When this post goes live, God willing, I’ll be in 24-hour quarantine at a hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. The Chaplain and I, with my parents’ help, are getting away together for the first time since the pandemic.
We’ll be staying with a friend once we’re out of quarantine, so other than having a couple of ideas about what I want to do while I’m there (fabric shopping, lots of outdoor time, and maybe a visit to the library and the Shokola Storytellers Cafe), the pressure is off for planning activities during the trip. Instead of reading the guide books I got out of the library, I focused on reading books by authors from the region.
Here are two I wanted to share.
Ahead, two books for your summer antiracism reading: a fact-filled thought provoker, and a middle grade novel that will have you smiling through your tears.
I’ve always really enjoyed books that play with time and space, and The Chosen Ones, by Veronica Roth, is at the intersection of many of favorite ideas and genres.
Over the course of the past year, participating in book clubs at my local library, one of the things that came up was video conferencing etiquette around pronouns. One of the moderators asked us to state our gender pronouns at the beginning of the call. I went with it that first time, but I felt really uncomfortable about it.
It’s that time again, where there are three books sitting next to my laptop, waiting to be shared, but they have nothing in common.
Come along! There is fiction, nonfiction, and beautifully illustrated science, coming right up.
