August Books

August: summer ended and school started. I read 14 books during that month of shifting routines. When I was writing this post, I realized that I didn't have too much to say about the fluffy fun fiction that I read, but I had a whole lot more to say about the two quality nonfiction books I read. Fiction rests my mind so I have the brainpower to take on the thought provoking nonfiction! Stress, rest, repeat: the time-honored method for building strength--works on both the mind and the body. 

Fiction Books (* = re-read)

1. *Falling for Your Boss by Emma St. Clair: I re-read this cute Love Clichés Series in preparation for the release of the final book in the series.
2. *Falling for Your Fake Fiancé by Emma St. Clair
3. *Falling for Your Best Friend by Emma St. Clair
4. Falling for Your Enemy by Emma St. Clair: delicious finale of the Love Clichés series! Emma St. Clair keeps getting better and better. Witty, character depth, good plot, epic double epilogue. Loved it.
5. The Captain's Confidant by Ashtyn Newbold: book 2 in Larkhall Letters series. A bitter sea captain inherits property and a fiancée, but his childhood friend/love helps soften his anger with letters. A bit cheesy and I didn't like the whole "he's engaged so we have to be secretive" element, but it was alright--not very believable, and I wouldn't read it again.
6. With Love, Louisa by Ashtyn Newbold: book 3 Larkhall Letters series. A marriage of convenience turned to love. Man haunted by past that estranged him from society and family, woman who wanted love but married a stranger. A bit slow at the start, and the prose was a bit trite and unoriginal at times, but overall a sweet Regency romance.
7. The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams: pro football player and high school best friend fake date for public image and a commercial deal. So cute and funny! A new release this month from one of my favorite indie romantic comedy authors. A bit PG-13 with the kissing scene--if I didn't trust the author's policy on closed-door romance, I might have gotten scared off by the kissing scene. Seriously, folks, it's about the romance, not the kiss itself! I did enjoy the plot and the characters were well developed and lovably flawed.
8. *The Off Limits Rule by Sarah Adams: because I love her writing style and voice and I couldn't face another author yet after reading The Cheat Sheet.
9. *The Temporary Roomie by Sarah Adams: sweetness forever. I already miss having another Sarah Adams book to read! Keep writing, Sarah!
10. I Hated You First by Rachel John: meh. Girl has secret crush on brother's best friend for years and years, only to find out he has had a crush on her the whole time too? Her family business, which they both work at, makes annoying drama. This book was kind of bland. The characters weren't very vivid and the storyline didn't hold my attention. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn't. Average writing and not a strong voice.
11. *The Seat Filler by Sariah Wilson: a re-read--this one makes me smile. And laugh.
12. The Roommate Situation by Katie Bailey: girl fails at job in NYC, moves to Atlanta with her brother and falls for his roommate. This was a super cute sweet happy funny spunky story and I really liked Katie Bailey's writing.

Non-fiction Books

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

A fascinating tragic firsthand account of a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the 1840s. His descriptions of the cruelty white enslavers inflicted on Black slaves was both terrible and illuminating. I was struck by the sad truth that the only way Solomon got out of slavery after twelve years was because a white man took the time to help him. He was rescued, taken back North to his home and family, and that was the end of it. None of the other slaves he had lived with and worked with for all that time were even considered. Even though I was rooting for him to be freed for the entire narrative, I found the conclusion very chilling. Slaves had zero control over their future! 

I have always loved stories of the Underground Railroad, of "good white people" helping escaped slaves to safety. But this book opened my eyes to the true impossibility of escape faced by slaves in the deep south of Louisiana and Texas, surrounded as they were by swamplands, hundreds of miles from free states. Slaves couldn't even leave the plantation without a note from their masters. Reading Solomon's firsthand account of how beatings and fear kept him from even telling anyone his real name illustrated the many ways people of color were oppressed. 

This book, written in the mid-1800s, helped me see many surprising lingering ties that our modern world has to slavery, in mentality and treatment of people with dark skin. Yes, in many ways racism is more subtle today than in the antebellum south, but that foundational idea of white superiority is woven into the fabric of our country, and it is going to take a whole lot of learning and unlearning work to pick out those threads. How did I make it through my entire education without reading this book?

Chilling quotes from Twelve Years a Slave:

"There must have been some misapprehension--some unfortunate mistake. It could not be that a free citizen of New York, who had wronged no man, nor violated any law, should be dealt with thus inhumanly. The more I contemplated my situation, however, the more I became confirmed in my suspicions. It was a desolate thought, indeed. I felt there was no trust or mercy in unfeeling man; and commending myself to the God of the oppressed, bowed my head upon my fettered hands, and wept most bitterly." [This could have been written yesterday or anytime during our country's history.]

"It was a mournful scene indeed. I would have cried myself if I had dared."

"It is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford. The influences and associations that had always surrounded him, blinded him to the inherent wrong at the bottom of the system of slavery. He never doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. Looking through the same medium with his fathers before him, he saw things in the same light." [Replace the word 'slavery' with 'white supremacy' and this paragraph could describe so many comfortable white moderates today. Two years ago, I was a comfortable white moderate, so comfortable that I never doubted "the system" and didn't stir myself to learn more. This is why I keep reading and learning and working to know how to teach my kids so we can all be allies to the traditionally oppressed--not saviors, side-by-side allies--whenever and wherever we can.] 

