BOOKS OF THE YEAR PART I

Selected by Ruth A. Sheets

Last December, I decided to present a list of my favorite books of the year.  I am lucky that I have time to read a lot.  I’ve read around 350 books so far in a wide variety of genre.  Here are just a few that I have liked a lot.  I must say, though that if I don’t like a book after the 3^rd or 4^th chapter, I usually ditch it.  That means that the books I have included here I really liked and recommend to anyone who is into that genre.  They are in the order in which I read them.  Here goes!

1. The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen, Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the  Modern World by Linda Colley (Constitutions of various kinds were developed all over the world beginning around 1755 in Corsica, then Russia under Catherine, then the US.  Wars on land and sea often led to the spread of constitutional ideas and the “need” to write constitutions for government, often monarchies.)

     2.  America on Fire, The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Hinton (Police have been unbelievably violent toward Black citizens always, but to an extreme extent since the 1960s.  Every American needs to read this book, especially the white folks.)

3. Hospital, Life, Death, and Money In A Small American Town by Brian Alexander (This was a distressing book describing the spiral down of a small-town hospital that was taken over by people who saw the bottom line as more important than the people who needed the services of the hospital.  The town, Bryan, OH from 2018-2020)

 

4. The East St. Louis Massacre, The Greatest Outrage of the Century, 1917 by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Wells-Barnett arrived in East St. Louis the day after the most horrendous attack on a Black community that had occurred to date, on July 2, 1917.  She reported first-hand accounts of the events from those who managed to escape.  There was so much violence and cover-up estimates of the number of Black citizens who were killed range from 40 to 200 (similar to the range 4 years later at the Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa OK).  White citizens, many of them union members, murdered Black people in the streets and even the National Guard the IL governor called in either helped in the killing or prevented anyone from stopping it. 

 

5. Under the Skin, the Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and the Health of Our Nation by Linda Villarosa (An excellent description of what racism hath wrought on the society, often unnoticed by white medical personnel but destructive to Black lives and the lives of others of color.  Disturbing that medical folks could just ignore, dismiss, and poorly treat people who already face so much that harms their health.)

 

6. Starry Messenger, Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization By Neil DeGrasse Tyson (beautiful presentation of the value of science and how it helps us understand everything.)
7. The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (An ogress has a house on the edge of what was once a beautiful town, but something has happened.  Despite her kindness to everyone, the mayor talks everyone into blaming her for their problems.  The mayor is actually a disguised dragon who is undermining the town’s happiness.  The orphans befriend the ogress and they try to help the people bring happiness back to their town despite those who would continue the hatred and negativity.  It is an allegory of today’s America. Gr.4 and up)

 

8. 999, The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam (The girls and young women were taken from Slovakia.  They had no idea what would happen to them.  They were part of the work camps at Auschwitz.  Many died, many were tortured, and many took care of each other so they would survive.  Every person targeting people in this country to harm, like trans persons should read and consider this book, because cruelty was the point of everything the Germans did.)

 

9. Honey Bee, Poems and Short Prose by Naomi Shihab Nye (a beautiful collection with pieces for different ages, but all thought-provoking.  The last one about awaiting a delayed flight brought tears.) 

 

10. The Math of Life and Death, Seven Mathematical Principles that Shape Our Lives by Kit Yates (I am not a mathy person, but found this book compelling.  It looks at the ways math can help, hurt, and even kill us depending on how it is used and by whom.)

 

11. Torn Apart, How the Child-Welfare System Destroys Black Families and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts (an excellent account of the many ways  the child welfare folks stalk homes of Black families, take away the children for foster care with little or no reason while white families in the same situation are left alone.  Amazing and really upsetting!)  

 

12. No True Believers by Rabiah York Lumbard (Two Muslim high school seniors are seen as suspicious of having caused or at least helped with a terrorist attack.  They learn it was a disgruntled man and his son who belonged to a hate group trying to rid our country of Muslims.  They and friends help stop a more serious attack.)

 

13. Disfigured, On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc (The author, a person with CP, describes the challenges of all the fairy tales that have “disabled” characters, have them as the villains.  People with disabilities can’t see themselves doing the things able-bodied persons do, so begin to see themselves as less than “normal” not just different.     

 

14. Lady Liberty, Women, The Law, and The Battle to Save America  by Dahlia Lithwick (Women have been working,                 almost underground to preserve our democracy:  defending women’s rights, defending immigrants falsely about to be deported, fighting for voting rights, a fair census, and more.)

