D.A. Gray
It isn't summer but there are so many important works to read. Some will be added as I discover new authors or look for new material to teach. This is more of an idea of how those selections are made and what is on the shelves at this moment.
Something New - Looking forward to Maggie Nelson's release of On Freedom
Something Classic - Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon
An Old Friend - Will probably finish Kurt Vonnegut's works this year, A Man Without a Country is next up.
Finishing what I haven't finished - Pynchon's Bleeding Edge got set to the side during the semester, a strong work that I regret setting down but Pynchon requires almost complete absorption.
Important Right Now - Eddie S. Glaude's Begin Again (a 'Conversation' with Baldwin who has always been one of the most important American voices)
Poetry - Kevin Young's anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Song & Struggle
- Valzhyna Mort's Music for the Dead and Resurrected
(there will be many more in this list though I read them as I discover new voices)
Civil / Human Rights - James Cone's The Cross & The Lynching Tree; Elizabeth Catte's Pure America
History - Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (If you haven't read Caste, please rectify that - it's an urgently needed conversation that some have been shutting their ears to for far too long.)
A Genre I Haven't Really Explored Before - Octavia Butler's works
Shakespeare - Try to read 2-3 a year. Merchant of Venice and Richard III are on my nightstand.
Something New - Looking forward to Maggie Nelson's release of On Freedom
Something Classic - Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon
An Old Friend - Will probably finish Kurt Vonnegut's works this year, A Man Without a Country is next up.
Finishing what I haven't finished - Pynchon's Bleeding Edge got set to the side during the semester, a strong work that I regret setting down but Pynchon requires almost complete absorption.
Important Right Now - Eddie S. Glaude's Begin Again (a 'Conversation' with Baldwin who has always been one of the most important American voices)
Poetry - Kevin Young's anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Song & Struggle
- Valzhyna Mort's Music for the Dead and Resurrected
(there will be many more in this list though I read them as I discover new voices)
Civil / Human Rights - James Cone's The Cross & The Lynching Tree; Elizabeth Catte's Pure America
History - Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (If you haven't read Caste, please rectify that - it's an urgently needed conversation that some have been shutting their ears to for far too long.)
A Genre I Haven't Really Explored Before - Octavia Butler's works
Shakespeare - Try to read 2-3 a year. Merchant of Venice and Richard III are on my nightstand.
More Answered Questions
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more