In an effort to de-stress and quell my anxiety while also refocusing on shit that actually matters, I thought I’d share what I’m reading this weekend.
Or at least trying to read.
The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin
After binging through her Broken Earth trilogy, Jemisin has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Two days ago I finished The Killing Moon, the first in her Dreamblood duology, and immediately plunged into its sequel. There are many things I love about Jemisin’s world-building, but she has an incredible way of tying the lore into the current narrative and from multiple perspectives and expressions. Not only do you get the mythology told from different perspectives, but you also get multiple interpretations of the mythology even within similar expressions. Mix this with prose that’s almost lyrical in points, dialogue that makes you feel a part of the conversation, and character development so rich it’s like a freshly cut onion because it leaves you crying from its potency, and you get a series of stories that you feel sacreligious in putting down. So yeah, I’m hoping to get lost in this book.
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
This novel has been so vivid in detail that I’ve often had to reread portions to fully saturate the setting. It’s been a slow read for that and the fact that its content brings back some memories of my early childhood. But at about 100 pages in, it’s good. If you’ve ever listened to the story told in Tracey Chapman’s song “Fast Car,” this novel feels like a longer form of that song.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
I made the mistake of speed-reading through this during my MFA program, so I’m reading it again, but allowing myself to absorb his words. Baldwin’s prose is often poetic, but always incising through the bullshit of white supremacist societies. It’s hard to read his works and not come away thinking differently about everything.
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
Like I said at the start, I’m trying to refocus and pay greater attention to the things in life that actually matter. Davis’ work has always disrupted my thinking in tremendous ways, and while I don’t expect too much of that from this book, I look forward to being refreshed with wisdom from a veteran in liberation struggles. The subtitle reads “Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundation of a Movement,” which should stand out to the self-described allies who continue to balk at showing support for Palestine. If you only became an “activist” after George Floyd, I’m glad you’re getting involved, but trust that there’s more to learn. I can already tell that this book is a great place to start.
Taking advantage of a coupon and a sale this week, I also picked up a couple more books that I don’t think I’ll get to this weekend, but I hope to read soon: You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat (a Palestinian author) and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (with one of the coolest book designs). I don’t know if I’ll write reviews for any of these books just yet, but I imagine I’ll be writing about them for some time.
A quick update about my own content creation projects; I’ve fully removed everything from Substack because of their hesitation to de-platform Nazi content. Since I hadn’t really gotten going over there, it wasn’t much of a loss to leave. But I am hoping to build a whole new site dedicated to a weekly newsletter as well as sharing many of my projects. If you’d like to find out more, please subscribe to this blog so that you can catch all my updates. And if you’re looking to financially support my work, I have a Ko-Fi page set up as well. My long-term goal is to make the switch from regular, hourly wage jobs to doing creative stuff full time, and I have so many project ideas. Your support is greatly appreciated!
(Feel free to let me know what you’re reading in the comments, too!)
Scribal Practices 