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History and Heritage Month Reading Lists

Further suggestions and readings from the library!

The Spear Cuts Through Water

"The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family--the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors--hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace. But that god cannot be contained forever. With the aid Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison." --Publisher

Noor

"Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt...natural, and that's putting it lightly. ...Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: a woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. [On] the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist and the saga of the wicked woman and mad man unfold."       --Goodreads 

The Time Machine

"So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era. ...A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well." --Goodreads 

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

"It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how."  --Publisher

Elantris

"Elantris: gigantic, beautiful, literally radiant, filled with benevolent beings who used their powerful magical abilities to benefit all the people of Arelon. Yet each of these godlike beings had been an ordinary person until touched by the mysterious transforming power of the Shaod. Then, ten years ago, without warning, the magic failed. Elantrians became wizened, feeble, leper-like creatures, and Elantris itself dark, filthy, and crumbling. The Shaod became a curse."          --Publisher

Circe

"In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power. the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves."  --Publisher

Classics

 

 

Graphic Novels

 

 

High Fantasy

 

 

Low Fantasy and Magical Realism

 

 

Mythological and Folkloric

 

 

Dystopia and Utopia

 

 

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic

 

 

Afrofuturism/Africanfuturism

 

 

Space Opera

 

 

Parallel/Alternate Universe

 

 

 

Time-Travel