James: A Novel

James: A Novel by Percival Everett is a masterpiece. It is a retelling of the story of Huck Finn through the eyes of Jim / James, which changes everything about the tale.

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.

So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all . . .

I first read Percival Everett almost twenty years ago. I still think about his book Wounded. He is one of the best writers of our time and has so much to say. Put one of his books on hold today - or two, as James will likely have a long wait! 

Everett, Percival. (2024). James: A Novel. New York: Penguin.

We Deserve Monuments

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds.

Mama Letty is very ill in the late stages of cancer. Though Zora left the second she was old enough, and has an unspoken of, decades old, conflict with her mother, she and her family are moving to Bardell, Georgia to help.

Avery know little of her grandmother. She and her mom visited once when she was five, but all she remembers of the visit is yelling. Now, at the beginning of her senior year of high school, she is leaving D.C. and her two best friends, moving to a town that looks tiny and run-down. 

Luckily, right away Avery meets Simone and them Jade. Finding two new friends is a blessing. But what Avery doesn't know is the history between their three families. The layers of secrets, racism and town history will slowly be revealed.

As friendships grow closer and time is spent in Bardell, stories are revealed that will both bring Avery closer to her mother and grandmother as well as reveal how racial violence can ripple through generations. 

Hammonds has written a story about family relationships set in a small town with big secrets. This is a beautifully written novel of our history as well as current day country. 

Hammonds, Jas. (2022). We Deserve Monuments. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

The Sweetness of Water

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, set at the end of the US Civil War is a tale of hope, heartbreak, friendship and endurance.

The war has ended, Union soldiers are in the South making sure that the formerly enslaved people know that they are free to leave if they wish. Tensions are still high as white land owners face the change, Black workers try to understand their options, and town folks adjust to a new reality.

George Walker and his wife Isabelle live on a property outside of the town of Old Ox, Georgia. Being from a family that moved South from Nantucket, George has never had enslaved workers on their land. They never needed workers as George inherited enough from his father to never have to work. He does enjoy wandering his property.

As George wanders, thinking of the news of his son who when to fight in the war, he comes across two brothers camping in his woods. Prentiss and Landry were born on the neighboring farm. When they were told of their freedom, they left. 

George and Prentiss develop a kind of friendship. Isabelle has taken to Landry - a calm, large man who does not talk much due to an injury (read: beating) when he was younger. 

When George hires Prentiss and Landry to help him start a small peanut farm - paying them the wage he would pay any man - some of the people in town do not agree with his ideas.

Harris has written a beautiful book. It is set in a hard time in US history, but he shows the positives and negatives of people at the time. My dread of reading of the time period were unfounded. Though there are hard parts of the book, he does not dwell on them, but gives his characters room to grow and have hope. Read this book.

Harris, Nathan. (2021). The Sweetness of Water. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is the tale of twin sisters and their diverging lives. 

Stella and Desiree Vignes were born in Mallard, Louisiana in the 1950s. Most people born there stay their whole lives. 

At sixteen, their mother takes them out of school so they can help support the family. That is when they leave and move to New Orleans. From there they separate, creating very different lives for themselves.

Ten years later, Desiree moves back home, bringing her daughter Jude. She has not seen or herd from Stella in years. Desiree hires someone to track Stella to find out what happened to her.

Spanning forty years and the width of the United States, Bennett explores the history of passing, racism and identity in this beautiful family epic. 

Bennett, Brit (2020). The Vanishing Half. New York: Riverhead Books.

You'll Never Believe What Happened To Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar is a funny but sad look at white people in the United States.

Filled with hilarious true stories from Lacey's life, many from work, this book presented by two sisters is not only a look at how far we have to go, but at a close sibling relationship. Amber tells the stories, Lacey interjects when necessary to keep her on track.

This project came about because so many white people have so many stupid, racist things to Lacey, that she started to keep a journal. She and Amber talk about them on the phone: Amber is in New York City and Lacey in in Omaha, Nebraska (their home town). 

This is a look at the crazy things that happen everyday if you are Black in America. Go buy a copy today, laugh while you learn what not to say to your Black coworkers and friends!

