is a timely look at Canadian residential schools by a Cree writer, poet, and lawyer.

In addition to our physical book display, we have also curated a list of works of fiction by BIPOC authors in e-book format on the OverDrive platform. If you are in the mood for some romantic comedies to read over the holiday season, or simply to give yourself a break during exam period, then be sure to check out works such as:

Take a Hint, Dani Brown, by Talia Hibbert

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy, by Alyssa Cole

You Had Me at Hola, by Alexis Daria

Heart Principle, by Helen Hoang

Dial A for Aunties, by Jesse Q. Sutanto

The Startup Wife, by Tahmima Anam

If you would rather read fast-paced thrillers and mysteries, then look no further than the following reads:

My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite

When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole

Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam

The Case of the Missing Auntie, by Michael Hutchinson

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson

The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris

No matter your taste in literature, we are confident you will find a great read from one of these amazing BIPOC authors!

Fake News! Propaganda, Scammers, and Malarkey

Fake news was named the word of the year by the Collins English Dictionary in 2017. Collins’ lexicographers said use of the term increased by 365% since 2016. In light of this, and in celebration of April Fools’ Day, McGill Library presents a collection of books that delve into the history of wartime propaganda, the psychology of lying, and the stories of fraudsters.

The term fake news is now synonymous with Donald Trump. To that end, we have included several recent publications about the current United States President. Donald Trump: The Making of a World View reveals how Trump’s worldview was formed and how it affects policy. Communication in the Age of Trump is a collection of essays that examine how Trump uses Twitter to speak directly to the public. Quand la clique nous manipule: Du Printemps érable à Donald Trump hits a little closer to home by examining the marketing behind the 2012 Québec student protests and how polarizing social movements that have come afterwards, such as the Make America Great Again rallies, have drawn on similar communications strategies.

The book display also highlights biographies, such as Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess, about a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE, a British intelligence officer who worked in France during the Second World War. Women Swindlers in America, 1860-1920 delves into the lives of women who were scam artists in the field of spiritualism, who told sob stories to get money, who ran matrimonial cons to increase their bank balances, and who swindled financial institutions by passing bad cheques.

Cinema and photography were heavily relied upon during the Second World War as forms of propaganda. Marketing the Third Reich: Persuasion, packaging and propaganda re-conceptualizes Third Reich propaganda through the lens of consumer marketing. Memoria e immaginario : la Seconda Guerra mondiale nel cinema italiano examines thematic traditions in Italian resistance cinema. Grand illusion: the Third Reich, the Paris exposition, and the cultural seduction of France touches on French reactions to Nazi culture in the 1930s and the Nazi party’s construction of German identity in Paris.

If you’re in the mood for a good novel set in a dystopian future that heavily features state propaganda, then rest assured that the display features some classics, such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Fahrenheit 451. We also have contemporary graphic novels that address fake news, such as the recently published and highly acclaimed Sabrina. No matter your taste, McGill Library has something to satiate your fake news fix!

International Women’s Day

In celebration of International Women’s Day, McGill Library has curated a diverse, intersectional book display of works by and about those who identify as women.

The display features contemporary works by noted feminist scholars, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Roxanne Gay, Audre Lorde, and Rebecca Solnit. These works touch on important topics in our current #MeToo era, such as the gender binary, the representation of Black women in art, identity politics, and speaking truth to power. If that’s your cup of tea, then be sure to check out Why I march: Images from the Women’s March around the world.

Following the recent Academy Award wins by Ruth E. Carter for Best Costume Design and Hannah Beachler for Best Production Design (both for Black Panther), the display also focuses on the role of women filmmakers throughout the world. Italian women filmmakers and the gendered screen features essays and interviews with acclaimed Italian women directors on their contribution to film. Latin American women filmmakers: Production, politics, poetics contains scholars providing in-depth analysis on the rise of female-led film in Latin America. Warriors, witches, whores: Women in Israeli cinema provides a feminist study of the Israeli film industry.

Given McGill Library’s robust collection of graphic novels, the book display features the work of women graphic novelists, cartoonists, and anime artists. Pretty in ink: North American women cartoonists, 1896-2013 is a comprehensive volume of works that range from a Holocaust survivor penning action/adventure comics to the First Nations army corporal behind the series G.I. Gertie. Black women in sequence: Re-inking comics, graphic novels, and anime covers everything from African goddesses to postracialism in comic books. We have also chosen to highlight the work of contemporary graphic novelists, such as Montreal native Julie Delporte’s latest Moi aussi je voulais l’emporter, a feminist autobiography.

International Women's Day

In light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the display contains important works by Indigenous authors: Kim Anderson’s book A recognition of being: Reconstructing Native womanhood; Mary Jane Logan McCallum’s Indigenous women, work, and history, 1940-1980; and Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous mothering as global resistance, reclaiming and recovery, edited by D. Memee Lavell-Harvard and Kim Anderson.

Take a moment to check out the wide variety of titles on display. From Single girl problems: Why being single isn’t a problem to be solved, to Feminist visions and queer futures in postcolonial drama, McGill Library has all your intersectional feminist reading needs covered.