Reading is a passion of mine and I'm always interested in what other's are reading and recommending. What are your top 5 books that you read this year? Mine are:

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

Me - Elton John

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light

Alka Joshi - The Henna Artist

I could name a lot more, but these are my top 5

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent - Isabel Wilkerson (author of The Warmth of Other Suns)

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee (AppleTV+ is making this into a series, which started production last month)

The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis

The Institute - Stephen King (this is due to be a limited series at some point)

The Book of Harlan - Bernice McFadden (about Blacks in camps during WWII)

[Edited 11/27/20 17:11pm]

Empress said:

Reading is a passion of mine and I'm always interested in what other's are reading and recommending. What are your top 5 books that you read this year? Mine are:

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

Me - Elton John

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light

Alka Joshi - The Henna Artist

I could name a lot more, but these are my top 5

I enjoyed the Elton John book.

PennyPurple said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Empress said:

Reading is a passion of mine and I'm always interested in what other's are reading and recommending. What are your top 5 books that you read this year? Mine are:

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

Me - Elton John

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light

Alka Joshi - The Henna Artist

I could name a lot more, but these are my top 5

I'm not ready to put together a top 5, but Hilary Mantel's book will be on it for sure. I'm going back and re-reading A Place of Greater Safety appreciating how much her whip-smart dialogues have gone over my head .

MarkThrust said:

Empress said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent - Isabel Wilkerson (author of The Warmth of Other Suns)

Great list. I enjoyed Caste as well and I know we talked about Pachinko a few months ago. Another excellent book.

I'm not all the way thru Caste yet, but it's so raw and revealing. I had started reading books about race in 2019, and they all have a unique point of view. But none, and I mean none I've read so far, have this level of realness, examples of hatred and violence, and shows the utter audacity of venom shown to non-white people in this country.

The fact that even a c-section procedure was tested on and developed by those who would seek to use Jews and Blacks as guinea pigs is alarming. Education in America never goes much beyind MLK, hints at Malcolm X, some guy invented the cotton gin and peanut butter or something. Anything beyond that remains a mystery to most white folks without purposeful exploration.

I think the only other one that comes close is White Rage by Dr. Carol Anderson. But I enjoy learning, even if it's uncomfortable. So Caste is right there.

Shameless Plug! I've written a book about my relationship with Prince's music...and The Org features prominently in the plot! It's called "Purple Bananas: How Prince Saved Me and Other Selections from the Soundtrack 2 My Life." I hope you will all check it out. Peace + B Wild!

https://www.amazon.com/Pu...amp;sr=8-1

A couple I forgot to mention.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a trip. Netflix made it into a movie recently. Although 85% of the dialog is different, the storyline is still very much there. You can't go wrong with Jesse Plemmons and Toni Collette.

I'm currently reading the aforementioned Caste, but also Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Tres interesting so far.

"A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction."

They read?

Empress said:

Reading is a passion of mine and I'm always interested in what other's are reading and recommending. What are your top 5 books that you read this year? Mine are:

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

Me - Elton John

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light

Alka Joshi - The Henna Artist

I could name a lot more, but these are my top 5

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

Education by Tara Westover (Memoir)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Memoir)

I Love Dick by Chris Kraus (Memoir)

Colson Whitehead is incredible--one of only a few authors to win 2 Pulitzers for fiction (and a black man--he's an inspiration!)

I love Hilary Mantel--I've only read her memoir, Giving up the Ghost, it was amazing.

Isabel said:

Empress said:

Isabel said:

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

Education by Tara Westover (Memoir)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Memoir)

I Love Dick by Chris Kraus (Memoir)

Colson Whitehead is incredible--one of only a few authors to win 2 Pulitzers for fiction (and a black man--he's an inspiration!)

I love Hilary Mantel--I've only read her memoir, Giving up the Ghost, it was amazing.

