The Different Booklist Closes Doors But Has Online Diaspora Books For Sale

 Twenty Books to read the coronavirus quarantine

Now here is some bad news.  Yesterday the Downtown Toronto’s The Different Booklist and Cultural Centre announced that it is closed because of the CoronaVirus Pandemic.

Just prior the store shutting its doors, the Caribbean Camera spoke to Itah Sadu, co-owner of the Bathurst Street operation. She and her partner Miguel San Vincente are concerned about the “safety of our staff and customers”, thus yesterday’s closure.

Now for the good news: Although customers can’t, at least for now, visit the city’s only bookstore for Caribbean, African and Diversity titles, The Different Booklist is operating online.  To encourage online shopping, the company is offering free shipping on all orders. https://www.adifferentbooklist.com/

With this raging coronavirus outbreak you and your children may suddenly find yourself staying home with a lot of time on your hands. Nothing makes staying at home more enjoyable than reading a book or two and of course pouring over the Caribbean Camera.

What to do? The Caribbean Camera asked Sadu and San Vincente (pictured above) to come up with different list of bingeable books. While there are plenty of great books out there, we asked that their choices be the best in terms of the diaspora.  The list is broken into two – Books for children and Books for Adults. 

Books For Adults

1. Done With Slavery: The Black Fact in Montreal – Frank Mackey

2. Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Community – Ruth Holmes Whitehead

3. A Rush to Judgement: The Unfair Trial of Louis Riel – Roger E. Salhany

4. They Call Me George – Cecil Foster

5. The Skin We’re In – Desmond Cole

6. Until We Are Free – Reflections on Black Lives Matter In Canada – various authors

7. Being Chinese in Canada – William Ging Wee Dere

8. Obsidian – Thomas King

9. Hitting a Straight Lick With A Crooked Stick –Zora Neale Hurston

10. Reproduction – Ian Williams

Books for Children

1. Sulwe - Lupita Nyong

2. Get Up, Stand Up – Bob Marley

3. Likkey Miss Lou – Nadia Hohn

4. Africville – Shauntay Grant

5. Black Woman Who Dared - Naomi M. Moyer

6. Meet Willie O’Ree – Elizabeth McLeod

7. Myrtle’s Game – Cynthia Reyes

8. Sisters from the Six: Role Models In My Community – Jeff Martin

9. Babies Around the World – Tamara Barker

10. Dear Haiti, Love Alaine – Maika Moulite