Jacob Soboroff on Human Cruelty—Separated: Inside an American Tragedy (Book Review)
Despite finishing Separated by Jacob Soboroff over a week ago, reviewing it is a struggle for me. It’s a complex book, so I worry I won’t do it justice. At the same time, at the center of it is the human ability to be cruel. And in this case children, even babies,...Mona Hanna-Attisha Fights for the Children in What the Eyes Don’t See (Book Review)
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha wrote What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City to tell what happened in Flint, Michigan. But it’s not just her story. It’s the story of her clinic, her city, her state, and her country. And they are...Robin DiAngelo—White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Book Review)
As defined by Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility refers to both a book and a behavior. In her subtitle, “Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” we learn the simplest definition of the behavior. White people see race through a completely different lens,...Three Brief Audiobooks with #OwnVoices
In between longer reads, I often pick brief Audible Originals or other short audiobooks. This group of three #ownvoices reads are about women whose lives illustrate the realities of being black and brown in a difficult world. Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson...From Mikki Kendall—Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot (Book Review)
When Mikki Kendall published Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot in early 2020, the situation was dire. Today, not even six months later, it’s even worse. The shooting of Breonna Taylor by police in her own home is just one reason. Countless...Brittany K. Barnett: A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom (Book Review)
Brittany K. Barnett tells a series of moving and disturbing stories in her new memoir, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom. If you read social justice books like The New Jim Crow or Locking Up Our Own, you must get your hands on a copy of this...Powerful Social Justice from James Forman: Locking Up Our Own (Book Review)
James Forman combines relevant experience and the ability to organize and present recent history. His 2017 book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America is an exposition of origins and consequences of policing and legal decisions. In fact, he divides...The Beautiful Struggle, a Coming-of-Age Memoir from Ta-Nehisi Coates (Book Review)
With The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, I claim completion of the Ta-Nehisi Coates canon. (Not counting his work on Black Panther graphic novels.) Now I want to go back and re-read some of his later books with the perspective I...The Nickel Boys: Reality-based Historical Fiction in the Jim Crow South from Colson Whitehead (Book Review)
The Nickel Boys is the third Colson Whitehead book I’ve read. It’s a joy to watch his skill as a writer improve each time. Of course, two of the three won Pulitzer Prizes, so I’m not the only one noticing. And this book evoked a range of emotions from cheers to jeers...Mychal Denzel Smith on why Stakes is High: Life After the American Dream (Book Review)
Mychal Denzel Smith crafted a group of stunning essays in his new book, Stakes is High: Life After the American Dream. These essays are so spot on and relevant to current events as to be fully prescient. When in fact, they’re discussing complex conditions that have...Book Review: Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Tressie McMillan Cottom tells it like it is in Thick: and Other Essays. This one sentence from the titular essay encapsulates her perspective for me. “I do not paint ethereal black worlds where white people can slip into our narratives and leave unscathed by judgment...Book Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas inhabits her main character Starr Carter’s voice in The Hate U Give. Starr is an African American teen living in a rough neighborhood. But her life is so much more than that. She’s got two younger brothers, plus a mom and dad who work their fingers to the...Book Review: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
We know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his nonfiction, but his fictional debut, The Water Dancer, is just as stupendous as his previous books. He builds the details of his world drop by drop, layer by layer. By the end, I felt fully immersed, although in some ways I was...Book Review: How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi covers a lot of ground in How to be an Anti-Racist. I believe we all are his intended audience, no matter our race, color, sexual or gender identities, political affiliation, or any other segmentation you might consider. He makes it clear that this...Book Review: Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
Johann Hari did so much more than enlighten me in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. I met all the players in this war, from the government officials to the cartels and dealers, to those on the global leading edge of...Bookshop.Org Affiliate
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