Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann
an interesting history book that bizarrely panders to the sensibilities of people who will never read it
Tag: racism
Five by Doris Lessing
five early novellas (in one book) from Nobel winner Doris Lessing
Conditional Tense by Antjie Krog
a serious South African book about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
an interesting Sudanese novel from the sixties
video: jane in safari
a conversation/ video piece about a recent safari
Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
progressive(ish) proto-modernism from 1880s South Africa
In The End, It Was All About Love by Musa Okwongo
it’s good flaneur-type stuff so it’s a yes yes yes from me but it did make me think
James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V. Mullen
an interesting – tho intentionally unemotive – biography of Big Jimmy B
Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn
strict taboos put us all in danger: smh on fred + rose west
The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin
2010 collection of [some of?] Baldwin’s uncollected short pieces
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
a bleak future that looks a lot like the bleak past
Protected: No Quiet Water by Shirley Miller Kamada (full review)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
No Quiet Water by Shirley Miller Kamada (summary)
an important topic, at least?
Going Home by Doris Lessing
doris lessing returns to the southern rhodesia of her youth
We Were Younger Once by Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet
lovely graphic memoir from a small Canadian indie
Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith
the stories are short but the misogyny is loooooong
Black American Psycho by Ernest Baker
solid novel recommended in Only Americans Burn In Hell
Do Every Thing Wrong!: XXXTentacion Against The World by 😇 Jarett Kobek 😇
an extensive discussion re the weighty themes raised by this book
The Autobiography of Malcolm X with Alex Haley
some thoughts on reading one of the 20th century’s most important books
the heart of the matter by Graham Greene
1948 novel about a sad catholic with too many girlfriends
The Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin
it’s not Baldwin’s best, but it’s better than most books by everyone else!
POETRY MONTH: Produce Poetry Or Die. by Narada Voux Sanders
realising i read poetry looking for poets, not poems
Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings by Nellie Bly
scott reads a collection of writing from a trailblazing lady gonzo journalist!
Sula by Toni Morrison
a beautiful novel about the emptiness at the heart of life
Passing by Nella Larsen (Norton Critical Edition)
a stunning harlem renaissance novel; scott muses on the hangover of growing up in a cultural desert
James Baldwin: Collected Essays (Library of America, 1998)
james baldwin is great; vaccines are also great
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
while we seek relief in schadenfreude over self-esteem, the world will never be fixed
Clotel or, the President’s Daughter by William Wells Brown
excellent, significant, 19th century anti-slavery novel
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
an excellent novel; in footnotes my concluding thoughts on the TV series The Affair
Zora Neale Hurston (and a state-mandated medical exam)
in which the canadian state tests me for TB & syphilis
As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
powerful academic text on the impossibility of decolonisation within capitalistic structures
Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
powerful stuff on racism, colonialism and botched governmental attempts to move on
Four Repeater Books (two I recommend)
two excellent books, two not excellent books
Winter in July by Doris Lessing
short stories about non-monogamous colonial types
Some Fragments of Incomplete Lockdown Blogs
Richard Wright in Franco’s Spain and other fragments
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway
phenomenal, wise, novel about the great migration and the manipulation of white working class resentment
the mirror and the light by hilary mantel
Written June 15th and actually it was this one, not Things Fall Apart that caused me to pause blogging, forContinue Reading
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
a blog post that fell apart so much i paused the blog for six weeks
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
hide the dfw; notes on craft & posthumous novels
Cane by Jean Toomer
ok toomer
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
great literary biography but not AS GREAT as other malcolm i’ve read
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
great prose-verse novel about nunavut in the 70s
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
very “literary fiction” literary fiction about WW2 non-Nazi racism
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas
very early protest against colonialism
Native Son by Richard Wright
surprisingly good protest novel; thoughts on UK election result
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
great early[ish] essays from one of america’s best
The Mask That Sang by Susan Currie
impressive, purposeful, children’s fiction
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
I read another great, serious, time travel novel
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
a solid, if unambitious, novel from a major contemporary voice
Triumph Of The Now 