As an author who has written about Saipan, CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) and other Asia-Pacific destinations, I was recently contacted by Ben Fox, founder of Shepherd.com–a fairly new website with the goal of connecting readers with authors–with a special invitation.
Shepherd’s mission is to make the book discovery process more creative, fun and effective! (Their tag line is “Discover the best books!”) Towards that end, Ben asked me to participate in their “Best Books About…” series by submitting my top 5 books (other than my own!) about Saipan or some related topic. The goal of the program is to benefit authors, too, so at least one of my own books about Saipan is featured to establish my “credentials.”
As you may know, Saipan and the CNMI is relatively unknown by many even in the US. What you may not know is that the CNMI has many, many local writers (In fact, based on the Writer’s Roll Call I created for my SaipanWriters.com support website, we may have the most writers per square mile! of any country/territory). So, I couldn’t include everyone! However, to provide a good introduction and orientation for people who are unfamiliar with the life and lore of these islands, I chose five books (by local as well as off-island writers) that I’ve actually read (that was part of the criteria) along with the reasons I chose them! That list is now live! Many thanks to Ray Deleon Guerrero, Jr. and Beth Demapan at the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library for their invaluable help during my research! Read the reasons I chose these five, and share the list with the world (especially if you disagree!)
Honorable mention: Drinking Seawater by Riza Ramos (Sorry, Riza, I couldn’t include it since I’m credited as co-author)
https://shepherd.com/best-books/life-on-saipan
Do you agree or disagree with my choices? Leave a comment, and let the hailing and hating begin!
