“Going to Meet the Man” stories by James Baldwin
Across the street from their house, in an empty lot between two houses, stood the rockpile.
These stories drew me in immediately. Each contained a world of its own. Baldwin seemed to slip seamlessly into every character. They were sometimes hard to read, discomforting, but that is one of the reasons I read. To stretch my worldview. To get uncomfortable.
Everything worked on so many levels: the setting, characters, dialogue.
The writing is both sensual and violent, the stories thought-provoking. I think the title story will haunt me for quite a while.
A sentence I underlined:
This was the summer in which they all abruptly began to grow older, their bodies becoming troublesome and awkward and even dangerous and their voices not to be trusted.
“How to Be Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
I despised suits and ties.
Kendi starts by introducing his racist teenage self giving a speech in 2000. He shows us where he was and why.
Throughout the book, we meet him at different stages of his life and discover what he believed and how he behaved and then he gives the historical context.
It’s an education in racism and antiracism. It’s a journey he takes in his own life and is generous enough to share with us.
It’s not enough to just believe that we aren’t racist (we are). We must be actively antiracist and he explains exactly what that means and what that looks like.
I underlined so much but here are a few:
This book is ultimately about the basic struggle we’re all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.
White supremacist is code for anti-human, a nuclear ideal that poses an existential threat to human existence.
White women get away with murder and Black men spend years in prison for wrongful convictions.
Racism in not even six hundred years old. It’s a cancer that we’ve caught early.
“Turning Pro—Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work” by Steven Pressfield
The Daily Show reported recently that scientists in Japan had invented a robot that is capable of recognizing its own reflection in a mirror.
I didn’t realize that Pressfield had 2 sequels to “The Art of War.” I read/devoured them both in about 2 days. As I begin to emerge from this wintering season of grief, I wanted some motivation to spur me on. It’s been working. But I have to remember that I am still in the midst of grieving my pwn personal loss as well as the loss of 500 thousand Americans not to mention the losses around the rest of the word as well as economic loss and loss of routine. Which is to say, I can’t let myself get totally caught up in being productive then judge myself as lazy when I fail to live up to the (likely) unrealistic expectations I set for myself.
I love the short, to the point chapters. I love how he differentiates amateur from pro. Spoiler: it’s not about commercial or financial success.
A passage (among many) that I underlined:
What we get when we turn pro is, we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out.
“Do the Work” by Steven Pressfield
This book is designed to coach you through a project (a book, a ballet, a new business venture, a philanthropic enterprise) from conception to finished product, seeing it from the point of view of Resistance.
Picking up where “Turning Pro” left off, Pressfield guides us through our project, helping us navigate that entity always facing us: Resistance.
He is equal parts drill instructor and life coach.
He is not afraid to kick butts when needed but also calls in compassion.
My biggest take-way which I am already using it to just finish the project. Just finish it.
The next one is to start at the end then go the beginning and middle then fill in the gaps.
There are practical tips here that can be implemented immediately.
A sentence (among many) that I underlined:
We can never eliminate Resistance. it will never go away. But we can outsmart it, and we can enlist allies that are as powerful as it is.
“Passing” a novel by Nella Larsen
It was the last letter in Irene Redfield’s little pile of morning mail.
Published in 1929, “Passing” explores the experience of choosing and not choosing to “pass” as white. Irene and Clare were friends. Clare chose to leave the community and pass as white, marrying a bigoted white man who had no knowledge of her racial heritage. Irene chose to stay within her community, married a doctor and is raising two sons. Her husband has these bouts of distance that she is used to and knows how to navigate them and bring him back into the fold of their family. But when Clare reappears and stakes a claim in Irene’s life, things become unsettled, as each women wrestles with her choices.
A passage I underlined (for how it not only shows the passage of time but how the season echoes Irene’s emotional landscape):
Christmas, with its unreality, its hectic rush, its false gaiety, came and went. Irene was thankful for the confused unrest of the season. Its irksomeness, its crowds, its inane and insincere repetitions of genialities, ousted between her and the contemplation of her growing unhappiness.
“All About Love—New Visions” by bell hooks
When I was a child, it was clear to me that life was not worth living if we did not know love.
Well, the title doesn’t lie. This book is all about love. All kinds of love from romantic to right livelihood. She explores how the ways our society defines and portrays love may actually keep us from experiencing it. She explains how it is less a feeling and needs to be more of a verb. She reflects on self-love but understands that true love comes when we reach beyond ourselves.
This is not the Hallmark or New age version of love. This is grown-up love: raw, messy, imperfect but ultimately the kind love we need not only personally but collectively as well.
A passage I underlined:
We can give ourselves the unconditional love that is the grounding for sustained acceptance and affirmation. When we give this precious gift to ourselves, we are able to reach out to others from a place of fulfillment and not from a place of lack.
Grace Unleashed 