I started reading George Pelecanos novels because he was one of the writers on HBO's The Wire.  Specifically, he gets the writing credit on the episode that has what still feels to me, 15 years later, like the saddest moment I have ever watched on television, and perhaps the truest evocation of the catharsis of … Continue reading George Pelecanos’s DC Quartet →

Created by politics, culture, and consciousness, our possessive investment in whiteness can be altered by those same processes, but only if we face the hard facts openly and honestly and admit that whiteness is a matter of interests as well as attitudes, that it has more to with property than with pigment. It's often said … Continue reading The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics – George Lipsitz →

I have read 40 books this year.  This one was the best.  You should read it. If you are a White liberal and you think you know what "identity politics" means and are very clear about why you think it's a "distraction" from "more pressing economic concerns," I implore you, as one who used to … Continue reading We Were Eight Years in Power: American Tragedy – Ta-Nehisi Coates →

I believe this is the first book labelled as "Young Adult" I have ever read - when I was a kid, when I was a young adult, now.  It's not that when I was younger I read lots of "grownup" books - it's more that I didn't read.  It's also not that I have anything … Continue reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian →

Sometime last year I read The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead's speculative historical fictional piece which asks what if that railroad were a railroad, and underground?  That premise opened up into a very present-regarding look at how people and social structures work (or don't) under oppressive conditions.  It also had a sense of the uncanny about it … Continue reading The Intuitionist →

This was one of those books I ended up reading because is has recently been made into a movie (actually TV show).  But I've done this before - decided to read something because other people were watching it (then I usually don't see the movie/show) .  I remember reading Sense and Sensibility for the first time … Continue reading The Handmaid’s Tale →

For some reason, Volume 6 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle has been delayed until next year.  Having read and enjoyed the first five (I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with them - they're good, I like reading them, I look forward to the final volume), I turned to Autumn not knowing what to expect.  It's still in … Continue reading Autumn – Karl Ove Knausgaard →

Though more than 1.3 billion people live in China, I am embarrassed to say that Do Not Say We Have Nothing is one of three books I've read that have any sustained connection to that country.  The other two are The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses, both by Amy Tan.  And I'm not 100% I … Continue reading Do Not Say We Have Nothing →