I read the three titles featured here over the course of two weeks, and never felt sad to finish one because the next book was as enjoyable as the last.
I grew up listening to the folktale Tikki Tikki Tembo. In the story, the honorable first son of the family is given a very long name. When he falls into a well, his younger brother is forced to repeat the long name over and over in his attempts to get help for his brother, who then takes a very long time to recover after being submerged for so long.
It’s a good story with a silly moral (don’t give your kids pretentious names, because it could kill them). When we read it with our own kids, we turn the name into a rap with body percussion or tickles. We use the name as a family tongue twister.
The bigger point is that I’m kind of in the well. I’m doing OK, but I’m not feeling creatively inspired most of the time. My energy and mood have been low. It’s a vicious negative feedback loop.
So I’ve read several good books recently, but the thought of writing about them freezes my brain into a state of further inaction. My solution is one I’ve tried before: I’m just going to mash a couple of completely unrelated books together into one post and see what happens.
Maybe one will suit your fancy! And if you pass my well, throw a rope down. Or a good book. I also accept fudge brownies.
Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of Teenage Wizard, by Echo Brown, is a book I found in my 13-year-old’s stash of library books from our last pre-lockdown trip to the library. She admitted she hadn’t read it.
I have been missing having a good book to come back to in between all the “work” reading I’ve been doing, and a YA book was just the ticket.
You have seen How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, recommended across social media and on every list of books about racism. In the weeks after George Floyd, it felt like reading Kendi’s book was the action point to start with.
It’s been hard to distill what I want to share about this book, so I’ll start with what my mom told me about it after she sent it a copy to me to read during quarantine: “It’s good.”
What The Wind Knows, by Amy Harmon falls into a unique category that makes it special.
