I'm back after quite the absence. I haven't stopped reading... I seemingly have just lost the urge to write. As much as I love to express myself using the written word, I have fallen off the wagon. Does anyone else find it difficult to stay on top of things during this time!? I wake up exhausted most days and would be quite content to be left alone with my books. Stacks and stacks of glorious books!
ANYWAYS. I know I don't normally include two books in one post. But, I don't think I will be writing about the backlog of books I would need to catch up on, so I picked two that moved me that I believe are important reads.
We all know about the Black Lives Matter movement. A lot of us know a little about Black History. Some of us are fairly ignorant... though I don't know if that would stem from lack of education, or lack of interest. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kid and Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes approach slavery in different manners. I know it sounds almost inhuman to say you enjoy books such as these. They are difficult reads on an emotional level (even being a white woman reading these books), but I find sometimes they will open your eyes to something more you didn't know about the civil rights movement, or about the slave trade, or racial inequality. Don't kid yourself. These books are important, and have been well researched.
The Invention of Wings for example? Follows the life of Sarah Grimke and her slave Hetty. Young Sarah opposes the ownership of another human, and is gifted Hetty for her birthday at a young age. Despite trying to legally free Hetty that same evening, her parents refuse. This novel is written from both the point of view of Hetty (Handful) and Sarah and their developing and changing relationship as the two grow into women. Little did I know when I picked up this book that Sarah Grimke was a real woman, and that she helped the abolitionist movement. (She was also considered the mother of the suffrage movement!) This book moved me in parts, and sickened me in others.. and that's not an insult to the author by any means! The treatment of another human that is portrayed.. makes my heart ache. I'm not going to share a lot about this novel. But, please do yourself a favor and read it.
(Here is a link to learn more about Ms Grimke - https://www.biography.com/activist/sarah-moore-grimke)
The Book of Negroes was another example of a very well researched book regarding the slave trade. This book had actually been sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read for YEARS. (I really couldn't tell you why it took me so long. Perhaps it was waiting for the right opportunity to speak to me?) This book follows the life of Aminata Diallo as she is stolen from just outside her village of Bayo, Africa and made to walk for three months to get to the slave ships, and thereafter sold into slavery. The fear of this young girl as she is stripped of everything she has ever known and loved will occasionally make you pause in your reading for just a moment to catch your breath. Reading Hill's account of the crossing to Charles Town was like nothing I had ever read before. To put yourself in the shoes (even through something as simple as a novel) of Aminata will have you doubting humanity so many times. I loved this book, but I am having a slightly difficult time writing about it without giving anything at all away. Aminata struggles and thrives in parts. Has things and people stripped from her over and over again without ever losing the part of her that chooses to fight.
These books, and books like these ARE important. Don't hide from them. I look at books like these and think of how far we have come; but with movements like BLM, the shocking treatments of many have come to light. Which makes me think about how far we still need to come. Books like these break my heart... but maybe we ALL need to read books like these and share those heartbreaks so we can push harder to become united as humans; not merely as individual races. Stand beside those suffering. Learn their stories. Break the cycle.
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