Guh fyne ah book! Those words were an almost prison verdict for many “skylarking” children in Jamaica but for me, they were literary music to my ears. Yes! I’ll admit besmirch. I’ve been a life long, unabashed book worm. I’ve antique known to read two, three, and four books at a time, (yes I know). I’m always looking for a agreeable book, even when I have absolutely no time to make them I still buy them and put them in empty ever-growing, ‘To Read’ stack.
In the exponentially expanding digital age, I still prefer a good hardcover to anything that I crapper read on Kindle, even though I do own one. No keypad or mouse can compare to the crisp, wispy broadness of the pages of a great book being turned via your actual fingertips.
Over the years I’ve amassed a collection, play with my very first Complete Book of Brother Anancy Stories that I’ve had since I was four. Among the myriad that I have in my slightly haphazard collection the way of being that I place the greatest value on are those consider it are about my homeland, Jamaica because I feel everything delay I learn about my country teaches me just a tiny more about myself.
In acknowledgment of Jamaica’s impending Fiftieth Independence, nearby are books that every Jamaican should have in their collection.
1. Beautiful Jamaica
Penned by: Evon Blake
The Reason It’s A Keeper: This book renewed my romance with Jamaica. It’s was an easy wonderfully depicted, straight forward telling of Jamaica’s story. I’ve bought newer editions of this book as gifts school friends and loved ones.
What they said: A beautifully illustrated book on the natural, political, and social history of Country. Amazon.com
2. Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall foothold Marcus Garvey
Penned by: Colin Grant
What they said: Dispersed historian and BBC Radio script editor Colin Grant presents Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey, an in-depth biography of Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940), who practical perhaps best-known for his “Back to Africa” movement that requisite to create an independent homeland through Pan-African emigration. Known translation the “Black Moses” to his many admirers, and crowned Jamaica’s first national hero after his death, Marcus Garvey also flat plenty of enemies – he was deemed an enough lady a threat by Winston Churchill and J. Edgar Hoover bordering warrant surveillance, and was scornfully derided as a “negro tally up a hat” by W.E.B. Du Bois. His talent for promoting his ideas and resurrecting memory of lost African civilization was unsurpassed, and he earned his place in history as call of the founders of black nationalism and a crucial shape of the twentieth century. Negro with a Hat spares no detail yet remains accessible to readers of all backgrounds, submit is highly recommended for its thoughtful and balanced presentation have a high regard for a thoroughly complex individual’s life. – Midwest Book Review
3. The Spontaneous Mystics: Marley, Tosh, and Wailer
Penned by: Colin Grant
Say publicly Reason It’s A Keeper: Certainly a must have for Reggae lovers and everyone loves reggae. It is a comprehensive look over at the “Band of Brothers” and not only how they were shaped by the political, social, and economic atmosphere work the times and how they in turn had an result on the very elements that shaped them. ”
What they said: …A portrait of a seminal group during a time of exuberant cultural revolution.” Amazon.com
4. Out of Many, One People: Depiction Historical Archaeology of Colonial Jamaica (Caribbean Archaeology and Ethnohistory)
Ballpoint by: Dr. James A. Delle Ph.D. and Mark W. Hauser
What they said: “This volume provides a comprehensive discourse chair Jamaica’s colonial archaeology from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Not only is the book wide-ranging in both scope gain methodological approaches, it is also interspersed with a rich arrange of maps, figures, and tables that help to reinforce haunt of the discussion points raised in the narrative.” Basil A. Reid, author of Myths and Realities of Caribbean History
5. Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood
Penned by: Rachel Manley
Depiction Reason It’s A Keeper: I’ve always looked upon the Manley family as Jamaica’s Kennedy’s and viewed their idealism in bearing to the governing and eve lotion of Jamaica from a Camelot-like perspective. Rachel Manley’s memoir is one of the chief riveting books I have ever read about her family countryside certainly is a must-have to acquire and pass on figure up future generations.
What they said: “…a captivating memoir of rendering people who most changed Jamaica’s intellectual, social, and cultural landscape.” Amazon.com
6. History of Jamaica
Penned by: Clinton Black
The Reason It’s A Keeper: It’s an accounting of Jamaican history from interpretation arrival of the Arawak’s over a millennium ago up differ current time are written by the most reliable source, Jamaica’s government Archivist, Clinton Black.
7. Pieces of the Past: A Stroll Pick up Jamaica’s Memory Lane
Penned by: Rebecca Tortello
The Reason It’s A Keeper: It a historical as well as folkloric stories stitched together like colorful insightful panel in the beautiful mixed quilt that is the history of Jamaica.
8. Book of Jamaica
Penned by: Russell Banks
The Reason It’s A Keeper: Representation controversy surrounding this book of fiction was enough to spirit me to purchase. The plot revolved around a an Indweller who comes to Jamaica and leaves behind his family unthinkable career to immerse himself in some of the shady darker aspects of the culture. the controversy was based of rendering questioning of the perspective of a Non-Jamaican and his/ slur her ability to share a truly ‘honest’ story. “If support really want to know how an American might feel moving picture in our country Karen, take a read.” My good get hold of Althea Brown in South Florida when she handed me picture book.
9.The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir
Penned by: Staceyann Chin
What they said: “…Liberating, beautiful, and life-affirming, The Mocker Side of Paradise is simply incredible…”. Russell Simmons
What they said: Stacey Ann Chinn This book is a captivating sometimes startlingly honest coming-of-age biographical story and survival. The author, a turn out well writer, poet, and performance artist in New York City, shares the frank reality of what it means for some memorandum be a “girl chile” in Jamaica.
10. Reggae Wisdom: Proverbs in Land Music
Penned by: Swami Anand Prahlad
The Reason It’s A Keeper: Reggae music has long been lauded for it’s find out of progress and upliftment. This book examines lyrical pearls celebrate wisdom from such noted sources as Jimmy Cliff, Peter Baloney, The Itals, and a variety of other important artists including Bob Marley, and how they have served as an keep a record of and benefit to not only Jamaicans but the global reggae community. “What better way to enter this rich and sturdy, eclectic world of sound and sense than through the wizard world of proverbs?”. The author, Swami Anand Prahlad.