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How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

A phenomenal book--a beautifully written, thoughtful history of a tough topic, newly released this year. Clint Smith's first published work was a book of poetry, so the man has a handle on rhetoric and language. It shines in his writing. To write this book, he visited 8 historic sites with deep ties to slavery and wrote a chapter about what he learned and how he learned it at each site. It's amazing how so many people try to ignore such a gaping gash in our country's and world's history! I like the author's way of facing it, acknowledging it, learning about it, and then trying to change things for the better by sharing what he learned in a thoughtful well-written way. 

This is such a Good American Book to read. I classify some books as Good Human books--books that I think every human being needs to nurture their perspective. How the Word Is Passed is a Good Human Book for Americans: a Good American Book. Slavery is just as much a part of our country's history as the founding fathers, and even though it was an atrocity, talking more openly about it and acknowledging the still-present racism as well as how MUCH of our country's economy, infrastructure, and culture was built by people who were enslaved is vital to moving forward with our modern racial issues. Thank you, Clint Smith!

Quotes from How the Word is Passed:

" 'Slavery's an institution. In Jefferson's lifetime it becomes a system. So what is this slave system? It is a system of exploitation, a system of inequality and exclusion, a system where people are owned as property and held down by physical and psychological force, a system being justified even by people who know slavery is morally wrong. By doing what? Denying the very humanity of those who are enlsaved solely on the basis of the color of their skin.' …In just a few sentences, David (Thorson) had captured the essence of chattel slavery in a way that few of my own teachers ever had." 

--David Thorson (tour guide at Monticello) and Clint Smith, p. 11

"Before I left, [Monticello], I wanted to understand how much David's role as a former military officer--responsible for protecting and promoting this country's foreign policy and agenda at home and abroad--was something that felt, if at all, in tension with his role now [as a Monticello tour guide]. 'I was born in the United States of America. I served in the country for thirty years, so I actually believe in the idea of America,' he said... 'Are we exceptional? No. …I believe in the idea of America. I don't believe that this country was perfect. I don't believe that it is perfect. I don't believe it's going to be perfect. I believe that the journey to make this a better place is worth the effort and that the United States, if you conceive it not so much as a place to be in but an idea to believe in, is worth fighting for.' " --David Thorson and Clint Smith, p. 42 [Well said, David!]

"I found myself angered by the stories of those who did not escape [slavery]. Had they not tried hard enough. Didn't they care enough to do something? Did they choose to remain enslaved? This, I now realize, is part of the insidiousness of white supremacy; it illuminates the exceptional in order to implicitly blame those who cannot, in the most brutal circumstances, attain superhuman heights. It does this instead of blaming the system, the people who built it, the people who maintained it." --Clint Smith, p. 64

"Yvonne's voice shifted to a mix of empathy, imbued with a sense of resolution. '...we can't continue to view enslaved people only through the lens of what happened to them...We have to talk about who they were, we have to talk about their resiliency, we have to talk about their resistance, we have to talk about their strength, their determination, and the fact that they passed down legacies. Maybe they're not physical legacies, but they passed down legacies to generations, and those legacies are living well inside of African Americans today.' " --Yvonne Holden, Director of Operations for the Whitney Plantation, Louisiana and Clint Smith, p. 71

"Kathy [Tiernan] has been central to ensuring that the next generation of Galvestonians understand the importance of Juneteenth. …'when people, more people whose story it is, get involved in their own story, things change. Things change for the better all the time. Not with a group of just Blacks doing this--that doesn't work. It's got to be the community involved in this, because that's what made the change. It didn't happen isolated. It happened when Blacks worked together and whites worked together and Hispanics worked together. That's when things work, when we all understand, participate, and care about each other's story.' " --Kathy Tiernan and Clint Smith, p. 180

"The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories. …It must be a collective endeavor to learn and confront the story of slavery and how it has shaped the world we live in today…At some point it is no longer a question of whether we can learn this history but whether we have the collective will to reckon with it."  --Clint Smith, p. 289-290

*Ok, that was a lot of quotes. But this book was so articulate, and I learned so much from it, I had to share.

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Favorite Fiction Quotes from August, to end on a lighter note:

"I hate bananas. They're so squishy, and they taste like...bananas." --The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams [I identify with this statement on a very deep level.]

"Flowery words are wonderful when they're genuine." --The Off-Limits Rule by Sarah Adams

"I'm feeling all sorts of things right now and they're having a boxing match in my head." --I Hated You First by Rachel John [Well said!]

"I really want to respect your choices and be supportive of you, but as your friend, please know that everything you're saying is still dumb." --The Seat Filler by Sariah Wilson

"I like cleaning. There's nothing better than getting my emotions out by aggressively scrubbing countertops. It's therapeutic. Not that I'd ever admit that to Jess. To prove my point that I'm a normal-amount-of-clean person, I even left a dirty mug in the sink this morning instead of putting it in the dishwasher. Take that, clean freak tendencies." --The Roommate Situation by Katie Bailey