Mohsin Hamid — Exit West (Book Review)
Mohsin Hamid creates a unique refugee story in Exit West. It’s partly delicate but cannot entirely be classified that way since it’s rooted in aggressive, war-torn circumstances. Still, the main characters, Nadia and Saeed navigate life despite the obstacles. And...S. A. Cosby — Blacktop Wasteland (Book Review)
S.A. Cosby is a master of suspense and thrills in his 2020 novel, Blacktop Wasteland. He combines intensity, rapid pacing, and a command of the sentence that boggles my mind. This is a heist thriller, and its action sequences sizzle like hot metal on pavement at 120...Carol Anderson — One Person, No Vote (Book Review)
In 2018 I saw Carol Anderson speak about One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy. I’d just spent my first campaign season knocking doors to canvass for candidates I cared about. Anderson’s talk convinced me that voter suppression is the...Caroline Criado Perez: Invisible Women — Exposing Patriarchy (Book Review)
Caroline Criado Perez covers extensive ground in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. Because the world offers her illustrations galore of how we exclude women from data. Then she turns around and explains what this means in everyday women’s lives....Isabel Wilkerson: Caste (Book Review) — A Racial Justice Must Read
Isabel Wilkerson writes about devastating history in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. It’s long, intense, and absolutely necessary to read. Thinking of the social and societal issues around race as based in a complicated caste system makes perfect sense. And...The Glass Palace — Historical Fiction from Amitav Ghosh (Book Review)
Amitav Ghosh creates a compelling multi-generational narrative in his historical fiction, The Glass Palace. As the book opens, Rajkumar is an 11-year-old boy from India stranded in Mandalay, Burma (now Myanmar). He finds himself in King Thibaw’s Glass Palace in 1885...Michele Harper, M.D. — The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir (Book Review)
Michele Harper, M.D. opens her heart in a memoir about her experiences in medicine, The Beauty in Breaking. But this book is more than that. It’s part meditation on finding herself amid divorce, moving to a new city, and finding peace in yoga and stillness. She’s also...Mateo Askaripour: New Author Offers Insightful Novel, Black Buck (Book Review)
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour is many things—racial justice commentary, social satire about the sales industry, debut novel, and maybe even a morality play. But at its heart, it’s a good story with a compelling main character who indeed sold his ideas effectively to...Jacqueline Woodson: Red at the Bone—A Novel of Family and Struggle (Book Review)
Jacqueline Woodson does it again with Red at the Bone. In my opinion, there’s no other living author that imbues so much emotion and grace into so few pages. This story is all about family and self-realization at any age. It’s a story of Melody, a teen whose parents...Stephen Graham Jones: Genre Bending Horror in The Only Good Indians (Book Review)
From Native American author Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians is horror painted on the unsettled background of reservation life. It also bends the time, space, and being continuums. In other words, you’ll need to suspend all disbelief and just go with it. So...Boys in Two Unique Coming-of-Age Books
Reading two books about two boys in very different eras and situations warmed my heart at the start of this cold, dark winter. I began Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis with my 10-year-old granddaughter. And then I started The Absolutely True Diary of a...The New Barack Obama Memoir: A Promised Land (Book Review)
I spent 30 hours listening to Barack Obama in November. Hint: It was the audiobook of his recently released memoir, A Promised Land. I consider it time well spent, as well as an enjoyable listen. And even though I was alive and politically aware during the events of...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...Stacey Abrams on a Fair America: Our Time is Now (Book Review)
Stacy Abrams knows voting rights. Starting in college, she worked on voter registration drives. And this led her to more civic service, including serving for ten years in the Georgia State House of Representatives. You may be more familiar with her because of her 2018...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...Bookshop.Org Affiliate
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