we should all be feminists, by chimamanda ngozi adichie (this is my "book that's under 150 pages" - it's super short and worth reading, even though at this point we all know we should be feminists. right?! because i'm unfriending everyone who disagrees. i'm a newly minted adichie fan so i had to read this one.)
whistling vivaldi, by claude m. steele (this is my "self-improvement book" because, yes, i get to decide what counts as self-improvement. this will improve me because it will help me better support underrepresented students. bam! i facilitated a faculty book club this fall where we read this book and had some pretty excellent conversations and connections about the role of race and gender in the experiences of our students. this was a re-read - i first read this in grad school and knew it would be perfect for getting the little diversity book club off the ground.)
slade house, by david mitchell (this is my "book recommended by someone you just met," and that "someone" is a person who works at an independent bookstore in st. paul, MN and wrote one of those little index cards that tells you why you should read a particular book. other things this book had going for it: i'd heard good things about the author and the book was short (ha - i have high standards at this point). this is a mystery that was described as spooky and was totally accurate. i don't often get creeped out by books, but this one did it for me at points. now, it was just okay - as in, i read it and all, but i wasn't totally captivated by the plot line and i didn't fully care about the fate of the main characters - and that's important to me. in fact, after reading it i took mitchell's cloud atlas off my "to read" list because i just didn't love his writing style. can anyone convince me i should add it back?)
just mercy, by bryan stevenson (mandatory reading. stevenson writes about criminal justice and race in a hugely readable and very powerful way. also mandatory reading of the same genre: the other jim crow and watching: 13th. but this book is so personal, because it's part-memoir of his life and because he talks about individuals on death row in a very humanizing way. it's hard not to be totally drawn in to this one.)
empty mansions, by bill dedman (i listened to this one, mostly on my drive to north carolina for christmas, and i was totally captivated by this, too, though for different reasons. it's the story of a woman who inherited 300 million from her father - and became a (bizarre) recluse, dying in a hospital at 104 and giving most of her fortune to her nurse. i love getting inside looks into the lives of people who live really differently than me, and this is a story very well told. lots of googling ensued about what has happened since the book was published a few years ago.)
the forgetting time, by sharon guskin (a quick read with a compelling plot - a child believes he had a different mother before his current mother and she decides to believe him - that i enjoyed but won't be rushing out to recommend to everyone i know. vivid characters and a well-constructed plot.)
empty mansions, by bill dedman (i listened to this one, mostly on my drive to north carolina for christmas, and i was totally captivated by this, too, though for different reasons. it's the story of a woman who inherited 300 million from her father - and became a (bizarre) recluse, dying in a hospital at 104 and giving most of her fortune to her nurse. i love getting inside looks into the lives of people who live really differently than me, and this is a story very well told. lots of googling ensued about what has happened since the book was published a few years ago.)
the forgetting time, by sharon guskin (a quick read with a compelling plot - a child believes he had a different mother before his current mother and she decides to believe him - that i enjoyed but won't be rushing out to recommend to everyone i know. vivid characters and a well-constructed plot.)
No comments:
Post a Comment