I had been thinking about reading Americanah, which was suggested to me by a few different people. It seemed like a big commitment though so I wanted to start out with something a little shorter. So I read this short book based on Adichie's TED Talk. Well, the joke is on me - it was excellent and made me want to read a full-length piece of hers ( Read more... )

Before I started this challenge, I read Parma's first book, Spirited - a 102-level book for Wiccans and Neopagans - and liked the writing style. I have recently joined a Druid organisation, and since Druidry tends to work with the Three Realms of Celtic mythology rather than the four elements preferred in Wicca and much ceremonial magic, I was ( Read more... )

Angel Kyodo Williams interweaves episodes from her life with an introduction to Buddhist teachings and commentary on some ways that Buddhist insights can be applied in the context of black experience. What Williams writes about Buddhism was not new to me, but the memoir sections were engaging. I'm not qualified to comment on what she says about ( Read more... )

I stopped counting books when I realised it was making reading feel like a chore. While I've read a lot of manga I realised I'd never read any novels by Japanese people, so I decided to make a special effort to do so ( Read more... )

Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas is a compulsively good read. Like Angelou's previous two biographies it's not very long, but the enthusiasm with which Angelou relates her experiences makes it seem even shorter. While her other biographies deal with childhood and her early steps towards independence, Angelou emerges here as a ( Read more... )

This book has been reviewed here several times, and I don't disagree with what others have said. Much of it is a beginner-level discussion of racism and privilege, though a notably clear and compassionate one with many striking analogies. (I particularly liked the image of racism as an airport moving sidewalk -- if you "do nothing", it carries you ( Read more... )

This book chronicles the history of cancer diagnosis and treatment from antiquity to the present day, and for being a fairly long book it was a damn quick read for me, because every bit of it was interesting. I was constantly looking for excuses to pick up the book and find out what would happen next. I learned an extraordinary number of things ( Read more... )

What is Whiteness? Who is White ( Read more... )

This is a broad and wide-ranging introduction to Islam, and assumes the reader has no prior knowledge of the subject. (I didn't, so that worked for me.) A lot of time is spent on the origins and ancient history of the religion, including the cultural background of the region and how the very earliest Muslims lived and practiced their faith ( Read more... )

The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson by Jo Ann Gibson Robinson.

( The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It )