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Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

15/20
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#20Covers

A good intro to the Great Migration, where for the better part of the 20th century, thousands of African-Americans left the South, seeking better opportunity in the great industrial cities north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It was brilliant of Wilkerson to veer from reliance on historical documents only and instead structure this nonfiction narrative around three interviewed persons who retell their own personal exoduses North.

Of the ones I‘ve read I only feel like The Warmth of Other Suns belongs on the list.

#unpopularopinion #100bestbooksofthe21stcentury

Through interviews with over 1200 people over 15 years, Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of The Great Migration. Focusing on three very different individuals, she shares the different reasons for leaving the Jim Crow South, the struggles of their journeys, and their experiences in their new homes. Interspersed were the events of the Civil Rights movement. Very enlightening and informative. I truly appreciate Wilkerson's style and approach.

DNF

Really disappointed to not be finishing this book but its epic scope & length is just not something my brain is taking in right now.
I can tell it‘s very well researched & written, and Robin Miles is an excellent narrator, so it‘s not the book, it‘s me.

“The night clouds were closing in on the salt licks east of the oxbow lakes along the folds in the earth beyond the Yalobusha River.”

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

“Most of them care nothing whatever about race. They want only their proper place in the sun and the right to be left alone, like any other citizen of the republic.” -James Baldwin

I read this for #sharonsayso‘s book club and loved it. It‘s a well researched history of the Great Migration (1915-1970), when Black people escaped the injustice, degradation, and racism of the Jim Crow south by going north and west. Often to be faced with more ⬇️

Finished in September but I read it for a big chunk of August so I‘m counting it here!

✅ Black history
✅ biography
✅ US history

I finished this epic history/biography about the Great Migration, the period of time between 1910-1970 when Black people escaped the south to get away from Jim Crow laws only to be welcomed in the north & west with more racism.
I love how the author chose 3 delightful people who migrated & fully shared their stories while tying it into a broader scope of American history. I‘m grieving not being able to read about them anymore.
#SummerEndReadathon

I‘m always late to wrap up!
My #20in4 Readathon goal was to read 120 pages.
I came so close! (102)
I wanted to finish in time for book club Friday but didn‘t. At least I got close enough that I could still contribute to the discussion so…
Thank you @Andrew65 !

August round-up of completed reads: I inadvertently made it a month of women authors...love that! The tagged book was my personal pick.

So far I‘ve read 56/120 pages toward my #20in4 Readathon goal. I need to finish by Friday for book club (271 pages to go)!

I just noticed when I posted this picture it says at the top, “…an absolute delight to read.” I must not have gotten to the delightful part yet! 😅 Though I would say it‘s definitely “profound” & “necessary.”

I‘ve also read 11 pages from Beyond the Hundredth Meridian- it‘s my “purse book” since my other book is 600 pages.

I‘m joining a day late but the #20in4 Readathon but it‘s just what I need!

My goal is to read 120 pages of The Warmth of Other Suns. It‘s a slow but thoughtful read.

Thank you for hosting @Andrew65 !

It was the other side of the world from the wide-open, quiet land of the cotton fields. Ida Mae saw things she never imagined, bridges that lifted into the air to let ships pass through, traffic lights and streetlamps…

p. 244

#WondrousWednesday
📚Happy National Book Lovers Day @Eggs !
📚 Thank you for the tag @Ann_Reads !
#NationalBookLoversDay

Currently reading this (tagged) thick one.
It‘s vg so far.

Happy National Book Lovers Day!

📸 Taken at op.cit. books on a recent trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

#NationalBookLoversDay

Beach vacation book #1

I added this to my stacks a long time ago after reading Caste with the #SheReads group. It finally popped up for my May #Doublespin, so I've been slowly working my way through it. It's beautifully done and gave me a new and broadened perspective on a little-known historical event that drastically affected the make-up of our nation. Highly recommend! @TheAromaofBooks

best read of 2023 so far. should be required reading in high school. it connects the dots between the past oppression and subjugation of blacks in america and so much of our current situation. i loved the way the story was told through the lives of the migrants. check it out!

#JanuaryJazz @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#Warmth

My library sale #bookhaul!

This book is lovely. But I highly recommend reading it in bits. Because it's repetitive. Like as if the chapters are meant to stand alone.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Today's plan + the tote I received in the book club gift exchange. 💛

5 ⭐
Warmth of Other Suns - Wilkerson
4.5⭐
Fresh Water for Flowers - Perrin
Galaxy and the Ground Within - Chambers
4⭐
Little - Carey
Paradise - Morrison
Elatsoe - Little Bader
Me (Moth) - McBride
Stay With Me - Adébáyọ̀
Devil Takes You Home - Iglesias
The Way We Never Were - Coontz
Swimming Home - Levy
3⭐
Girl from the Sea - Ostertag
Seven Days In June - Williams
Tales of the City - Maupin
Nine Perfect Strangers - Moriarty
Birnam Wood - Catton

5⭐
You can tell by my tabs I got so much information out of this book. But what I loved the most is the weaving of the history and analysis of the Migration with the biographies of 3 people who were involved (all three migrated from the south to different areas of the US) this made the book a much lighter and more engrossing read.
One of those books all Americans should read.

