First, the confession. In the flush of hoping to restart the blog last year, as opposed to this year, I wrote the following:
For the record, I plan to read what you might call primary documents during February, Black History Month. As the Black Lives Matter movement and related issues exploded over the summer I thought it would be interesting to attempt to read in a way that was emotionally removed from this summer but intellectually connected.
Books in this vein I hope to read this year (from my Library of America and Everyman’s collection):
It will not shock you to learn that I didn’t read any of those books last year. In my defense, sort of, I did read On Juneteenth, the novel Juneteenth, and started A Glorious Liberty.
And, inspired by our church service on Sunday, I started reading A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but haven’t made it past the introduction.
So instead of a nicely topical book review, I offer you a few links to past reviews:
- Almost, eleven years ago I reviewed the Penguin Lives volume Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life by Michael Frady which wrestles with the complexity and messiness of MLK.
- As noted, last year I posted used Losing My Cool as a jumping off point for Thomas Chatterton Williams: Wrestling with Race and Culture and
- Followed up with a review of Self-Portrait in Black and White
Maybe I can get to those Library of America and Everyman’s volumes this year…
