1/28
Reading helps me escape. Open my eyes. Unlock my soul. Books have been a friend this last year, when I needed to flee reality, even if only for a second. Books are history. They share our stories. Bare our spirit. They must be preserved and consumed. A thread of what I’ve read this year:
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
2/28
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones opens eyes to the true history of slavery and how it infiltrates every aspect of our current lives, discussing the “unbroken links between slavery, Black Codes, lynching and our current era of mass incarceration.” A must read history text.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
3/28
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult tackles the topics of true evil and forgiveness, as it works through an old Nazi soldier begging forgiveness of a seemingly random Jewish woman. As he works through his story, she learns of her own history through her grandmother.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
4/28
Liberal Redneck Manifesto by Trae Crowder, Corey Ryan Forrester and Drew Morgan is a hilarious reminder that not all rednecks and hillbillies are racist. Not to be confused with another book of the same title, which, at a glance, is not something I would own or mentally digest.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
5/28
12 Principles For Raising A Child With ADHD by Russell Barkley PhD is a must read for parents of children with ADHD. It opened my eyes to things I didn’t know about my child (and myself) and has led to a completely different parenting approach with her than with my other children.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
6/28
Another Country by James Baldwin is a tale of the intertwined lives of a group over a year. It was sad that every male character seemed to be sexual deviants (think violent, not fun). The race relations between the interracial couples were also quite sad but expected from a novel published in 1962.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
7/28
The Sober Diaries by Clare Pooley is a hysterically funny yet sobering look into life as a wife and mother in wine recovery. She shares her innermost feelings and thoughts while navigating the world alcohol free, in a society where alcohol is the absolute norm.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
8/28
The Book Of Delights is a series of essays by Ross Gay in which he ponders something he found delightful that day. Reading this inspired me to restart my daily FindTheBeauty posts, a daily reminder to find beauty everywhere, even the seemingly mundane or downright awful.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
9/28
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a tale of a woman with postpartum depression who is locked away in a room, alone, to “heal” while she desires otherwise. She finds the wallpaper dreadful and eventually is driven completely mad by it, her husband, her physician, and the patriarchy.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
10/28
Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is truly just the story of an asshole who wanted to do asshole-ish shit without people knowing it was him, so he created a potion to make him look like someone else. He eventually became stuck in his other body. The end.
04:52 PM - Dec 26, 2023
11/28
Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek discusses the need to build up your team and the symbiosis of feeling safe and ultimately cared for and overall work effort and output. In a bit of a feel good fashion it also shares you are only as good as your weakest link, so building them up is key.
04:53 PM - Dec 26, 2023
12/28
all about love by bell hooks is a series of essays creating a love story to the world. In it hooks discusses a society where we function with love at the forefront of all we do, including how we govern. It was thought provoking and reminded me to love myself as much as I love others.
04:54 PM - Dec 26, 2023
13/28
Fuck Death by Steve Case attempts to tackle grief head on by telling you they aren’t coming back, it isn’t your fault, all your feelings are valid, and yes, this really does, absolutely suck. I appreciated a view of grief that wasn’t all squishy and left room for every possible emotion.
04:54 PM - Dec 26, 2023
14/28
Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck is the story of two migrant workers, who dream of owning their own land, while moving from camp to camp trying to dodge trouble inadvertently caused by one of the friends who suffers from mental delay. Trouble eventually leads to manslaughter and “humane” murder.
04:55 PM - Dec 26, 2023
15/28
The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a story of racial injustice, civil rights, and Black women finally getting their piece of the pie. Set in the early 1960’s it follows the lives of Black women and the White women they work for. It is a must read that will be over way before you are ready.
04:55 PM - Dec 26, 2023
16/28
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen is the history book we all need to read. After reviewing twelve popular high school history textbooks, the author argues that history has been made boring and inaccurate by cleansing the characters and whitewashing the stories, then shares some truths.
04:56 PM - Dec 26, 2023
17/28
Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism by Louise Derman Sparks and Carol Bronson Phillips is a guide for teaching antiracism to future teachers. It takes a dive into the history of racism in our country, how it is deeply imbedded in everything around us, and how you can check and change your own racism.
04:56 PM - Dec 26, 2023
18/28
Night by Elie Wiesel is his story of survival in concentration camps during WWII as a child. With lines like “Suddenly his eyes would become blank, nothing but two open wounds, two pits of terror,” it is no wonder this won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Very fast, important read.
04:57 PM - Dec 26, 2023
19/28
House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros tells short bits of Esperanza’s life growing up on Mango Street, along with the lives of some of her neighbors. It addresses the difficult and painful topics of longing, domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault.
04:58 PM - Dec 26, 2023
20/28
Her Legend Lives In You Discovered By Myron J Clifton is a whimsical creation story, written in poetic prose, following Mother Goddess as she creates all. Topics of friendship, love, parenting, religion, and more are discussed. Fun and fast, it wasn’t like anything else I’ve ever read.
04:59 PM - Dec 26, 2023
21/28
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi is a guide to the world on opening your eyes to your own racism and your heart to those unlike yourself. Kendi chronicles the history of racism in our country, discusses how imbedded in our world it is, and teaches us to call it out when we see it.
05:00 PM - Dec 26, 2023
22/28
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead follows a family man and entrepreneur through his double life in Harlem, early 1960s. The close calls with police, mobsters and crackheads alike keep him on his toes while trying to keep his cousin out of trouble and hiding his double life from his wife and kids.
05:01 PM - Dec 26, 2023
23/28
The AI Revolution In Medicine by Peter Lee, Carey Goldberg and Isaac Kohane reviews what is currently known about Chat-4 and how it can be used in medicine at this time. It also explores future possibilities, of which, the author admits, we have yet to understand. AI will be huge in healthcare!
05:01 PM - Dec 26, 2023
24/28
Killers Of The Flower Moon by David Grann tells the true story of the Osage people and how the White people around them systematically worked to kill them off for their headrights to oil money. It is a very important read, and a reminder of the pain we have caused the Indigenous people.
05:02 PM - Dec 26, 2023
25/28
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris is a collection of stories of the author’s life, beginning with speech therapy lessons that were forced upon him in grade school. In humorous ways and with hopes of inspiring he shares his fears and the ways in which he overcame them.
05:02 PM - Dec 26, 2023
26/28
The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich follows the life of an Indigenous drum and tells the story of the people it affects. From making a man dance himself to death to healing a small child with its rhythms, it seems to choose the fate of others and while directing its own travels.
05:03 PM - Dec 26, 2023
27/28
Virgin by James Patterson follows a nun and a priest as they meet 14 and 17 year old virgins that have found themselves to be pregnant, while all over the world there are signs of the end times. Topics of faith, love, and sexism run heavily through this early Patterson novel.
05:03 PM - Dec 26, 2023
28/28
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is the story of a boy who was sent to reform school where one must protect yourself from lovers lane, being beaten unconscious, or outright disappearing. Based on the true, gut wrenching story of Dozier School for Boys, find out more at officialwhitehouseboys.org
09:55 PM - Dec 29, 2023