Big plans for this week! Trying to wrap up a bunch of books I started this year before the New Year. I have Fear of Flying, Trust Exercise, and Elatsoe on audio to speed things along.

Excellent book that I highly recommend.
The author, through personal accounts of black people moving from Jim Crow's south to the north, gives a factual account of this phenomenon that lasted several decades.
Informative and well-written, this book is also moving, sometimes hard to read because of its content, but so essential.

"Still it made no sense to Pershing that one set of people could be in a cage, and the people outside couldn't see the bars."

Such an excellent description of how racism and the people who allow it to continue.
#nonfictionNovember

Last few days of nonfiction November!
#readinggoals #weeklyforecast

I have been taking the tagged bit by bit and hope to finish this week. Also about half through Are Prisons Obsolete, and Souls of Black Folk those should be done by end of month. I picked up the audio for Wild Swans to finish #nonfictionNovember strong(ish) I didn't get as much as I wanted read, but got a few off my old #tbr

Nonfiction November continues. I have been a bit unmotivated this year. I randomly started rewatching White Collar reruns and can't seem to want to turn that off. But have a long weekend coming up so hoping to make a dent in these, and throwing a fun fiction book into the mix.

All of these are incredibly interesting I have just apparently hit a slump. Getting Beautiful Forevers and the Feynman one on audio to help move along

"times were the best they had ever been, which said more about how meager the past had been than how great the present was."

"Was it a braver thing to stay, or was it a a braver thing to go?"

"It was the first big step the nation's servant class ever took without asking."

I was intimidated by this book but the first chapters are very easy to read and absorb.

This book was an amazing and educational story. That should be read by all. Don‘t let the fact that it is a work of non fiction put you off.

#nonfictionnovember #bookspin @thearomaofbooks

An amazing work of history and storytelling 🙌🏻 Warmth will definitely be on my top reads for 2022.
I did print/ audio combo and both mediums were fantastic.Looking forward to discussing with my IRL bookclub 🤓

This book is fantastic but my two weeks away from the book has left me forgetting a bunch of relevant information. I feel like I need a little refresher course. #IRLbookclub

Getting a jump start on my #IRL #BookClub October read - So far it‘s fantastic and the audio narration is outstanding 🙌🏻🎧

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr
Checkmate in Berlin by Giles Milton
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M Valente

#Littenswanttoknow

Thanks for the tag @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm !

Even though I didn't do great this month, continuing on with trying to get that old backlog down.
#bookspin list with @thearomaofbooks

Amazing, unforgettable, awful, how come they didn‘t teach us ANY of this? She‘s a magnificent author, makes me like nonfiction. Couldn‘t put it down

Very well researched book about the migration of African Americans from the south during the Jim Crow period. The book follows three people who make their way out of the south and end up in Chicago, NYC, and LA each in a different decade. 5⭐️

This was a great one to pick up. We read this for my family book club and we all learned a ton. Definitely recommend this one.

Nonfiction that doesn‘t read like a text book is always a plus for me.

#nonfiction #thewarmthofothersuns #isabelwilkerson #bookreview

January wrap up and currently reading

#wrapup #currentlyreading #januarywrapup

Currently reading on this rainy Wednesday night

#currentlyreading #thewarmthofothersuns #frostburned #isabelwilkerson #patriciabrings #mercythompsonseries

(2010) This is the January pick for my RL book club, and y'all, it's f***ing brilliant. (Not sure I can say that at Book Club, but it's true.) It's the story of the "great migration" of black citizens from southern states northward during the early twentieth century and into the 1970's. It's an enlightening history interwoven with moving personal stories of three people who made the move. Fascinating, affecting, enthusiastically recommended.

The night clouds were closing in on the salt licks east of the oxbow lakes along the folds in the earth beyond the Yalobusha River.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

A strong sociological study of the Great Migration. Statistics and historical facts revolve around three figures who escaped the South in order to be free. To become American citizens. I'm so grateful to have read this book. #OtherSuns @megnews

This book thought me so much. I had no idea that there had been an internal migration in the US from the South to the North and the West starting during WWI and until the 60s.

Wilkerson chooses to focus on three people; Ida Mae Brandon Gladney leaving in 1937, George Swanson Starling leaving in 1945 and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster leaving in 1953. Each represents their own decade for leaving and their receiving city. I loved reading about

#BookReport.

I appreciated this book on the Great Migration and wished the facts presented were more common. I‘m so grateful for the continued opportunity to learn and then share these truths. 5 🌟 Seven Days was not bad 3.5 🌟

The Winterson‘s is a reread one story a day. In the Midst of Winter is kind of meh and I might bail but have less than 3 hours. Halfway through Nantucket and will finish The Twelve Fates today.

I saw a few reviews go up this week. I‘ve read a little but still behind. Still, I wanted to post for the rest of the group. Anymore new insights? What really stood out in this section?