Bibliophile: Diverse Spines Highlights Books By Marginalized Authors Plus Bookstores And Bookish People

The illustrated book Bibliophile: Diverse Spines (Chronicle Books), released November 2, by authors Jamise Harper and Jane Mount is a compendium of diverse books, authors, bookstores and the broader literary community. The expansive collection explores a wide range of genres, with book recommendations for each, from classics to speculative fiction to mystery and horror, romance, coming of age, graphic novels, feminism, cooking and baking books, queer titles, children’s and more, along with book recommendations from “bookish people” and peeks inside the writing roms of authors including Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Molly Yeh, Nic Stone and Nicole Chung, along with profiles of influential book people. Essentially, it offers a guided tour of diverse literature and those who create and nurture it.

The collaboration between Harper, the founder of the Diverse Spines book community whose @diversespines Instagram account has over 30,000 followers, and The Ideal Bookshelf founder Mount, author and illustrator of 2018’s Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany and 2012’s My Deal Bookshelf (Little, Brown and Company) grew out of a friendship born from art. When Mount did a illustration for Harper for a Christmas 2018 gift from her son, of a mug featuring the spines of diverse books such as Citizen by Claudia Rankine and An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, the two women were strangers. When Harper posted the mug on Instagram, she received so many requests for one that Mount began selling the Spines & Vines mug online.

Later, when Mount was talking to her publisher, Chronicle Books, about a follow-up title, was interested in covering diverse books. In an interview, she says as she was considering how to proceed with the project, she thought of Harper, whose work she “already looked to for recommendations of books written by Black women and women of color.”

When Mount contacted Harper, though, she “initially thought she had contacted me by mistake.” While she had created the thriving Diverse Spines book community, “Being an author was never on my vision board.” Once she confirmed that Mount had indeed meant to contact her, Harper says, “I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to create an invaluable literary resource featuring diverse stories. Plus she's a phenomenal illustrator, so I knew the book was going to look fabulous.”

The pair jointly wrote the book’s text from September to December 2020, working from their respective homes in Hawaiʻi (Mount) and the Washington, DC area (Harper) via Zoom, Google GOOG chat, text messages, and email. Many, many spreadsheets were involved in their collaboration as they considered which books to include, which books would get illustrated by Mount, and in their words, “making sure we were including authors from as many different backgrounds as possible.” Then, Mount did all the drawings from January through March, a process she says “was very crazy since it included hundreds of drawings of books and almost a hundred portraits.”

Compared to writing a solo book, Mount called the process of working with Harper “so much more fun. I really enjoyed being able to discuss ideas with her, and to collaborate and debate over which things to include. Working on your own gets lonely, and you can easily doubt yourself as it gets difficult to step back and see the work from a distance.”

For her part, Harper called the process of working with a co-author on her first book “a dream,” noting that “it really helped to have someone to bounce ideas off and to provide guidance. I was amazed at how well we worked together given that Jane and I had never met in person. Writing this book during a pandemic provided some relief from the daily stress of what was going on in the world. It was a bright spot during a very dark time.” The pair finally met in person at a book launch event at Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic this fall.

Of the decision to profile over a dozen bookstores such as Loyalty Bookstore, Cafe con Libros, Marcus Books, Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery, Palabras Bilingual Bookstore, Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books, MahoganyBooks, Bel Canto Books, among others, the pair says, “It was important for us to include bookstores owned by people of color specifically because they are vital to the communities that they serve. Not only do they amplify and champion the voices of underrepresented authors, but they also provide community gathering spaces as well as educational resources.”

Of the numerous titles recommended in the book, I asked each author to recommend personal favorites. Harper highlighted The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (Vintage), which she calls her “most recommended book,” saying that this story is one “you will never forget. The way Wilkerson welcomes you to the pages is breathtaking and her research is impeccable.” Her other picks include “sweeping generational story” Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Vintage) and 1946’s The Street by Ann Perry, which she calls “a classic American novel that should be required reading.” Mount’s recommendations include The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit), the first in the author’s Broken Earth series, “set on a planet struggling through environmental disaster,” along with speculative fiction The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (Del Rey Books) and Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline, “a rich, dark tale of true love and the grief that can come with it, centered around a rougarou, a werewolf-like creature from stories.”

Asked what they hope readers take away from Bibliophile: Diverse Spines, Harper says, “Reading diverse stories exposes us to other people’s experiences and expands our awareness of other cultures. As a champion for amplifying marginalized voices, I hope readers can cultivate opportunities for growth, understanding and empathy.” Similarly, Mount says, “Books are portals into other people’s worlds and feelings, and they help us understand each other. They give us a connection to other people, both to the authors, but also to all the other people who love the same book we do. Just knowing a person also felt a particular book changed their life, as it did yours, makes you feel much less alone in the world.”

 As for the author duo’s next steps, Harper is taking a “much-needed” holiday break and will return to hosting her Diverse Spines monthly book club group reads and author events in 2022. Mount is at work on a picture book for kids, which Chronicle Books will publish in fall 2023, “about how books can make us better.” Chronicle Books will publish a 2023 Bibliophile Diverse Spines wall calendar in July 2023.