Restarting 'Book of the Day' to Discuss These Black History Month-Inspired Titles and Figures
Now that I can concentrate enough to read again these are some of the titles by black authors and on racial themes I plan to highlight.
Now that
and I have made it back to our desert hideaway this last week I have access again to my book collection. Also, as discussed in my podcast yesterday evening, I’m now starting to feel much better from the PTSD after my new psychiatrist figured out a new medication combination:
So it’s time to restart a feature we experimented with last year but that I couldn’t sustain as frequently as I wanted: Book of the Day. This was a premium feature and I expect many titles going forward in it will be behind the paywall. (Please subscribe, we really appreciate your support.) Sometimes, though, I’ll make the podcast free if it’s about an especially important title or subject.
After my violent experience of police brutality which gave me PTSD in September 2021, I decided to dig more deeply into the black American experience. Here are some of the books I acquired during that time which I’ve been eager to explore, but unable due to my inability to concentrate deeply, caused by the hyper-arousal from my illness. As I return to being able to read, these are some of the books and authors I want to dig into more which I’ll discuss on podcasts through this month and likely bleeding over into March too if I’m not able to finish all of them this month. Some of these figures and subjects I’ll discuss and read from multiple books in single podcasts. Here’s the plan, in rough order of how I intend to do it:
Today’s Muslim Mysticism podcast a day late: Discussing the Nation of Islam, The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad by Karl Evanzz, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
Today’s Jewish Mysticism podcast: The Prophets by Abraham Joshua Heschel, a title which deeply influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights activists who worked with him.
Frederick Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis
James Baldwin, his collected writings in the Library of America collection
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
The Reed Reader by Ishmael Reed
Thomas Sowell, the black author who has most influenced me: Ethnic America, Race and Culture, Intellectuals and Society, The Vision of the Anointed, Inside American Education
Black Conservatism: White Guilt by Shelby Steele
Black Power: Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
My Favorite Gen-X Musician and Rap Artist: Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur by Armond White
Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph by Chad Sanders
Against White Feminism by Rafia Zakaria
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century by Barbara Ransby
Police Brutality: The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale, Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko, Abolish the Police by Robert J. Disario
Police Abolitionism: Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell
Black Mental Health Matters by Aaron Snyder, LMFT
Yeah, I Said It by Wanda Sykes
How to Argue with a Racist: What Our Genes Do (And Don’t) Say About Human Difference by Adam Rutherford
Modern Day Slavery: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves by Kevin Bales, Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - and How We Can Fight It by David Batsone
African American Quotations by Richard Newman
Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list of key black authors and important subjects related to the experiences of black Americans. I’m particularly missing enough representation by black female authors and black LGBTQ writers. Anyone in particular you’d like me to read about and discuss in upcoming podcasts? I need a good excuse for going and getting my San Bernardino county library card…