Good afternoon or evening or morning or whatever the time of day it is where you are. I’m just going to be going over some books I’ve read lately.
My goal (as with Goodreads) every year is to read 10 books. It’s now May and I’ve read 6 books. 3 of the last ones have been in the past week. So, what have I been reading you ask? POC (specially black) authors. I know, I know. Shy, you should read different authors from different backgrounds and I get that. I understand that but in all honesty, I’ve spent the majority of my life reading white American authors and I wanted got read something where I felt more comfortable and was able to relate to the characters on a different level.
Whew! So, who have I read? Well:
‘Legandborn’ by Tracy Deonn
‘Slay’ by Brittany Morris.
‘Her’ by Pierre Alex Jeanty
‘Transcendent Kingdom’ by Yaa Gyasi
‘Homegoing’ by Yaa Gyasi
and I’m currently reading ‘So You Want to Talk About Race’ by Ijeoma Oluo.
What do these books have in common? They are all written by black authors and not only black but mainly women. I’m sure there are others that I will get into once I read: ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and ‘The Making of Asian America’ by Erika Lee.
My goal for this year? To reveal in authors who aren’t the ‘golden standard’ of what it means to be an author in America. My hope? That one day I too will write my heart out and get a chance for others to read it. I want them to feel the way I felt when Deonn talks about Black people (typically in the South) feeling like even though the place was probably built by our ancestors, we weren’t welcomed there. I want some resemblance between my life growing up in the South and someone else’s. And I get it, some people will see it as a step back but for me? This is a step forward. There’s a book that talks about what it’s like to have natural hair, to wear a wig, to be happy while being black. There’s so much that we go through that it can sometimes feel overwhelming but we survive. We continue for our friends and family. We remain strong and this is what these books, these authors, mean to me. They are who I wanted to become when I was younger.
Recently, I went out with this guy, he got a masters degree in Material Engineering (this is important). When I told him what I wanted to do, he said “I don’t see how people can pick up a book when they don’t have to. I don’t see how people can edit others people work’. And that hurt my feelings if we’re being honest. Because I love this aspect of my life. The one where I can escape or make up my own worlds. Where I can be the version of myself that I want to be. And I think that’s important. There’s so much happening with the self-love movement and I am here for it! I am here for the acceptance and willingness to learn about others. But first, I must learn about myself. I must read about myself. I must love the person who I will wake up to every single morning whether there’s another human there or not. I must love me.
So my next question: do you have any recommendations for Black, female authors? They don’t have to be American, I just prefer to read from female authors.
And what are you going to do to start loving yourself? What are some changes that you want to make?
Love, Shy
A Shi Life 