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The delicate, distant protagonist of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" --- an 11-year-old mocked for her dark skin, a girl who dreams of trading her brown eyes for Shirley Temple blue, resonated with me when I read this book several years ago, and still resonates today.

One of the broader subjects is the psychological impact and destructive power of models of beauty, especially feminine beauty. Another important topic that ties into that is self-hatred and lack of self-acceptance.

This book is set during the 1940's and so issues of race and racism loom large in this book. Morrison manages to describe the horrific using the most poetic style. There is no way to talk away from this novel without a broader perspective. (via amazon.com)

Updated Jan 3, 2009

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Celebrate Black History Month With Great Books

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Hungry for More: A Keeping-it-Real Guide for Black Women on Weight and Body Image: Robyn McGee, Joycelyn M. Elders

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An important book for black women to read and pass out to their female family members and friends. "Hungry for More" confronts some of the serious obesity and body image issues that end up taking a lot of us to our graves too soon. (via amazon.com)

Updated Jan 1, 2009

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Celebrate Black History Month With Great Books

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Parasite Rex Book

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I have always had an interest in parasites. The ones that can dwell within, as well as the nasty ones that feed externally (i.e., mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, etc.) This book will tell you everything you want to know and NEVER wanted to know about how dangerous they truly are. Once you pick up this book, unless you just have a weak constitution, you won't be able to put it down. It's fascinating, frightening and an education in the bizarre.

Updated Dec 25, 2008

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Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club

4 people recommended this item

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"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."

"For thousands of years, human beings had screwed up and trashed and crapped on this planet, and now history expected me to clean up after everyone. I have to wash out and flatten my soup cans, and account for every drop of used motor oil. And I have to foot the bill for nuclear waste and burned gasoline tanks and landfilled toxic sludge dumped a generation before I was born."

"You know, the condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip it on when you meet a stranger. You dance all night then you throw it away. The condom, I mean. Not the stranger."

Updated Jan 5, 2009

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Things That Make Me Happy

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The Twentieth Century: A People's History by Howard Zinn

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Consistently lauded for its lively, readable prose, "A People's History of the United States" turns traditional textbook history on its head, as Howard Zinn infuses the often-submerged voices of blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, and poor laborers of all nationalities into the narrative. "The Twentieth Century" uses the relevant chapters of that book as a starting point, expanding upon the story to provide a rich portrait of the United States from the jingoistic rise of Theodore Roosevelt to the Clinton presidency. If your last experience of American history was brought to you by junior-high-school textbooks--or even if you're a specialist--get ready for the other side of stories you may not even have heard. With its vivid descriptions of rarely noted events, "The Twentieth Century" is required reading for anyone who wants to take a fresh look at America's legacy as a world power. (via amazon.com)

Updated Oct 2, 2008

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The Second Sex (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Simone De Beauvoir

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In "The Second Sex", Simone de Beauvoir posed questions many men, and women, had yet to ponder when the book was released in 1953. "One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should ...," she says in this comprehensive treatise on women. She weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to show women's place in the world and to postulate on the power of sexuality. This is a powerful piece of writing in a time before "feminism" was even a phrase, much less a movement. (via albris.com)

Updated Oct 2, 2008

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Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures by Marvin Harris

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From inside the flap:

In this brilliant and profound study the distinguished American anthropologist Marvin Harris shows how the endless varieties of cultural behavior -- often so puzzling at first glance -- can be explained as adaptations to particular ecological conditions. His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt their characteristic forms in response to changing ecological modes. (via amazon.com)

Updated Oct 2, 2008

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley

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Malcolm X is one of the most important modern politcal philosophers. His personal metamorphosis is recounted here my Alex Haley with extraordinary detail...a must read if one is to understand black political philosophy. The tragedy is that, just as his views had evolved, he was betrayed and murdered.

Amazon.com Review
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith (via amazon.com)

Updated Oct 2, 2008