I've only read 3 of Whiteheads books, but have loved all 3. Educated was an awesome book. Very inspirational. Mantel is a great writer, but her books are very long, so you must have patience. Thanks for your response to this thread.

You're welcome, thanks for starting it! Wasn't Educated a trip--it was incredible!! I want to read the rest of Colson Whitehead but to tell you the truth I was actually scared to read him as the subject matter is so painful as a Black person. I listened to The Nickel Boys on Audible and the narrator just blew me away, but the story was very difficult to hear of course. I think I'll try The Underground Railroad when I feel strong enough. I only just brought myself to watch 12 Years a Slave a few weeks ago. I didn't dare before.

Have you read any Prince-related books? I've only read Mayte's and Parke's. I loved both. I want to read Kim Berry's and some memoirs by fans. I love a good memoir. I'm also scared to read The Beautiful Ones. I get like that, I live for reading, but some books scare me emotionally and I can't bring myself to read them.

Isabel said:

Empress said:

Isabel said: I've only read 3 of Whiteheads books, but have loved all 3. Educated was an awesome book. Very inspirational. Mantel is a great writer, but her books are very long, so you must have patience. Thanks for your response to this thread.

You're welcome, thanks for starting it! Wasn't Educated a trip--it was incredible!! I want to read the rest of Colson Whitehead but to tell you the truth I was actually scared to read him as the subject matter is so painful as a Black person. I listened to The Nickel Boys on Audible and the narrator just blew me away, but the story was very difficult to hear of course. I think I'll try The Underground Railroad when I feel strong enough. I only just brought myself to watch 12 Years a Slave a few weeks ago. I didn't dare before.

Have you read any Prince-related books? I've only read Mayte's and Parke's. I loved both. I want to read Kim Berry's and some memoirs by fans. I love a good memoir. I'm also scared to read The Beautiful Ones. I get like that, I live for reading, but some books scare me emotionally and I can't bring myself to read them.

Educated was indeed a trip! I can't imagine living the way Tara lived. Both her parents and most of her siblings were way too "out there" for me. I was so happy for her that she escaped that life and educated herself so well.

I've only read 3 of Colson's books (his first and his last 2) and all 3 were fantastic. I just heard he has a new one coming sometime in 2021. I will read it for sure. I'm not black, but I find his books horrifying for many reasons. I'm also a huge fan of Alice Walker. I've read many of her books over the years. She's a terrific writer, but unfortunatley, she's gone in a direction that is hard for me to read. Her books up until the late 90's are excellent, but she kind of lost me after that.

I've read several books on Prince. The Beautiful Ones was emotional and very hard to read as it's so incomplete. There was so much more to say

Empress said:

Isabel said:

You're welcome, thanks for starting it! Wasn't Educated a trip--it was incredible!! I want to read the rest of Colson Whitehead but to tell you the truth I was actually scared to read him as the subject matter is so painful as a Black person. I listened to The Nickel Boys on Audible and the narrator just blew me away, but the story was very difficult to hear of course. I think I'll try The Underground Railroad when I feel strong enough. I only just brought myself to watch 12 Years a Slave a few weeks ago. I didn't dare before.

Have you read any Prince-related books? I've only read Mayte's and Parke's. I loved both. I want to read Kim Berry's and some memoirs by fans. I love a good memoir. I'm also scared to read The Beautiful Ones. I get like that, I live for reading, but some books scare me emotionally and I can't bring myself to read them.

Educated was indeed a trip! I can't imagine living the way Tara lived. Both her parents and most of her siblings were way too "out there" for me. I was so happy for her that she escaped that life and educated herself so well.

I've only read 3 of Colson's books (his first and his last 2) and all 3 were fantastic. I just heard he has a new one coming sometime in 2021. I will read it for sure. I'm not black, but I find his books horrifying for many reasons. I'm also a huge fan of Alice Walker. I've read many of her books over the years. She's a terrific writer, but unfortunatley, she's gone in a direction that is hard for me to read. Her books up until the late 90's are excellent, but she kind of lost me after that.