 

15. The Destructionists, the 25 Year Crack-up of the Republican Party by Dana Milbank (Republicans use many strategies to undermine our democracy from Newt Gingrich to all the folks who helped Trump with his “Big Lie” and the insurrection of Jan. 6^th.  The lying never stops and Republicans at all levels are involved in it.)

 

16. The Woman They Could Not Silence, One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore (Elizabeth Packard was declared insane by her minister husband who got doctors to certify it.  She was confined in an asylum for 3 years where she was abused, seduced by the director, but able to maintain her sanity despite the conditions.  She helped to change the climate of the institution and how residents were treated.  She should be remembered for her work for women’s rights.)     

 

17. On Critical Race Theory, Why It Matters, and Why You Should Care by Victor Ray (Looks at what CRT really is and how important it is for everyone to know.  Racism is systemic and must be addressed systemically.  It is essential we work to stop racism, but first, people need to know where it can be found every day, no matter who claims racism does not exist.)  

 

18. The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Begins with the day of the great fire at the LA library in 1986 when a half-million books were destroyed and another nearly 500,000 books severely damaged.  She came to the belief that it was impossible to determine who had started the fire if anyone had done it.  The library has been repaired and expanded since then.)

 

19. Stringing Rosaries, The History, The Unforgivable, and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors by Denise K. Lajimodiere (This is one of the most disturbing but necessary books I have read in a while.  Survivors tell of the brutality inflicted upon students at several of the boarding schools they were either forced to attend by the state, or attended because parents had no money for education.  Many died in the schools either by illness, loneliness, or suicide.  The brutality killed some too and there was no accountability for the perpetrators as far as the survivors knew.)

 

20. What the Fact, Finding the Truth in All the Noise by Seema Yasmin (An excellent book for people of any age about the way our brains deal with information, how we can be manipulated, and how we can realize it is OK to be wrong and to carefully listen to others.)

 

21. What the Ermin Saw, The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most Mysterious Portrait by Eden Collinsworth (I really liked this book about a painting that got to travel all over the world.  Leonardo worked on the painting 3 different times to get the portrait that hangs in a Krakow museum today.)    

 

22. Hold The Line, The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul by Michael Fanone & John Shiffman (This book about a police officer who went to the Capitol on Jan. 6^th to help the officers under attack and was attacked by the insurgents.  He had been an officer in DC for 22 years before that and got little to no support after the Jan. 6^th events from fellow officers who were still stuck on Trump.)

 

23. A Knock At Midnight, A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett (a young law student is captivated by the story of a woman given a life sentence for possessing a small amount of crack though there was no actual evidence and the people who accused her were long-time criminals who got much lighter sentences for ratting her out.  She left her corporate law job to work to free wrongly sentenced people.)

 

24. The Light We Carry, Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama (This is an excellent account of how a person’s life experiences shape who they are and that they can learn from them and continue growing through the hard times if we permit ourselves to deal with the uncertainties of life.)   

 

25. Dinners with Ruth, A Memoir on the Power of Friendships  by Nina Totenberg (The author talks about how friendships sustained her, particularly with Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  She had friendships with several SC justices which made her coverage of the Court more interesting and understandable.)

 

26. The Pregnancy Project, A Memoir by Gaby Rodriguez & Jenna Glatzer (Gabi is from a working-class family in small-town Washington State.  Her community expects little of her and since her mother got pregnant at 14, she is expected to also.  She fakes a pregnancy to find out what it is like for girls who become pregnant in her community in 2011.) 

 

27. Mouse, A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (The father of the author told him the story of his time during WWII, in Polish ghettos, nearly a year in Auschwitz, and the post war struggles in refugee centers and searching for his wife who had also survived.  They came to America where they had a son who became an artist who wrote and illustrated the book from his father’s memories.)

 

28. Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston by Esme Symes-Smith (I was not sure whether I would like this one, but it turned out to be a fascinating fantasy about a non-binary 12-year old who wants to be a knight but has the magic only girls are supposed to have.  Everyone sees them as female except their dad and some friends.  Callie works to get everyone to see that people should be who they are.  Gr.5-8 and older)

 

29. The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynne Barnes (This is the third book of the “inheritance Game.”  There were more puzzles and intrigues related to the Hawthorne family, people we didn’t know about previously.  The whole trilogy was Terrific!) 

 

30 Win Every Argument, The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking by Mehdi Hasan (I loved this book full of tips and tricks for public speaking with a lot of actual examples.  I took notes.  

 

If you read any of these books, I would love to know what you thought of them.  Happy reading!!