There are only 15 days left of my summer—well, “real” summer at least. Real summer is the time between the end of summer classes and the beginning of fall classes, and I’ve already used up nine days. Nine whole days!
The desire to read everything I’ve been ignoring in favor of homework-related reading is, at times, overwhelming. It’s enough to make a girl give up and just read a cozy mystery novel about a ghost hunting reality show set in a pet hotel. Now that I’ve done that, though, I’m ready to think about what’s next.
I’m currently reading two books, one ebook and one on audio through Scribd. My ebook read, Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder, is an engrossing history of the interconnected nature of slave profiteering and the first colleges in the United States. As Wilder points out, “The academy never stood apart from American slavery—in fact, it stood beside church and state as the third pillar of a civilization built on bondage” (12). New Englanders (I’m a lifelong resident) tend to act like slavery only happened in the south, so this book, with its focus on New England’s most prestigious institutions, is especially important.
My audio book is also college related, though in a rather different way. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher is an epistolary novel written entirely in the form of letters of recommendation from one Jason Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing, Payne University, professional curmudgeon. If sexism wasn’t a thing we’d probably be calling him “unlikable.” It works great on audio–Robertson Dean is one of my favorite narrators–and I’ve laughed out loud a few times. Usually in the grocery store.
But what’s next? There are so many options! I’ve tried to narrow it down a bit since I only have 15 (!) days left of unencumbered reading. Here’s my stack:
- Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America by Sarah Schulman: I’ve been putting off reading this important book because the situation just breaks my heart. But that’s not a very good reason, so it’s at the top of my list.
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin: I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me and realized I needed to read this collection of Baldwin essays ASAP.
- You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman: I have a weakness for books about television.
- Every Day by David Levithan: A friend just finished reading this and loved it, reminding me a sequel is coming out later this month (heh, see what I did there), and I haven’t even read the first one! I had to take a pretty long break from YA books but now I’m back and ready to enjoy.
- A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett: I’m almost embarrassed I haven’t read this winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction (2015) yet. Even more pressing because Chelsea Manning is facing solitary confinement for having this book in her cell.
- The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation by Christy Wampole: I’m trying to read more essays, and Harper was nice enough to send me this ARC.
- The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr: Is memoir writing for me? Unsure. Books about memoirs are, however, definitely for me.
- Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight against AIDS by Deborah B. Gould: I finally watched Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman’s documentary United In Anger: A History of ACT-UP (maybe I cried through the whole thing, I’ll never tell), and I was reminded how important it is to me to know about the incredible activism of queer people. The only reason I haven’t read Moving Politics yet is because–ugh–the font is a little too small for me. It’s also on Scribd (though as a PDF), so I should be able to work out a way to read it.
- The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within Us Slave Culture by Vincent Woodard: Another 2015 Lambda Award winner (for LGBT Studies), and, for me, an absolute “must read.”
What else should I be reading??
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