Ruffin, Amber & Lacey Lamar. (2021). You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

The Office of Historical Corrections

The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella & Short Stories by Danielle Evans is a book of powerful stories. These amazingly well written stories vary but all have aspects of race or racism. They are smart, timely and haunting.

Included:

Happily Ever After

Richard of Your Gave Battle in Vain

Boys Go To Jupiter

Alcatraz

Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want

Anything Could Disappear

The Office of Historical Corrections

After reading this collection, I will be reading everything else that Danielle Evans has or does publish! I just ordered her collection titled, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self.

Evans, Danielle. (2020). The Office of Historical Corrections. New York: Riverhead. 

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize winning title about black lives in the United States.

Starting around 1915 during World War I and going until 1970, more than six million black Americans moved from the South either north or west. An often overlooked factor in the history of the US, this migration influenced everything about our world today.

Following three people who represent some of the common stories of migration, Wilkerson tells of the reasons why people left the South and why they chose where to settle. 

In 1937 Ida Mae Gladney left Mississippi for Chicago. 

In 1945 George Starling left the orange fields of Florida for Harlem.

In 1957 Robert Joseph Pershing Foster left Louisiana for California.

These and many others, including the author's own mother, left the South to make a better life for themselves, to (hopefully) be treated like human being and citizens in their own country. The slow but huge exodus forced the South to address laws like Jim Crow that were causing people to flee. In the North, blacks were not welcomed with open arms - being forced into specific neighborhoods and jobs - creating tensions between them and European immigrants they were competing with for space and livelihood. 

This fascination part of our history should be taught in school. This book fills in the gaps in our education system. 

Wilkerson, Isabel. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns. New York: Random House.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow is a beautiful historical fantasy novel.

January Scaller lives in a mansion filled with rare and old things like an over crowded museum. Her father works for Mr. Locke by traveling all over collecting artifacts. Mr. Locke has raised January in his absence with a string of tutors.

In a trunk in one of the rooms, January found a book. She is not sure who left it, but she thinks it may have been a gift to her. It is a kind of biography of a woman and the man who is trying to find her. A woman who seems to be able to travel to elsewhere.

Once when January was younger, she traveled with Mr. Locke to the middle of the country. There she found a door that seems to call out to her to be opened. When she opened it, the place on the other side seemed like elsewhere. Maybe another world. When she told Mr. Locke, he had the door burned.

Now she remember that door. One she sometimes thought she made up. If the woman in the book could find these doors, maybe January can, too.

Harrow has written a beautiful fantasy novel. It is set in the early 1900s and deals with class, race and more within the story of January Scaller. It is a book of wonder, sadness and courage. After reading this, I will read anything Harrow writes!

Harrow, Alix E. (2019). The Ten Thousand Doors of January. New York: Redhook.

Changers: Forever (Changers #4)

Changers: Forever by T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper is the final book in the Changers series. A Changer, as opposed to a plain human, spends each year of high school as a different person. They wake up on the first day of each year in a different body. These changes give the Changer a look at life from different perspectives, creating a more compassionate and understanding adult.

At the beginning of the book, Kim (change #3) has told her best friend / girlfriend about the Changers. Audrey has fallen in love with each of the forms Kim has been so far.

When Kim was Drew freshman year, and kissed Audrey, she got a flash of Audrey's future. She was fighting with a blond, muscly boy and drove off into a car accident.

When Kim wakes up at the beginning of her senior year, she is no longer Kim. She is Kyle - the boy Audrey fought with. So instead of telling Audrey who he is, Kyle tries to prevent the accident from happening.

This final instalment of the Changer series, bring together all that the main character has learned. In the forever ceremony, Kyle/Kim/Oryon/Drew will have to choose a final/forever form.

Cooper, T and Allison Glock-Cooper. (2018). Changers: Forever. New York: Black Sheep.

An Unkindness of Ghosts

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a look at racism in a science fiction setting.

Aster is part of the forth generation of people on the spaceship Matilda. Stories say it left a dying planet many years ago and will someday reach a (possibly) livable new world.