I've read several books on Prince. The Beautiful Ones was emotional and very hard to read as it's so incomplete. There was so much more to say

Love Alice Walker also. Feeling so sad about Prince, don't know if I can read The Beautiful Ones yet. Even just thinking about the title makes me sad.

...OK, could people discuss the damn books ('cept Empress)? Just telling us the NAME, and leaving us to Google for ourselves (Google was down today, btw), is kind of......Shit. What's Alka Joshi for example?

domainator2010 said:

...OK, could people discuss the damn books ('cept Empress)? Just telling us the NAME, and leaving us to Google for ourselves (Google was down today, btw), is kind of......Shit. What's Alka Joshi for example?

LOL But other search engines weren't. There are also Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads to explore a book's synopsis.

[Edited 12/15/20 20:23pm]

TrivialPursuit said:

domainator2010 said:

...OK, could people discuss the damn books ('cept Empress)? Just telling us the NAME, and leaving us to Google for ourselves (Google was down today, btw), is kind of......Shit. What's Alka Joshi for example?

LOL But other search engines weren't. There is also Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads to explore a book's synopsis.

Goodreads is a great site and they aren't trying to sell you anything either. I'm on it regularly, I find it very informative.

Empress said:

TrivialPursuit said:

LOL But other search engines weren't. There is also Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads to explore a book's synopsis.

Goodreads is a great site and they aren't trying to sell you anything either. I'm on it regularly, I find it very informative.

Isn't that owned by Amazon??

TrivialPursuit said:

domainator2010 said:

...OK, could people discuss the damn books ('cept Empress)? Just telling us the NAME, and leaving us to Google for ourselves (Google was down today, btw), is kind of......Shit. What's Alka Joshi for example?

LOL But other search engines weren't. There is also Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads to explore a book's synopsis.

I still prefer Humans!

domainator2010 said:

Empress said:

Goodreads is a great site and they aren't trying to sell you anything either. I'm on it regularly, I find it very informative.

Isn't that owned by Amazon??

Is it? I'm not sure. Maybe you've just educated me on something. I'll have to look into that.

This has been a weird year for reading...I'm out of touch on a lot of contemporary writers but found I liked a lot of older books that were recommended on FaceBook from friends, etc.

The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel Sticks the landing on the Cromwell trilogy. I have a lot of respect for her unforgiving dialogues, and expect I'll re-read this before my end days (the references and inferences and nuances are so real-time, I could have used annotations to keep up).

.

An Empire of Their Own - Neal Gabler (subtitled - How the Jews Invented Hollywood) Fascinating

take on the romanticism or the father figure amongst the first movie moguls; how the golden age of film defined our ideas of heroism.

.

The Last Empire (Essays 1992 - 2000) - Gore Vidal At times a little redundant with favored points, there's still some interesting takes on politics. It gave me a new perspective on the Truman Doctrine - something he attacks with vehemenence - and his notions on breaking up the captitol through a Constitutional Convention (not because we can't get along, but because there shouldn't be one focal point where lobbyists can most easily do damage) while not realistic, makes one ponder the possibilities.

.

If He Hollers Let Him Go - Chester Himes Oddly, this was a random recommendation that I had no context on the subject when I picked it up - it was on someone else's favorite books list. Also by chance, I had just finished Wright's Black Boy, so it felt like a strange continuation. For me, Hime's character is more relatable - in terms of life experience and being caught between classes - along with a very natural anger that cannot but rebel.

.

The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin - I don't read too much science fiction, but I read so much 'heavy' stuff I need something that's a page-turner. I'm looking forward to reading the next 2 books; I don't think since Dune have I enjoyed the creation of a fictional world as much as I have this one.

.

Honorable Mentions: So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo; Apropos of Nothing - Woody Allen.

Empress said:

domainator2010 said:

Isn't that owned by Amazon??

Is it? I'm not sure. Maybe you've just educated me on something. I'll have to look into that.

It is now, yes.