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Keep Moving

Keep MovingTitle: Keep Moving
Author: Maggie Smith
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 215
Reason Read: Book Club
Rating:

My Thoughts

KEEP MOVING was really quick read because it’s mostly pages of affirmations. I liked a lot of the affirmations, but my favorite parts of the book were the parts where Smith went into more detail, where she talked about her losses from losing her grandmother, two miscarriages, and divorce. Those were the times I felt a kinship toward her. Even if I hadn’t experienced loss quite the same way she had, I could still empathize with her and think of ways to apply her advice to my own life.

I really liked her perspective on things, especially when she talked about serotinous pine cones and how they only open and spread their seeds in the midst of fire. Or, how she likened trauma and loss to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold. The ceramic piece is beautiful because of its brokenness instead of in spite of it.

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They Called Us Enemy

They Called Us EnemyTitle: They Called Us Enemy
Author: George Takei
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Format: Kindle
Pages: 212
Reason Read: Book Club
Rating:

My Thoughts

I’ve only ever read one other book about the Japanese Internment Camps during World War II. I don’t remember what it was called but I know it was fiction. I was in middle school when I read it and it was how my teacher taught our class about this part of U.S. history. Reading about Takei and his family’s experience in THEY CALLED US ENEMY was very eye-opening and heart-wrenching. Even with what I was “taught” or read about, I didn’t know most of what Japanese Americans went through in these camps. It’s so disheartening that humans are capable of treating other humans like this simply because of their race and nationality.

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Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man

Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black ManTitle: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
Author: Emmanuel Acho
Genre: Informative, Non-Fiction
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 295
Reason Read: Recommended
Rating:

My Thoughts

Emmanuel Acho is the son of Nigerian immigrants. After the death of George Floyd, he wanted to help white people understand why Black Lives Matter and other systemic racism issues are a problem in the U.S. “You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” He started a video series with the same name answering questions from his white viewers and then decided to write a book to go along with his series.

I’m glad I read UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN. Acho doesn’t pull any punches as he discusses race, Black culture, and racism in a very open and sometimes uncomfortable conversation with his readers. I thought Acho’s words were eye-opening and they gave me a lot to think about. If more white people were willing to sit down and read his words, maybe we could actually learn from our mistakes and end racism and bias once and for all.

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Biased

BiasedTitle: Biased
Author: Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Genre: Informative, Non-Fiction
Format: Audio
Pages: 350
Length: 10h 25m
Narrator: Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Reason Read: Book Club
Rating:

My Thoughts

Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt is a graduate of Harvard and a professor at Stanford. Her career focuses on implicit bias. Throughout her career, she has spent time educating California officers about implicit bias and racial profiling. As a woman of color herself, she uses her education, training, experiences, and countless studies and research to explain how implicit bias causes racial disparities and inequities. She offers tools to challenge our biases to help solve the racial problem gripping the world.

She also talks about implicit bias in non-racial situations, such as blind orchestra auditions. I thought it was interesting to see how implicit bias affects different areas of life and how if that bias is taken away somehow those parts of life can improve and grow for the better.

I’m so glad I read BIASED. It was very eye-opening and interesting to read. I really enjoyed learning about implicit bias and about myself. I think this information is important for people (especially white people) to learn, maybe we’d have less racism.

The Wife Upstairs

The Wife UpstairsTitle: The Wife Upstairs
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: Thriller
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 290
Reason Read: Just Because
Rating:

My Thoughts

I don’t know anything about Jane Eyre, at all. I’ve never read the book and I haven’t seen any of the movies / TV shows. I was drawn to THE WIFE UPSTAIRS by its title and cover. When I discovered it was a retelling of JANE EYRE, I decided to look up the setting and main characters so I’d have a little bit of reference. Most retellings I’ve read are far more subtle than this seemed to be. (I read the plot of JANE EYRE after I finished because I wanted to see how similar the stories were.)

I hated reading Bea’s POV. Although, she surprised me because I never guessed she was an unreliable narrator and the true antagonist. I didn’t mind Eddie’s POV near the end of the novel. His section was actually my favorite part of the whole book. Even though I didn’t want Jane to end up with him because of what he had done, I wanted her to find out the full truth and she never did.

There has been a huge debate in my book club for years regarding JANE EYRE. A couple of people love it and think it’s a beautifully written gothic romance. Others hate everything about it. I feel like I’d be in the latter camp, but I’m not sure. Too bad I have no desire to read the source material, lol.