The ship is massive and carries the remainder of humanity. The floors are set up in a hierarchy that evokes the antebellum South.

Aster has been trained to be assistant to General, the ships main doctor. She has a pass to leave her own deck to see patients. And she has an forgotten part of the ship to do experiments with plants and healing.

With the help of her friend, Aster is trying to decode her mother's journals. Rumor says her mother killed herself, but no one ever found her. Aster is sure she was working on something that got her killed.

Solomon has created an unforgettable story of race and misogyny in outer space. People trapped in their roles, assigned by their skin color and gender. Reader will think of this story long after they have finished the book.

Solomon, Rivers. (2017). An Unkindness of Ghosts. New York: Akashic Books.

Lies We Tell Ourselves

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley is the story of integration in a Virginia high school in 1959. The story is told in two perspectives - Sarah, one of the ten black students going to the white school, and Linda, a white student whose father is the voice of the town paper and the segregationists.

In February of 1959, the town of Davisburg could no longer postpone allowing black students into the white high school. The mayor had closed the school to prevent integration, but by court order school had to be reopened. Ten of the top honor students from Johns High School transferred to Jefferson High School.

Sarah, a senior, along with nine others had to push their way through the protesting white students to enter the school. From there they were to spend each day being pummeled by spit balls, call names, tripped and when they sat down in class having the white students move away from them. Sarah is put into remedial classes due to the prejudice of the school staff.

Linda has never thought about how the blacks are treated. It has just always been that way in Virginia. When she meets Sarah and sees how she and the other students are treated, she begins to consider whether it is right.

Talley has written a moving story of part of our county's history. Though the school and characters are fictional, they represent real accounts of what lengths racists went to try to prevent integration. There were areas that didn't give in until twenty years after Brown v. Board of Education. This novel is an important reminder of the people who fought to give us the civil rights we have today. It is amazing - read it today.

Talley, Robin. (2014). Lies We Tell Ourselves. New York: Harlequin Teen.

Changers: Oryon (Changers #2)

Changers: Book Two: Oryon by T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper is the second book in their Changers series about a race of humans who spend their four years of high school as different people - a race that is meant to ensure empathy continues to exist.

The main character of the series is Ethan. He was Ethan from birth until the first day of high school when he awoke as a blond girl named Drew. Now sophomore year is beginning and she will wake up as Oryon, an African-American boy.

The Changers society has a lot of rules that the teens must follow both in order to remain secret and to protect themselves and others. One rule that Oryon has a problem with - new versions of selves are not allow to have a romantic relationship with anyone they dated as someone else. But Drew, now Oryon, is the same person inside and is still in love with Audrey.

Cooper has created a fascinating series that illustrates how people are treated in our society based on appearance. The series looks at gender, race and who people are on the inside. Set in a typical American high school, readers will see how Oryon is treated by the same people who knew Drew in the last school year. Great concept for a teen series - a must read for everyone.

Cooper, T. and Allison Glock-Cooper. (2015). Oryon. New York: Black Sheep.

To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has won many awards - including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - with good reason: it is an important and excellent book.

Jean Louise "Scout" Finch and her brother Jem live in the Maycomb, Alabama. Their father is Atticus Finch, a lawyer, who is about to go to trial defending a black man who is accused of raping a white woman - in 1935... in the South.

Scout and Jem are raised by their father and the cook, Calpurnia. As their world view slowly grows - first with their neighborhood, then school and the larger town - Scout learns lessons about life. Written with intelligence and wit, Lee captures the development of childhood in a time of racial prejudice. When the trial starts, she must learn to stop fighting the people who say mean things about her father.

And as the trial unfolds, the family reflects on the state of affairs - how some people can treat other differently based only on the color of their skin, not on their own merit. And how people can ignore fact in the face of that prejudice.

Though written in 1960 and set in 1935, To Kill A Mockingbird still has lessons to teach readers. It is a sad fact that we, as a society, are not as evolved as we like to think and books like this one are important lenses into our past and possible futures.

Lee, Harper. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Harper.