Hi everyone! After an unexpected hiatus during february because work was kickin my ass, I’m back because I didn’t want to let Black History Month go by without posting at least one recommendation post highlighting some amazing books by Balck authors.
I was in a reading slump as well during february but a lot of the books that I did manage to read were nonfiction titles and that’s why I want to recommend some amazing nonficiton books by Black authors that I have read throughout the years.
Without futher ado, here are 8 amazing nonfiction book by Black authors:
Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
This book was thoughtful, clear, and concise. It’s told in a tone and style that it’s easy to read and understand, the amount of skill that Jason Reynolds shows with the way he wrote this book is outstanding. Stamped traces the history of racism and the many political, literary, and philosophical narratives that have been used to justify it. Framed through thoughts of segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists throughout history.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
This is a powerful book that’s part essays and part memoir. It talks about the race issue in America in a way that it’s sobering and it does it through excellent writing. In the first essay, Balwin talks about the relationship between Black people and White people and racial oppression, but the second essays is the most powerful one in this book, for the way it talks about different religions and the link between religion, power, race and racism.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
This is a very hard book to read, but it is so powerful, honest and raw. This is a collection of essays but it’s also part memoir about Roxane Gay’s relationship with her body, her weight and with food. The essays go from criticism for tv shows about weight lost to very personal essays about the way rape affected Gay’s relationship with her body. One of the strongest parts of this book is the way it talks about her experience as a fat women in a world not built for her.
Bad Feminism by Roxane Gay
This collection of essays is thought-provoking, accesible and sincere. This is a book that highlights that just like no one is perfect, no movement is perfect either. Gay talks about culture, gender and politics, and while she offears thoughtful critisims of different aspects of society, she is also not afraid to recognize her own flaws and contradictions. At the end the message of this book is hopeful.
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identidy, Love and So Much More by Janet Mock
This memoir is incredibly thought-provoking, because Mock doesn’t hold back, she is achingly honest and that makes her story and what she has to say so compelling. Mock talks about being multicultural, trans and poor, she talks about poverty and prostitution, about her priviliges for “passing” as a cis woman, about what’s consider to be the ‘right’ kind of trans women and why that needs to end. This book is insighful and moving, as well as beautifully written
The Body is not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
This is an incredibly thought-provoking book that proposes a criticism of the beauty standars and the hurtful ideas about bodies that society, the market and the media portrait and perpetute. It’s insigful, fascinating and eye opening. And what makes it truly special is that it talks about the body and body positivity not only thinking about weight, but taking into account race, disability, sexuality, gender and more intersecting types of bodies.
White Rage by Carol Anderson
White rage is defenitely not an easy read, it’s frustrating, infuriating and disheartening, but it’s such an important book. Carol Anderson proposes that “White rage is not about visible violence, but rather it works its way through the courts, the legislatures, and a range of government bureaucracies.… The trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black advancement.” and then she goes on to show how white rage has manifested throughout U.S. history.
So You want to Talk about Race by Ojeoma Oluo
This book is though-provoking, easy to understand and useful. Ijeoma Oluo explores the complex reality of today’s racial landscap and covers so many topics in a concise, straightforward and very smart way, from white privilege, police brutality, systemic discrimination to the Black Lives Matter movement. But more importantly she offers clear ways to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide.
Bookish Wanderess 