Sponsored by our Summer Reading Pack Giveaway courtesy of Harlequin.com.
We’re giving away a Summer Reading Pack courtesy of Harlequin.com. The prize pack which includes the following titles: Sunrise on Half Moon Bay by Robyn Carr, The Sea Glass Cottage by RaeAnne Thayne, The Summer of Sunshine and Margot by Susan Mallery, Heartbreaker by B.J. Daniels, Family for Beginners by Sarah Morgan.
*I have donated my usual fee for writing this newsletter to Campaign Zero and the Loveland Therapy Fund. I encourage readers to join me in donating to mutual aid and racial justice organizations in our communities and nation.
In light of the nationwide protests, marches and vigils held in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police in Minnesota, this week we’re highlighting books that focus on or helped inspire the Black Lives Matter movement, which strives to dismantle America’s systemic racism.
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. This came out in 2016, but feels extremely of-the-moment: activist and scholar Taylor “surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.” If you’re interested in a history of the movement, this is for you.
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin. These early Baldwin essays, written in the 1940s and ’50s, capture “a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America.” The edition pictured here is published by Beacon Press, who do truly excellent work. Baldwin’s eloquent condemnation of American racism is as timely now as when these essays were first written, and many Black journalists have cited his work as an inspiration to theirs.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. In print for ten years now, Alexander’s study on mass incarceration shows that America’s prisons are being used for “the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.” Alexander’s work has inspired many other activists and influenced the creation of Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th.
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & asha bandele. From Patrisse Khan-Cullors’s website: “Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.”
For more Book Riot book recommendations on this subject, check out 35 Must-Read Books About Racism, 5 Books About Black Movements and Systemic Racism in America, and 20 Must-Read Black American Memoirs for a More Inclusive TBR.