Even though it's one day longer this year, the end of February is closing in on us. I like to read something relevant to holidays and remembrances - women's history month, black history month, banned book week ... Thanksgiving is usually celebrated with chapters from Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen or A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Anyway, we did some nice displays at work and it's got me thinking about books to celebrate black history month. Not just books that happen to be written by African-Americans, but the books that really gave me goosebumps or chills. The books that made me cry with sadness or laughter. Here are my top ten.
1. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: written by Herself by Harriet Jacobs
I found this book in my tiny home library in Warren, Maine when I was younger. When I read it I couldn't believe it was actually written by a woman who lived that life. It was my first experience with something close to primary material and it blew my mind.
2. Color of Water by James McBride
I've mentioned this book before in this blog ... it was the 2007 Long Island Reads pick. It's a modern classic.
3. Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
I read this in college. It's another first hand account, this time of the 1940s and 1950s: “Something is new here…rural southern black life begins to speak. It hits the page like a natural force, crude and undeniable and, against all principles of beauty, beautiful.” —The Nation
4. Roots by Alex Haley
I know, you've seen the miniseries. But have you actually read the book? It is a classic for a reason - beautiful, sad, spanning time and continents.
5. Native Son by Richard Wright
I've been pushing Wright lately (his last, unfinished book was released this year) but this is another modern classic. Inside Bigger Thomas' head, you watch as he makes one mistake after another, digging himself deeper and deeper into trouble in 1930's Chicago. You want to reach into the book and shake him, hug him or slap him. I still haven't gotten over this book.
6. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Beautiful. Read Hurston, read anything by her.
7. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
My mom recommended this to me. Oprah recommended it to her viewers. Take their advice.
8. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Again, I KNOW you've seen the movie or the Broadway play but if you haven't read this book you're really missing out.
9. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The only white woman author on this list. This book caught the attention of Abraham Lincoln and it's still a great read today. If you fall in love with her writing, you can visit her house in Hartford, CT. They have a bookshelf with all of her first edition's in the parlor ... (drool).
10. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Another modern classic. This autobiography is hard to read due to sexual abuse ... this story will never leave you.
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2 comments:
You know mommies are always right!
Another great and profound book relating to African-Americans, and slavery in particular, is "Day of Tears" by Julius Lester. It's a YA/Children's book but when you read it, you won't know the difference. It's written from the POV of different slaves, being sold off by their masters.
It's amazing and will make you cry.
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