The Next Books That Moved From "Unread" to "Read"

My 2018 reading continues unabated. My evening lifestyle lends itself to lots of time for reading. I have been struggling with an upper respiratory something-or-other for several days, just imposing enough and lingering enough that I have had to sit home instead of going with Warren to recent performances, and that has added to the reading time.

So where am I now? Here:
49. Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington (after reading the excerpt from this memoir in Black Ink [#30], I wanted to read the original, which left me with more questions than before as to this man and his legacy)
50. You Are Free by Danzy Senna (superb short stories by a woman author of color exploring the meaning of race in our society; I previously read her memoir [#31])
51. Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh (more superb short stories, these by a young American woman author)
52. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, MD (this one shook me; I blogged about it a few days ago)
53. Negotiating With The Dead: A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood (Atwood almost lost me in the Introduction, when she explained how this series of essays on writing came to be, but I stuck with her until she hit her stride, and enjoyed every bit of this wonderful writer's look at the art of writing and how she came to it)
54. A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith (this slight 1973 juvenile novel, which I came across accidentally, was a reminder of how far juvenile literature, especially when dealing with death, has come in 45 years and how grateful I am it has come this far)
55. Up From History: The Life of Booker T. Washington by Robert J. Norrell (Washington is a troubling and enigmatic figure in history when it comes to civil rights; Norrell, a white historian, tries to put Washington in perspective and explain why what looked like acquiescence on Washington's part was instead the working of a resistance fighter deep within enemy territory)
56. My Year by Roald Dahl (this was Dahl's last work, a gentle one based on notes and observations he made his last year of life and contains these great sentences about golfing: " And in Lagos (Nigeria), monkeys used to pelt you with unripe mangoes just as you were about to putt. It was super.")
57. The Light of The World by Elizabeth Alexander (I just blogged about this most beautiful memoir about love and death ever)
58. Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo (Native (Mvskoke) poet, playwright, and musician, Harjo here pens her memoir and how she discovered the artist within her)
59. Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling (a superb novel by a Native (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) author, set on the Flathead Reservation in the 1940s, about love, loyalty, family, tribe, betrayal, and redemption; I cried at the ending)

I learned of Earling from a list of Native American female authors published by Tracy Rector in response to the recent charges of sexual harassment by Native author Sherman Alexie. While some of the names on her list are familiar to me, too many are not, and I am adding them to the ongoing list of  names while I focus on reading outside the safe parameters of white authors. As I ranted to Warren this morning (my husband is so patient), I have spent 62 years walking around in the security of dominant white America, and I am finally acknowledging the vast extent of my tunnel vision. Especially when it comes to reading.

More to come.