u.s. history

  • April 2025 Reading Recap

    Spring has sprung, and with it several projects I have been working on through the winter! The reading group I am leading through The Center for Fiction entitled “Two Lies and a Truth: Reading Between the Lines of Fact and Fiction” kicked off this month with Emma Cline’s The Girls, a book I found even

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  • March 2025 Reading Recap

    25% of 2025 in the books! I am failing (again) at my “read less get out more” goal to keep it under 100 books for the year, but there are so many good books in so many genres, I can’t help it! So far US & World History (23%), Literary & Popular Fiction (20%), Poetry/Hybrid

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  • February 2025 Reading Recap

    It looks like I’ve rather inadvertently had a fiction-free February! No regrets, as I got to some books I was meaning to get to for a while. I also kept with my typical reading pattern of more than 50% Black authors. According to various sources, Black authors make up 5-7% of all traditionally published books;

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  • January 2025 Reading Recap

    Here we are at the start of another new year and, as I write this at the end of January, my brain and belly are swirling in the midst of what has been a turbulent two weeks in the US. I have found solace in this time, as I have in so many other times,

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  • 2024: The Year in Reading

    For the fourth consecutive year in 2024 I read over 100 books, tracking not only the titles and authors, but author demographics, as well as genre, format, and publication year. This year I also switched from Goodreads (owned by Amazon) to StoryGraph (Black and women-owned) for online tracking, though I also keep my own detailed

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  • December 2024 Reading Recap

    It’s a wrap on 2024 reading! This year I completed 128 books, including these gems: fiction powerhouses, as well as pillars in the world of cultural criticism and craft. Here are some books to put on your TBR list for 2025. 

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  • October 2024 Reading Recap

    Spooky season was finally upon us in October. I got some good ones in this month, alongside a few classics, old and new. I also took advantage of a trip to Kansas to visit Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, and two great local authors that were new to me: Sarah Smarsh and Nghiem Tran.

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  • September 2024 Reading Recap

    This September, I continued working my way through James Baldwin’s oeuvre in honor of his 100th birthday last month. I also got a jump on spooky season with three thrillers: Truman Capote’s classic, In Cold Blood (1965), Disha Bose’s Dirty Laundry (2023), and Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby (1967), which I had the pleasure of reading

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  • August 2024 Reading Recap

    “The country will not change until it re-examines itself and discovers what it really means by freedom.” James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name Over the past couple of years, I found myself drawn more and more to the work of James Baldwin. With his 100th birthday on August 2, I doubled down on my Baldwin

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  • July 2024 Reading Recap

    August 2, 2024 would have been James Baldwin’s 100th birthday. Inspirational author, cultural critic, and civil rights activist, Baldwin authored seven novels, and countless short stories and essays. I read several this month in honor of his birthday, and expect to read several more in August, as many organizations and institutions celebrate his work and

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Women with long, curly hair seated on a stoop. She is wearing an army green jacket and jeans, smiling at the camera.