It’s too early for the #Bestof2019 lists, but I’m doing it. Best books I read this year, in alphabetical order by title because that’s how they’re sorted in BookBuddy, which everyone should get bc it’s the best app ever.
AIN’T I A WOMAN- @bellhooks I mean, you’ve read this, right? If you haven’t, please do, and if you have, please re-read. “The fear of being alone, or of being unloved, had caused women of all races to passively accept sexism and sexist oppression.”
ALGORITHMS OF OPPRESSION @safiyanoble A librarian wrote a book about media studies/google/technology and I died. If you’re interested in any of those things, or even use the internet, yeah, you should read this.
AMERICAN PRISON- @shane_bauer If you’re not an abolitionist yet, you will be when you finish this book. Private prisons are so so so so gross.
ANATOMY OF TERROR @Ali_H_Soufan I had no idea. Background on Syria, Yemen, and ISIS. Stuff I feel like it’s really hard to find real, clear, info on.
BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY- Mark Harris This is an old novel, technically a baseball book, but it’s not really a baseball book at all. It will leave you laughing and crying and maybe even loving baseball. (Maybe not that one.)
BUTTERFLY BOY- @MariposaBoy Memoir of a queer chicano growing up in a migrant family is a story we don’t hear often, and we should.
CHARGED - @emilybazelon Okay. You think the criminal justice system is bad? You’re right. Prosecutors are a huge part and Bazelon tells us all about it.
DEAR AMERICA- @joseiswriting Another memoir of a Latinx person (I tried not to read many white men this year)- folks interested in immigration and the ridic battles over documentation should read this.
DOPESICK- @papergirlmacy At the time I read this, it wasn’t my favorite, but it has stuck with me. The opioid epidemic is a favorite talking point for politicians, but where did it come from? How did we get where we are? What’s the fix?
DOWN GIRL- @kate_manne Just finished this one, on the beach, of course. Best book. Misogyny vs sexism, and what are they? Super good beach read, if you’re like me and like to think about real things while staring at and swimming in warm waters.
I’M STILL HERE- @austinchanning Another memoir, from a Black Christian woman. The journey is beautiful and painful, and I worked hard to read this for the message, not for the white guilt.
MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER- @oyinbraithwaite Another novel! Okay, this book was GREAT and bizarrely creepy and so good.
NOT ALL DEAD WHITE MEN- @donnazuck (Not just) Zuck’s sister has written the book about the manosphere. I didn’t know what this was till I dated one of them, and once I knew, I needed to know more. She situates these men in historical context via philosophy and it’s fucking scary.
OVERDRESSED- @elizabethlcline You may never buy an item of clothing again. Such a great book about fast fashion (another thing I didn’t know existed) and its costs.
POST TRUTH- @jamesrbuk This was probably the best book of the year. What is bullshit? Why do we believe it? Is it new? (Spoiler: no.) What can we do about it?
PROMISE LAND- @JessLambShapiro Curious about self-help? Kind of grossed out by it? Yup, me too. Also Goop.
PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME- @ANatapoff Another one about a side of the criminal justice system you may not have thought about it- misdemeanors. Did you know that in states like Georgia, every traffic violation is a criminal offense?
REPUBLIC OF LIES- @annamerlan Another media studies book (I read a lot about this, huh?) Conspiracy theories are not new, but they’re timely. Check out the backstory and think about where we can go from here.
REVOLTING PROSTITUTES- @pastachips & @fornicatrix Great book by and about sex workers, in context of basically everything. This is super important and if you want to be feminist or anti-racist, you should read it.
SISTER OUTSIDER- Audre Lorde. Like AIN’T I A WOMAN, you’ve read this one. "As women, we must root out internalized patterns of oppression within ourselves if we are to be on the most superficial aspects of social change."
SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE- @IjeomaOluo I mean, if this doesn’t speak to you, don’t read it, but you know what? It probably should: "1. It is about race if a person of color thinks it is about race."
THE END OF POLICING- @avitale YESSSSS! I forgot this was this year. You know what, folks? We don’t need police. We just don’t. Things can change.
THE HATE YOU GIVE- @angiecthomas I don't read a lot of YA (what kind of librarian am I?) This was a good, heartbreaking one.
THE HEART OF WHITENESS- @jensenrobertw This is a book about anti-racism, for white people. More white people should write about not being racist anymore.
VIOLENT BORDERS- @reecejhawaii You know how we don’t need police? We also don’t need borders. They’re constructs and really bad ones, at that.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT RAPE- @SohailaAbdulali Wow, I didn’t think I’d be able to read this. I listened to it and loved it. Abdulali is funny and tender and honest and we talk about a lot of things when we talk about rape!
WHEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WAS WHITE- Ira Katznelson I learned a lot from this book. I didn’t know just how much gov’t institutions that we think of as universal goods have been *designed to only help white people at the expense of Black ones.
Okay, that thread was MUCH longer than anticipated, but trust that I’ve read over 100 books this year and this is just the ones that got 4 stars or higher. Feel free to write a GK syllabus and I’ll go ahead and give you more info on each ;) #gkisanexpert #youneedher
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