The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was tough getting into it because there were a lot of characters introduced in the first few pages, but once I got past the first few chapters it was a lovely story. The characters are unique and reasonably well-developed for a kid's book, and the story involved everything from following the rules, being polite, and kids recognizing that the adults are also complicated people.

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was shocked by how wonderful this book is because I'd actually read it before as a teenager and I didn't remember it being this phenomenal. I think as a teen, I was so mired down in the horror and sadness of the beginning that that's what stood out for me the most. Plus, having no life or significant literary reading experience, I failed to get most of the brilliance of the book. But what a beautiful perfect book. Amazing characters, amazing sentences, amazing everything. Favorite favorite.

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Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent history and analysis of racism in America. Definitely expanded the way I think about the discourse in this country. Some examination of sexism and intersectionality though it wasn't the central focus. I was persuaded that racism is not caused by ignorance (because who is that dumb at this point?) but as a tool to oppress both black and white populations.

I found almost every paragraph riveting, but here is a favorite:
The Mennonites did not intend to leave behind one site of oppression to build another in America. Mennonites therefore circulated an antislavery petition on April 18, 1688. “There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men like as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are,” they wrote. “In Europe there are many oppressed” for their religion, and “here those are oppressed” for their “black colour.” Both oppressions were wrong. Actually, as an oppressor, America “surpass[ed] Holland and Germany.” Africans had the “right to fight for their freedom.” The 1688 Germantown Petition Against Slavery was the inaugural antiracist tract among European settlers in colonial America. Beginning with this piece, the Golden Rule would forever inspire the cause of White antiracists. Antiracists of all races—whether out of altruism or intelligent self-interest—would always recognize that preserving racial hierarchy simultaneously preserves ethnic, gender, class, sexual, age, and religious hierarchies. Human hierarchies of any kind, they understood, would do little more than oppress all of humanity.

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White Noise by Don DeLillo

White Noise by Don DeLillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an actually funny satire, that's also interesting and true. I'm very hard to please on the humor front, and I still didn't laugh out loud, but I found myself smirking and smiling a lot as I read along. I really enjoyed the exploration of how people do or don't conceptualize death.

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Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A series of poems that form the author's memoir. Very cleverly constructed and beautiful, sad, and moving in many parts. Might be kind of confusing for kids, who appear to be the intended audience, but it would work if a parent read it with them and explained all the background history.

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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderfully paced, dramatic, and tense story. The experience of reading this is like running through a maze with beautiful monsters on your trail.

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The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes, I know this family and many of its variations.

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Just Kids by Patti Smith

Just Kids by Patti Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More of a love letter to her former boyfriend and famous photographer Robert Maplethorpe, rather than a traditional memoir. If you're interested in learning about Patti Smith's music career, this book doesn't really get there until nearly the end, and then only briefly discusses it. Otherwise really interesting and almost spell-binding narrative about being poor and artistic in the 1970s and 1980s New York City. Smith makes the city sound gritty, glamorous, and full of possibilities all at the same time.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just reread this, and I'm impressed by how nearly perfect it is. It's amazing that I read this for the first time as a teen and that it's also perfect to read as an adult.

It's upsetting that we haven't come further than we have in 50 years. Progress is too slow.

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March: Book Three by John Lewis

March: Book Three by John Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a phenomenal book and a phenomenal series. This should definitely be required reading in high school. Understanding civil rights history is critical to understanding so many problems with current day American democracy, and for those that don't already understand it couldn't be clearer than this.

But even for people who do understand it, this is a really moving and powerful account.

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Redeployment by Phil Klay

Redeployment by Phil Klay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great collection of short stories about men in the US military in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. There's a good consistency in the quality of stories, and the stories shift in perspective on and off the battlefield and in different limited positions in the military. The collection is both interesting both for the insight into the military and for the collections literary value. My main critique is that although the characters are carefully varied, there is something about the consistency in author's writing style that makes the characters still seem too much the same.

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Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent memoir (in the form of a letter to the author's son). Strongly recommend every American read this as soon as possible. Coates writes prose as if it is poetry. He clearly and simply traces the relationship between American economics, slavery, the Civil War, the modern South, police brutality, city projects, and the uphill battle of those trying to move away from the history. He manages to pack a lot into a very short book. Between his beautiful writing and his economy of words, I wasn't able to put the book down until I was finished.

It's particularly interesting reading this book right now, when the current presidential election is mired in these very issues. The thing that's different now, is that the racist-sexist forces in our country have failed to hide their intentions this time. With their true intentions on display a majority of the "other" seem to have banded together: Women, black people, Hispanic people, GLBT, and others voting together en masse against the typical oppressors. As Gloria Steinem says racism and sexism are closely related and intertwined. It keeps the maximum number oppressed and also helps keep everyone divided. It's not a conspiracy, it's simply that authoritarians want to keep as much power for themselves and away from as many others as possible, so everyone is "lesser." One thing that Coates stresses though is that even if a majority are moving away from racist-sexist attitudes, it takes only one act of state-sanctioned terrorism by the police to take away all security. And sadly there have been many more than one.

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The World According to Garp by John Irving

The World According to Garp by John Irving
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this as a teenager and didn't fully appreciate it. At the time, it just seemed really weird and sexualized. Which it is. But wow, there's so much happening in this novel, both on the surface and in a literary way. And dear lord, the under toad. I hear you, Irving. And I see the toad everywhere.

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this as a kid for the first time and I was overly focused on the fact that I didn't like Holden Caulfield, and was grossed out by his poor interactions with girls and women. But as an adult appreciate the writing and the clear voice of the 16-year-old main character.

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