Be Intentional Recommendations

Hello everyone! Somehow it is already MARCH and I have barely started on my recommendations for my yearly reading challenge, the Be Intentional Reading Challenge. Time surely does fly when you are busy! This recommendation post will be a little different as instead of giving recs for Be Intentional, I’m taking the Rad Reads 2022 list and finding all the prompts those books can work for.

The Rad Reads are part of the yearly challenges in the Facebook group I helped moderate, Pop Culture Book Club. This is a challenge of 52 books that we read, you can find more about it in the link above! All books have been linked to their Goodreads page where you can find the synopsis and more info on them. This list is in chronological order and it does not feature all 52 books as some of them don’t qualify for this challenge. For the ones to come, I haven’t read most of them so these recommendations are my best guess, though I will try to come back and edit them when I can!

Baba Dunja’s Last Love by Alina Bronsky

MC’s first language was NOT English
Translated into English
Set on Earth but not in the US or the UK (Ukraine)
Translated Literary Fiction
Set in the Global South

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova

Cast of BIPOC Characters
BIPOC on the Cover
Magical Realism by a Black or Latine author
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Written in English with non-English phrases
Poor or Financially unstable MC
BIPOC MC’s and a Happily Ever After
Bilingual MC

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

South/Southeast Asian MC
Cast of BIPOC Characters
Historical Fiction
Non-Western Fantasy
Debut Book
Set in the Global South
Set on Earth but not in the US or UK (Vietnam)
Audiobook by a BIPOC Author

So Many Beginnings by Bethany Morrow

Black MC
BIPOC on the cover
Historical Fiction
Romance with BIPOC MCs
Cast of BIPOC Characters
BIPOC MC’s and a Happily Ever After
Audiobook by a BIPOC Author

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Debut Book
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Black MC
Historical Fiction
Cast of BIPOC characters
Biracial MC

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

Non-fiction written by a Black or Native/Indigenous/First Nations Woman
Debut book
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Black MC
BIPOC on the cover

The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan

Audiobook by a BIPOC author
A book about smashing the patriarchy

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Disabled MC in fantasy book
Horror or Thriller with a Disabled MC
MC has an invisible disability (mutism)
A Character uses sign language

Didn’t We Almost Have it All: The Genius, Shame and Audacity of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy

Black MC
2022 Release
BIPOC on the Cover
Read a book that features blues, jazz, hip-hop, rap, reggae, or gospel
Audiobook by a BIPOC author

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza

Black MC
Debut book
Audiobook by a BIPOC author

Razorblade Tears by S.A Cosby

Black MC
Audiobook by a BIPOC author

Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder by Mikita Brottman

Mental Health Focus

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

Cast of BIPOC characters
MC’s first language was NOT English
Set on Earth but not in the US or UK (Japan)
Translated from an Asian continental language
Translated into English
Best seller by an author from a non-English speaking majority country
Audiobook by a BIPOC author

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam

South/Southeast Asian MC
Historical Fiction
Cast of BIPOC Characters
MC’s first language was NOT English
Set on Earth but not in the US or the UK
Set in the global south

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott

Poor or financially unstable MC
Right to safe access or alternative medicine

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Set on Earth but not in the US or the UK (Australia)

Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson

Debut book
Black MC
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Historical Fiction
BIPOC on the cover
Set on Earth but not in the US or UK (Western & Eastern Europe)
Cast of BIPOC characters

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Queer 2022 release
F/F main pairing
Not a coming out story
2022 Release
BIPOC on the cover
Queer BIPOC Author
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
MC with an intersectional identity

Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs

Science non-fiction book by a marginalized author
Read a book (non-fiction) about climate change or the climate crisis

The Others by Sarah Blau

Jewish MC
Set in Western Asia (Israel)
Best seller by an author from a non-English majority speaking country
Non-Christian MC not in the US or UK
Set on hallowed ground, Mecca or another holy location
Set in the global south
Written in English with non-English phrases
Set on Earth but not in the US or UK

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Nonbinary author
Queer BIPOC MC
Nonbinary MC who uses a sub label from the nonbinary umbrella that’s not nonbinary (genderqueer)
Not a Coming out Story
Cast of BIPOC Characters
Historical Fiction
Non-western Fantasy
Debut Book
BIPOC Disabled MC
Queer Disabled MC
Disabled MC in a fantasy book
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
MC has an intersectional identity

The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas

Mental Health Focus

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

M/M Main Pairing
Not a Coming out story

Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

Debut Book
Set on Earth but not in the US or the UK
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Historical Fiction
Biracial MC

Devil’s Knot: The True Stories of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt

Book about religious cults

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall

Cast of BIPOC Characters
Black MC
BIPOC on the Cover
Debut
By a Black Woman
Poor or financially unstable MC
Read a book about an event a government tried to cover up

The Tensorate Series by Neon Yang

Nonbinary author
M/M Main pairing
Queer BIPOC MC
Not a Coming out Story
BIPOC Cast of Characters
BIPOC on the Cover (original editions of the individual novellas)
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Non-western Fantasy

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Poor or Financially unstable MC

Arsenic & Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

BIPOC Cast of Characters
BIPOC on the Cover
South/Southeast Asian MC
Debut Book
Audiobook by a BIPOC author
Read a food book about a culture that is not your own (If you’re not Filipine/Filipino/Filipina this prompt would count)