The Reading Round-up

July 1 Reading Round-Up:                              

Many people have said  they have not been able to concentrate on reading during this season of private discontent.  I appear to have been bucking this trend.  I statrted keeping a reading log at Christmas , and I am up to forty-five books.  It is interesting to look at how my reading has shifted a bit--I have read a lot of non-fiction non-fiction, even before the current spasm of social justice/anti-racism reading has gripped all of us; and I have read a lot more YA semi-comfort reading than I usually do.

Here are some of the spring highlights:

Non-Fiction:  I read five books about The Prophet (PBUH) and/or Islam.  If you want an overview of Mohammad's life, you can't go wrong with  anything by Karen Armstrong.  Her Mohammad:  A Prophet For Our Time  is a great general biography, although I think it comes to a rather sudden end without a lot of analysis.  She is better describing the society of pre-Islam and the early life of Mohammad.  

The best book about Islam I have found, from a philosophical and practical perspective, is Islamic Concepts:  Evidence Form the Quaran, by Dr. Bahar Faad.  This was leant to me by my friend Saleem, and I would put it in the category of the clearest, best books I have read.  It is hard to find/out of print, but I ordered myself a copy to keep.  Another indication of how good it is is that Saleem said he had never leant it to anyone before because his copy was a gift to him and was so important.  

I  read They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Roper, which is another scholarly book that will bring the horror of our myths about slavery vividly alive.  And, quite recently, I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which I truly loved.  What an extraordinary man and an extraordinary life--someone who exemplified the power of reading and life learning and the humility and strength to grow and change, many times over.  I think it was also important for me to read because I work at a school that came into being in the Elijah Muhammad days, and the perspective is really valuable for how we as an institution and community have grown.  

                    

                                                                        

For fiction, which always restores my soul, I read several books that I should have read ages ago--I don't know why I am so behind:  Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Aditchie, The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, and Olive Kittridge and Olive Again, by Elizabeth Strout. All were thought-provoking and wildly delightful.

In case you think that I have been being way too English-majorish, the real pleasure of the spring has been fairy tale re-tellings.  First, Bridget Kammerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely and A Heart So Fierce and Broken, and then a true revelry of Sarah Maas books--I have really loved the Court of Thorns and Roses series, especially since they deal with much deeper issues than is immediately apparent.