Last updated: Wed Apr 7 03:31:24 UTC 2021.
Some of the books I have read so far in 2021 (to be updated throughout the year):
Nicholas Carr: The Shallows (2010) – how the Internet is making us shallow thinkers and knowers. Books still matter, says this book.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Strongmen (2020) – compares and contrasts right-wing authoritarian rulers of the past hundred years, from Mussolini to Trump. In US history, Trump sticks out, but not in world history.
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1813) – considered one of the best romance novels in the English tongue. I still prefer “Wuthering Heights” (1847) by Emily Brontë.
Lily Brooks-Dalton: Good Morning, Midnight (2016) – post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, bleak but makes you think about life. A Hollywoodized version is now on Netflix as “The Midnight Sky” (2020).
Donna Tartt: The Secret History (1992) – rich White college kids kill one of their own and get away with it. All but a founding text of the dark academia aesthetic.
Julia Serano: Whipping Girl (2007, 2016) – the nature of sexism, gender, transphobia. The book that gave us the word “transmisogyny”.
Pat Barker: Silence of the Girls (2018) – the Trojan War as told by a woman. What a wonderful idea. But Barker was unable to shake Homer’s militarism and male gaze.
What I am reading now: I am reading the following three books of history in sync, century by century. I have already read chapters here and there of the first two, but now I am reading them cover-to-cover:
Audrey and Brian D. Smedley: Race in North America (2012) – a good, solid history of racism in North America, from its roots in Spain and England before 1619 to the beginning of the 21st century. The main source of several posts, like Spanish racial identity in 1492 and slaveries compared.
Nell Irvin Painter: Creating Black Americans (2006) – a good overview of US Black history from 1619 to 2006.
Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, editors: Four Hundred Souls (2021) – subtitled “A Community History of African America, 1619-2019”. Divides Black US history into five-year periods and has an expert write a few pages about each, from “1619–1624: Arrival by Nikole Hannah-Jones” to “2014–2019: Black Lives Matter by Alicia Garza”. What a wonderful idea!
Suggestions: If you want to suggest or recommend a book, please leave it in the comments below! Thanks.
– Abagond, 2021.
See also:
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I recommend strongly – Nobody Cages Me and Jimi Hendrix Black Legacy. They are on sale as a combo for 25 dollars on this site http://www.jimibl.com
Or on Amazon and B&N.
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Just a casual remark on the three latest items. Having hanging around this community for about three years, I still cannot fathom that American trick of the artificial race-based construct of national identity – and damn me if I ever will be able to. Some things are better to remain absoultely unfathomble as they are.
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I am currently reading Defining Moments In Black History–Reading Between the Lies by Dick Gregory. I’m willing to bet you have read it.
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From gro jo on the Open Thread:
@ gro jo
Thanks. I am putting the comment here so that it is easier for me to find later.
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Added: Lily Brooks-Dalton: Good Morning, Midnight (2016)
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Added: Donna Tartt: The Secret History (1992)
Added: Julia Serano: Whipping Girl (2007, 2016)
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Added: Pat Barker: Silence of the Girls (2018)
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