All in Social Issues
I guess this is my month to review books published when I was too young to read them. Tatum’s classic study of the development of racial identity during adolescence was first published in 1997, although she updated it and added a 75-page introduction in 2017 to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Celebrate might be the wrong word however since the intro takes the reader through the racial injustices of the last 20 years.
Growing up outside Boston, the Salem witch trials were a staple of history classes, and I was obsessed for many years. Even more so after I found out I was descended from one of the accused on my Dad’s side. So to discover this book that strongly connected the historical facts and my childhood memories, but somehow also made relevant observations about race in America today, was a complete thrill.
Given the title of this book and the subject matter, it is a wonder that I ever chose to read it. But, it appeared on a list of two “must-read” books for people anxious to understand what has brought the United States to the point where insurrectionists storm the Capital building in Washington D.C. and why Americans are so severely divided that they can no longer even talk to onr another.
Every once in a while I like to read a really good social psychology book. I’m not sure that’s exactly how Adam Grant would describe his work. But for me, Give and Take is a succinct, data-driven manifesto on how we interact with and treat the people around us and how that can determine our success.
Back in June when so many people were sharing lists of resources for those who wanted to educate themselves about anti-racism, this book appeared over and over. I added it to my library cue, but it was in such high demand, I didn’t get to check it out until this month. Although it is a difficult read, I am glad I finally got the chance.
In this powerful novel, Ayad Akhtar tells the story of what it was like growing up in the 1970s and 1980s in America’s heartland the Muslim son of Pakistani immigrant physician parents. His father, a successful cardiologist, embraced the American dream, thrilled with his seemingly unlimited opportunity and all that his money could buy. Even while feeling a part of the U.S., however, father and son experienced discrimination because they were Black. Those experiences were magnified after the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11, when being Muslim became another reason for discrimination.
Although The Black Flamingo looks in format like a book of poetry, I would describe it as a novel in verse. And although it is marketed as young adult fiction, I can unhesitatingly recommend it to any reader who loves a good coming-of-age story.
When my book club chose The Truths We Hold as this month’s read, I figured it would be about just who the Democratic vice presidential candidate is and how she got to where she is today. This memoir delivers so much more than that though. From Senator Harris’ description of her childhood in Oakland, California, we understand how her parents’ activism in the civil rights movement shaped the person she would become.
Migrations is one of those rare novels that has stayed with me long after I finished reading it. McConaghy has written a totally original and compelling adventure tale filled with memorable characters driven by the universal human emotions of love, regret, ambition and compassion.
Having read The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson’s illuminating first book about the history of Black migration from the South to northern industrial cities that won the Pulitzer Prize, I was eager to read her latest book, Caste. And I was not disappointed. In Caste, Wilkerson has written a second seminal book – one which I predict will also win many literary prizes.
I will admit I was nervous to start this book, which I added to my reading list at the suggestion of smart people who offered resources to educate and spread anti-racism. In my vague understanding of who Malcolm X was, I pictured him as an angry, violent version of Martin Luther King Jr.
I would also like to recommend I Am Malala. Quite by chance I read this book less than a month after finishing Daugher of Destiny. The two books make excellent companions.
I honestly don’t remember how this book got on my reading list, except I think it was mentioned in another book. Perhaps Hillary Clinton’s most recent? However it came to me, I picked it up knowing almost nothing about Bhutto, her family or Pakistani history. My only understanding going in was that she was the first female prime minister in the Muslim world.
Best known for his 2020 presidential bid and his controversial “Freedom Dividend,” Andrew Yang provides a sobering look at the economic and sociocultural status of the United States in The War on Normal People. Yang, a former lawyer and entrepreneur, offers a statistics-backed look into the many problems plaguing the U.S. today: income inequality, wealth disparity, job loss, the opioid epidemic, and others. He tackles issues that many of us, including our elected officials, often minimize or ignore.
When I read this book in March it felt painfully current. Sadly its relevance and timeliness have only grown over the past several months as we’ve seen police violence against Black Americans magnified a thousand-fold.
You don’t need me to tell you that this book is a masterpiece. The Pulitzer Prize committee did that a few weeks ago when they awarded Colson Whitehead his second Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Whitehead’s phenomenal writing style simultaneously draws you into the world of his story, while illuminating difficult truths about his characters and our society.
n recommending this book, which I do highly, I had to reflect on the many different aspects of a book that I believe make it a “must read.” Catch and Kill will punch you in the stomach and leave you breathless with the story Farrow tells. I knew the book was about Harvey Weinstein – his predatory behavior and how he got away with it for so long because he was a rich and powerful influence in the film industry. What I hadn’t anticipated was Farrow’s strong evidence that for years, many other powerful men knew of Weinstein's behavior.
The Blue Notebook is brutal to read, and yet I am grateful for the window it gave me into a world I knew nothing about. Levine has spent his life working with NGOs and non-profits all over the world to study and help children in extreme poverty. This is his first novel inspired by one moment in his travels.
While not a memoir, this book takes a very close look at a young woman who was born male and her journey, along with her family, to transition to the gender she was meant to be.
There is no doubt about it: I am a huge Anna Quindlen fan. She occupies a spot on my “must read” list. Every time I see that she’s published a new book, I scoop it up. (See reviews of Miller’s Valley, May 2017 and Alternate Side, June 2018.) Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize and for a long time wrote a column for the New York Times.
