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What I’m reading on Grief, Resistance, and Liberation
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items A set of novels that explore the limits of the self and what grief and love make of us and our inner worlds. These books force us to sit in the difficulty of the human condition.
Sections
4
Stories that ruin you (in a good way)
Stories on colonialism and struggles for freedom
Memoirs that helped me reflect on the human condition
Other books for fun!
Stories that ruin you (in a good way)
A collection of novels that ache in quiet and unforgettable ways. These books follow people at their most vulnerable, and stayed with me long after the final page. They are lessons in tenderness and ruin, memory and transformation, and of what it mea...
The prose, the human experience, the language that makes one question their experiences. This book was an epic on the burden of choice and the inheritance of sin as it traces two families across generations that grapple with the story of Cain and Abe...
East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Paperback
This is one of the darkest iterations of the Hunger Games universe, the second quarter quell. The book reveals why Haymitch is steeped in tragedy, and, as he says, there is never a “winner” of the games. He was capable of hope and love, and the book ...
Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel)|Hardcover
This book is a devastating exploration of what it means to be human, told by Gordon’s journey from intellectual disability to genius and back again. The novels emotion lies in its cruel irony: as Gordon gains intelligence, he loses the simple happine...
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Paperback
For me, the power of the book wasn’t in the extremity of Jude’s specific past, but the way he internalizes hurt, turns it inward, and builds his identity around being unworthy of care. The self blame, the private spirals, the belief that one’s suffer...
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Paperback
This memoir is great at finding humor within tragedy and telling the story of growing up in apartheid and post apartheid South Africa. His very existence was illegal. At its heart, it is a love letter to Noah’s mother, a woman of extraordinary faith,...
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah ...
A book about the search of meaning and purpose of life. I thought the writing style and quality was good, but the actual plot and story was not my favorite.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, Paperback
A tortured character who is caught between wanting to be loved, a fear of love, and fighting against that love. Freedom, we are told, is nothing but the distance between fear and its anguish. A great book of literary fiction, and you can finish in on...
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin: Books
Stories on colonialism and struggles for freedom
A collection of Palestinian testimonies capture the 1948 Nakba - the catastrophe - in which 50% of the indigenous population was ethnically cleansed. It is an accumulation of individual stories that result in collective trauma that has lasted through...
Voices of the Nakba: A Living History of Palestine
This poetry collection is a testament to life in Gaza. The forest of noise is the constant soundtrack of occupation: drones buzzing, bombs falling, and children dying. There is neither despair or false hope. His lies document the horror of living und...
Forest of Noise: Poems by Mosab Abu Toha, Hardcover
A beautiful collection of Palestinian poetry. Some poems I thought were stale, but there were quite a few great ones that made up for them!
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd, Paperback
I read this in high school and recently reread it which I recommend. The last few years of watching global imperialist forces wreak havoc on subjugated populations really shows how important this book is in contextualizing these evil forces.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Hardcover
A beautiful and heartfelt retelling of a classic story. This takes place from the perspective of an enslaved man, focusing on his quest for freedom, family, and self-identity, revealing his deep inner life, intelligence, and resilience as he navigate...
James (2024 B&N Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National ...
8.5/10: amazing memoir that is both historically informative and beautifully tells the story of inter generational trauma in wake of displacement
Fire in Every Direction | Book by Tareq Baconi
Memoirs that helped me reflect on the human condition
This is one of the memoirs which made me cry. It is a truthful exploration of grief, identity, and the ways food hold memories and love across generations. The author was caught between her two cultural identities and sought connection to her mother ...
Crying in H Mart (B&N Exclusive Edition) by Michelle Zauner, Paperback
This memoir confronts morality. As the primary author dealt with terminal lung cancer at 36, he contemplated what makes life worth living when death is certain. He grapples whether to spend his last days working, writing, or simply being. The book i...
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi ...
This book was not my favorite. I did not really appreciate the larger analytical framework from which the author approaches death. The author looked at logic, facts, and studies to explain a humane emotion. It got better towards the end, but a large ...
The Year of Magical Thinking: Joan Didion
A necessary memoir! Maya Angelou captures the longing of a lonely childhood and just how cruel the world can be.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Paperback
A friend of mine wrote this book so I’m partial, but I believe it was great read tracking the weight of cultures clashing and learning to parent a child in the midst of a genocide, what values matter and how do we instill them in the next generation.
Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith, and Finding Meaning in America|Hardcover
Other books for fun!
I felt like there was lopsided development between timelines and the main character was not very relatable. I was intrigued and kept reading but the book really wasn’t for me!
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke