The Light Pirate

I needed a new audio book for walks, and chose The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. I sold my car at the end of last year, so now I have/get to walk to work (and a few other places) every day, making a catching audio book a necessity. I got to finish listening to this on a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park over spring break, and that was lovely. The Light Pirate is a dystopian novel set in Florida. It takes you on a super emotional ride from just before Wanda is born, until she is an old woman. During that time, literally everything around her changes. Her family, the land she lives on, and how society works (or doesn’t). As waters rise and Florida disappears, Wanda finds she has a deep connection to the landscape around her. She is a survivalist. I really loved listening to this one. It’s not quite like anything else I’ve read before. My only complaint is that there is a supernatural element in the book that I feel wasn’t really explained or focused on enough.

The Hidden Palace

In college I read The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker and loved it. The book was even my inspiration for a big grad school project. So, when I heard that there was going to be a sequel, I instantly added it to my TBR. I downloaded The Hidden Palace audiobook for my Christmas road trip, and finished it on my morning walks to work.

Chava, Ahmad, and even Sophia are all back in this absolutely epic tale. The book is set in New York and Middle East in the early 1900s. The book does a great job weaving between all of their stories. I wanted to keep listening, knowing that eventually all of the characters would end up connecting – even though I was waiting for it, it happened in a way that surprised me a bit (in a good way!). I loved the characters and the story and was disappointed when it was over. I highly recommend reading both books in this series.

We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto

I can’t remember how I wound up with We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto by Alice Waters on my TBR (probably a Book Riot podcast?). I had downloaded it on audio and needed something to listen to on my walks to work and wound up finishing it on a road trip. In this book, Waters asks readers to take up slow food culture – knowing your farmers, eating locally and seasonally, and shifting relationships with food away from those promoted by fast food culture. She argues that many of the serious issues we face today relate back to our relationships with food.

I thought her arguments in this book were really interesting and there were things I would love to try. I also think that it seems like her life in Berkeley is pretty privileged and some of what she is proposing will not work everywhere (she touches on why this isn’t the case, but I am not convinced). Overall, this book made me really think through some of my own food habits/beliefs and I think I’ll be reflecting on this for a while.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

I recently attended a virtual conference and they offered an optional reading group for two nights. The common read was Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. It has been on my TBR since it came out, so this was a great excuse to listen to it. Reasons I recommend listening to this: 1. the narration from Robin Miles is awesome. 2. Wilkerson writes non-fiction like nobody else – the way she is able to weave in stories just keeps me so engaged. 3. There is just so much to learn from this book. I learned about how the Nazi’s took ideas on how to create caste system from the slavery system we had in the US. Every time I find myself thinking I finally have an understanding of the continued impacts of slavery on the US, a book like this comes along and knocks me down a few notches. I think this is a must-read.

Record of a Spaceborn Few

For me, road trips mean downloading a new audio book. It is one of the only times I listen to fiction on audio. Record of the Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers is the third book in the Wayfarers series. The story follows a group of people living on the Exodus Fleet. A disaster strikes elsewhere in space but it lead the people on this fleet to reflect on what may be next for them. The story follows three specific characters who are all wondering where to go from their current place in life. As always, Chambers’ character development is phenomenal and really carries the book. However, the stories of the characters barely overlap, which was disappointing. I really love when the cast of characters are all together, which this one was missing for me. A solid three stars.

How to Be an Antiracist

In my non-fiction audio book adventures, I downloaded How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. I recommend it on audio as Kendi narrates it – it was great to listen to this in his own voice. This book was helpful and challenging. It certainly challenged some of my thoughts and beliefs about racism and helped me to see things from a new perspective. Kendi’s perspective is there really isn’t a neutral ground when it comes to racism. I appreciated Kendi’s personal stories explaining the evolution of his own beliefs and how he got to writing this book. There are absolutely chapters in this book I will be coming back to listen to again.

A Closed and Common Orbit

I am not a big sci-fi reader, but I do enjoy the Becky Chambers books. I decided to listen to A Closed and Common Orbit after enjoying the first book in the series so much. We get a few of our favorite characters from the first book. Lovelace, the AI from the first book has woken up in a new body after a full reboot. Pepper helps her through the transition. We get flashbacks to Pepper’s life long before the first book, which I found much more interesting than the Lovelace pieces. The characters in these books are just so well-developed, it’s impossible not to fall in love with them. I already listened to the final book in the series on a recent road trip.

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

I chose to download the audio book of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith this summer. I listened to it as I walked the dog, walked to work, and went on a few hikes. The book explores how America has dealt with its history of slavery through the exploration of monuments, plantations, and other historical sites. I highly recommend this book – I learned a lot. I appreciate Smith’s balance of showing historical events and interviews with folx he encounters as he is conducting his research. I certainly did not learn about these events in this way in history class, and appreciate Smith working on this book. Add it to your TBR!

A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues: What You Can Do Right Now to Help the Black Community

On occasion a group of colleagues will try to read a book together and discuss. Recently we chose A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues: What You Can Do Right Now to Help the Black Community by Steven S. Rogers. I chose to listen to this one through an audio book. I have chosen to read several books over the past few years about how to support the Black community, but this one was one of the most helpful. Rogers balances incorporating historical perspectives and current and tangible suggestions for action. This allowed me to think about why I should take his suggestions and implement them. The simplest way I can explain Rogers suggestions is for white people to share their wealth with the Black community. The primary four recommendations are: donate to HBCUs, invest in black banks, support black-owned businesses, and contact legislators to support reparations. If you’re looking for ways to support the Black community, I recommend picking this one up.

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”

I love Zora Neale Hurston. I listened to Barracoon on audio, but I wish I had read it instead. It had footnotes and appendices that I wish I had been able to physically flip between, which impacted how much I liked this book.

This book is a slave narrative, and I love the man it’s about, Oluale Kossula. Huston did an amazing job pulling his voice through. Not only did she write about his horrific experiences, but you feel like you get to know him – she shows you what he looks like when he talks about the death of his children, or how excited he is when she brings peaches while she sits to interview him.

Kossula was raised in West Africa and was captured and transported to the US on the last ship that was part of the slave trade. He was a slave for five years and you get to hear about his life post-slavery, as well. It was well-written with a balance of Kossula’s stories and Hurston’s observations.