Black History Month: Reading

In honor of Black History Month this year as part of my reading goal I will focus on reading books by and/or about African Americans of a historic nature.  Here are the books I currently have on my "Black History" to-read list on Goodreads.com.

Cateyesmd's bookshelf: black-history

Bicycles

by Nikki Giovanni

tagged: to-read and black-history

The Souls of Black Folk

by W.E.B. DuBois

tagged: to-read and black-history

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

by James Weldon, 1871-1938 Johnson

tagged: to-read and black-history

Up from Slavery: an autobiography

by Booker T. Washington

tagged: to-read and black-history

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

by Harriet Ann Jacobs

tagged: to-read and black-history

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

by Harriet A. Washington

tagged: to-read and black-history

Today I started on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and so far I'm really enjoying it.  It is actually written by the slave girl and apparently was not not heavily edited for grammar in order to keep the true first person writing style from an uneducated slaves perspective.  The surprise is that, while I'm only about 25% into the book the writing of this "uneducated" slave girl is very well done considering the time period it was written.  I'm really looking for to finishing this book and sharing my full review with you.

Next up on my list will be Medical Apartheid.  I anticipate that due to the length and what I assume will be some really technical writing I will read this book while reading others through the month.

I anticipate 4 books being my limit for the month and even though I have more than four on my list now I would love to hear your suggestions for some great reading pleasure.  Leave our recommendation in the comments section.  Thanks and stay tuned for my review of Same Kind of Different as Me!

Book Review: Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just a quick snippet until my full review...

I started this book and quickly began to wonder if I was going to enjoy it. It wasn't until I was about half-way through the book that the yearning to complete the book and find out how it ends finally developed in me. At this point I couldn't wait until I could read(listen) more without distraction.

I used my Kindle "Text to Speech" feature to listen to the majority of this book, but would occasionally stop to read and/or reread some sections that I had gotten distracted on. I'm actually toying with the idea to read this book through a second time.

I really enjoyed how it ended and was surprised at the end because you have an expectation of how it's supposed to end and then you see that what your THOUGHT happened...well read it! :-) 

So, It's just January and I've got two (2) books completed towards my reading goal for the year so far.  I'm currently reading the third book: "Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, and International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together" by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent (Collaborator). Whew...that's a mouthful!  I hope to complete this book before the end of the month so stay tuned for that review.  You can see more of my 2012 planned reading in my "Reading Goal": Do Audiobooks count? post.

What are you reading?

Book Review: Reinventing Rachel

Reinventing Rachel: A Novel by Alison Strobel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a story about Rachel's life and all the chaos that unfolds in a very short time frame that caused her to take some drastic steps. WOW!

Hmmm....while I can kinda see this sorta thing happening in real life it was quite a stretch for me, especially the major relocation in an even shorter time period. For a person to be as devoted to God as Rachel was the amount of time it took her life to COMPLETELY collapse was unrealistic. YET the storyline of how God was clearly using these events to draw her to a deeper and more personal and passionate relationship with HIM was by far the strongest pull on my heart.

As a believer it can be very easy to fall into a PATTERN of what we know we should do, but are we passionate about the lifestyle? Have we developed a personal relationship with Christ to the point that when we are going through difficult times in life we don't completely turn our back on God?

However, God loves us so much that HE will never leave or forsake us. A quote from the book summed this up very nice: "God's been following me like a lost puppy, nipping on my heels and trying to get me to pick him up."

View all my reviews


Book Description: God let Rachel Westing down. For twenty-six years she’s done everything by the book; she figures He should have her back. But then she learns her fiancé is cheating on her. Her parents are getting a divorce. And her Christian mentor has a pill addiction. Where is God in all this? Nowhere, as far as Rachel can see. Wounded, bitter, and with a shattered faith, she quits her job and goes across the country to live with Daphne—her childhood best friend whose soul Rachel once thought she was meant to save. Confident, successful, fun-loving Daphne sets about helping Rachel reinvent herself, and for a while it’s exciting. But when another tragedy shakes Rachel to the core, what little bit of self-possession she has left begins to unravel. A true-to-life story that will draw you in and keep you biting your nails until the end.