Sharing some quarantine reads! I haven’t done quite as much reading as I thought I would have at the start of this lockdown, but I have managed to get in quite a few good reads… here’s a trio of them!
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I picked this up fairly spontaneously and was wowed. It’s a strongly written book that helped me further explore and challenge concepts I thought I already knew pretty well. Kendi blends personal memoir-style writing with legitimate scholarly insight so seamlessly. It had both head and heart. Most of all, it did an excellent job of exploring how race issues interact with other inequities like disability, class, and gender.
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was an insightful look at the impact of investing in women around the world. It was a good read overall, but my favorite thing about this book is how well it captured the importance of delivery systems: making sure efforts to help women around the world are implemented in a way that will be culturally appropriate and well-received.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one sat on my nightstand forever, while gathering all kinds of hype. It reimagines the Underground Railroad as an actual railroad and follows an escaped slave as she makes various stops. I liked it, but perhaps over-hyped myself for it, because it was occasionally hard to track. Whitehead’s newest book is getting even more acclaim, so I might have to check that out too.