More to Read

This beautifully written novel in verse tells the story of a girl trapped, lost, longing between two worlds, two lives: the one she has and the one never meant for her. With intimately crafted language and graceful character development, Safia Elhillo draws us in to this narrative with a gentle, yet firm grip.  Nima was born here, lives here, loathes her existence here. She looks into the past so much she's called a "nostalgia monster". Reimagining what she thinks her life could have been through old photos and traditional songs, she resents having to learn Arabic instead of it being her native tongue. She envies her mother, her aunts, the elders who know of the old country. She is haunted as she fills in the gaps of memory and spins a tale of a life unlived, a girl unloved.  She looks to the present and the past to confirm her angst. The truth she finds instead, confronts her awkwardly and painfully. But in the end, the truth she finds releases her from the grip of regret and wraps her in the healing of gratitude. Please read. -OMD

Alice Walker has mothered me through so many of my seasons of growth and development. So it is no surprise that I find myself during a time of awkward stretching against myself and with the discomfort of expansion, drawn back to this rare gem of a memoir. The Chicken Chronicles is at once a love story, a rich historical recollection, and a diary of personal discovery. In ways that are moving, thoughtful, inspiring and captivating, Alice Walker shares a year from her life that she spent raising a flock of backyard chickens. Through her intimate storytelling I am reminded of the power of connectivity, the purity of nature and the oneness that is the source and center of peace. This is not a "typical" Alice Walker read which for me only enhanced the richness of my experience of this book. Strongly recommend. - OMD

In this revelation of an autobiography, Gandhi pens a portrait of a life lived in the pursuit of truth and a death made meaningful by belief. "My purpose is to describe experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not to say how good I am." - Gandhi
"Satyagraha, Gandhi's non-violent protest movement came to stand, like its creator, as a moral principle and a rallying cry; the principle was truth and the cry was for freedom."
I only knew what I'd heard of Gandhi in popular culture, the often recited quotes and the evoking of his name in pure as well as nefarious pursuits. What I gained from this book is a much more robust understanding of the journey that led boy to man to guru.
In this season of growth, of breaking ground to bring forth fruit, I can see that the journey, the living, the experimenting holds the most sacred truths. The destination is simply a bi-product of thorough, thoughtful and intentional experimentation. -OMD

A critical analysis of the American justice system which exposes among other atrocities, the pervasive and generationally harmful effects of the "war on drugs". Alexander exposes the system of control that is disguised as a system of justice in America. The New Jim Crow takes a hard look at the racial biases that inform America's criminal justice system, and the ongoing racial caste system in America that seems to parallel the old Jim Crow South. Calling for prison reform and arguably prison abolition, The New Jim Crow is a bold assault on mass incarceration, color blindness and the American justice system.

In his powerful memoir written as a letter to his teenage son, Coates writes beautifully about coming of age as a black boy. Addressing love, fear, racial injustice, the so- called American Dream, hopelessness and more, Coates guides his son (and the reader) into the inevitable struggle between one's self and the world. Resisting the usual hope-filled rhetoric and "we shall overcome" tones that persist in many other stories, Coates provides something a bit more bleak: a mirror, reflecting the young man black in America and America herself. 

Pushout is an explosive call to action for anyone with a black daughter, anyone who is a black daughter, anyone who knows a black daughter. In this provocative look at the criminalization of black girls in school, Morris reveals many of the ways a painful and bitter trajectory is set for our girls at such young ages, starting in school. Morris asserts how the education system and those who lead it and carry out its mission seem to prop up the school to prison pipeline for young black girls. Black girls are being labeled violent, aggressive, attitudinal and more at alarming rates. Their behaviors and choices misunderstood and criminalized in a system not at all concerned with cultural relevance or affirmations in the classroom. This is an eye opening must read.