I’m dropping a few titles off here from my Black History Month reading, which is ongoing.

1. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

My tenth grader recommended Things Fall Apart after she read it for English class. The book tells the story of an Ibo man who lived in a Nigerian village. “When [Okonkwo, the protagonist] walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often.” It’s a wonderfully emotive story, and a stark reminder of how essential it is to look critically at the historical narrative we’ve been fed.

Refaat Alareer’s If I Must Die was published posthumously after Alareer, a poet and lit professor, was kill by the Israeli occupation. He says, “Like any other people who have lived under ruthless occupation, as Palestinians we believe in Chinua Achebe’s powerful statement,” which says in part, “…until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. That did not come to me until much later. Once I realized that, I had to be a writer. I had to be that historian. It’s not one man’s job. It’s not one person’s job. But it is something we have to do, so that the story of the hunt will also reflect the agony, the travail – the bravery, even, of the lions.”

2. American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, by Kevin Hazzard

As recently as the 1970’s, if you had a health crisis in your community, you were likely to be bundled into the back of a police van and banged around all the way to the hospital with no medical care en route, or you might be picked up by a hearse. Your destination would be the same as if you’d ridden in the police van, and you’d receive the same amount of medical treatment (zero), but in the case of the hearse, the funeral home who sent it would benefit more if you didn’t make it to the hospital than if you did.

Enter a pioneering doctor who had a vision for a community-based first responders who would provide advanced medical care in the field — saving countless lives. The pilot program began with a group of Black men in Pittsburgh. Pulled off the street in an unconventional recruiting effort, the men successfully completed an intensive education program which was the first of its kind. Their skills, training, and professionalism eventually set the standard for emergency response personnel around the country.

My 13 year old found this book waterlogged and lying in the street, but he picked it up because it “looked interesting.” I read it to the four younger kids without previewing it and the bet paid off. We hung on every word of this thoroughly researched and fascinating story.

3. River Sing Me Home, by Eleanor Shearer

It’s the 1830’s, and slavery has been abolished in Barbados. Instead of freeing the slaves, masters have announced enslaved people will now be “apprentices” for the next six years, and they aren’t allowed to leave the plantation. Unwilling to be held hostage a moment longer, a woman leaves in the middle of the night and starts running. Her mission? To find the children who were forcibly taken from her during her enslavement.

4. The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I’ll be honest. I’m not a huge fan of Coates’ writing style. For whatever my personal feelings are, though, he writes important, timely works.

The Message has several sections (it comes in at a tidy five hours or so for the audio, so not a huge commitment). The section that contained the most new-to-me information and compelling imagery was his visit to Dakar, Senegal.

The last section of the book are his reflections from a ten day trip to Israel-Palestine. By writing about Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Coates exposed his readership to an issue that they might not otherwise have sought out. He took a lot of flack for his perspective on Palestine, but he has remained unrepentant for speaking out about what he saw.

5. The Survivalists, by Kashana Cauley

This is the only book on the list that I haven’t finished reading yet. I’m halfway through and confident in my recommendation. Cauley’s dry humor and her examination of the interior lives of the characters is entertaining and clever.

A corporate lawyer from the city, Aretha, meets a Brooklyn entrepreneur and sparks fly. She discovers he’s a “prepper,” or survivalist, which began after a hurricane left him stranded on a piece of furniture in his flooded apartment. Aretha justifies his doomsday preparation to herself, then gradually get sucked in. He has a go-bag. Then she has a go-bag. Building a food stash? Self defense? A bunker? Is there a line where things get too weird?

The header photo has nothing to do with this post except I was making tiny quilts at the same time as I was reading these titles. Making mini quilts has helped anchor me in these chaotic times.