2. Julie Lythcott-Haims' Real American: A Memoir (2017) is thoughtful and powerful and gorgeous. She writes meaningfully about blackness and her challenges with her and her children’s biracial/multiracial identity and about the importance of allies. Her journey to be the fierce leader she is now was both a meaningful window and mirror for me.
3. I had heard so much about Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give (2017) that it was hard to go into with an open mind. It is another book that I started over a year ago and had a hard time making progress in for a while. It's the first audiobook that I felt like I lost something from the interpretation of the narrator. Yes, there are some elements of the story that are oversimplified, but overall I appreciated its heart and all the three-dimensional characters. It asks many good questions.
4. I just love Anne Lamott. I went to hear her in person and ended up buying her book Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (2018). Everything she writes delights and inspires me. She is a phenomenal storyteller and her stories shine a light on everything she takes on.
5. I first learned about Henri Nouwen and his concept of "Ministry of Presence" from Catholic Charities, and so, as a Sacred Heart Quaker, I was excited when my Quaker meetings book club was reading one of his books, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World (1992). This book really spoke to my spiritual condition -- the importance of making space for a reciprocal relationship with the divine and of being intentional about gratitude and affirmation.
6. I always appreciate the Irish Jesuits' Sacred Space Books, including this one for the Advent and Christmas Season 2018-19. These books ensure that I take out time each day for my spiritual life.
7. I read Women's Speaking Justified and Other Pamphlets (2018), works of Margaret Fell's that were edited by Jane Donawerth and Rebecca Lush in order to review it for Friends Journal. I definitely would not have made it all the way through were I not reviewing it, but I genuinely enjoyed the window it gave me into Quaker history.
8. I enjoyed Kamala Harris' The Truths We Hold (2019). It is definitely equal parts memoir and political philosophy statement/record to convince people to vote for her as she prepares to run for president. She's convinced me.
9. Cory Booker's United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good (2016) made me really appreciate Senator Booker as a person, though he is self-deprecating to a point that makes me less excited about his presidential candidacy.
10. Walter Wink’s Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (2003) marks the third book I’ve read in recent months that feels like it is speaking directly to my life’s philosophy (along with Krista Tippet’s Becoming Wise and Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved). Jesus and Nonviolence describes how much more powerful love is than coercion.
11. I bought How to Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit for Creativity and Radical Self-Care (2018) by Marlee Grace because it was on the staff recommendations shelf at Literati and because it is beautiful. I am not sure that I actually learned anything from it, but it gave me moments of peace while I read it.
12. Gabrielle Union's memoir, We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True (2017), is funny and raunchy and shocking and honest. It is a fascinating window into the world of celebrity and a powerful mirror into the experiences of Black women. It is so much more about topics of social justice than one would guess, and I absolutely loved it.
13. I absolutely loved Shonda Rhimes' Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person (2015). She talks about her initial decision (at the height of her success) to be bold and lean in, and then all the decisions she made as a result. She celebrates both fully embracing all that life has to offer (what she calls badassery) and the power of saying no.
14. I love Rebecca Solnit's ability to put what so many of us are thinking into beautiful prose. In Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays) (2018) she explores the first two years of what we lovingly call The Resistance.
15. I read The Burning One-ness Binding Everything: A Spiritual Journey (1997) by Bruce Birchard because the Adult Religious Education committee is offering a session on it. I read it with a mind to create discussion questions and that was easy to do; this book is a reflection of great depth.
16. Ross Gay is a delightful man and his work The Book of Delights (2019) is a manifestation of the love and joy that is at his core. He illuminates the many ways that we are all connected to each other and to nature. The book is full of both wisdom and humor, often intertwined.
17. Although I never read Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians, I loved the movie (and saw it twice in theaters!), which made reading China Rich Girlfriend (2015), the second in that trilogy, quite enjoyable. I can't remember the last time a book made me laugh out loud so often. It's rare that I read a book that is quite so much fun.
18. I have long loved Damon Young's humor on verysmartbrothas.theroot.com and I was struck when I first saw him present a year ago by just how humble and authentic he is. What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays (2019) is the best of his humor and authenticity. He is raw and reflective and it is insightful and moving.
19. Although I always appreciate the Irish Jesuits' Sacred Space Books, I had a harder time keeping up with the Lent 2019 book than I normally do. I still got many moving quotes and reflections from it, but it did not make its way as meaningfully into my everyday life as those books normally do.
20. Interestingly, as I read John Maeda's Redesigning Leadership (2011), I knew by the end that I would be surprised if he was still in the leadership role in which he was serving as he wrote the book (president of RISD, which he left he left after six years). The book is full of useful reflections, but they are clearly the reflections of an artist who is exhausted by the bureaucracy over which he was presiding.
21. I read Thick (2018) by Tressie McMillan Cottom for one of my book clubs. I listened to the whole thing over the course of one morning. Cottom has a powerful voice about justice issues and how we need to deconstruct so much of our society that is oppressive.
22. I found Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean (2017) by Kim Scott to be a wonderful book to help me think about being a manager. Much of what it suggests are strategies that I already use as a teacher, which made me feel empowered as I reflect upon taking a next step. It also had lots of useful practical advice.
23. Bettina Love's We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom (2019) has important reminders about centering love and justice in education. It was more theoretical than practical, but certainly an interesting read.
24. My book club enjoyed Kevin Kwan's China Rich Girlfriend so much that we decided to have a bonus book club meeting to discuss the final book in that trilogy, Rich People Problems (2018). I have to admit I laughed out loud less than I did from China Rich Girlfriend, but I was desperate to find out what happened at every turn, and ended up binge reading it.
25. Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong (2017) by Kristen Hadeed was on the recommended summer book list for my old school but seemed like a good fit for my new job. Although many of her choices are not ones that I would make, she's a great storyteller and the book makes a reader feel as though they are learning along with her.
26. Women Talking (2019) by Miriam Toews is one of the best works of fiction that I have read in a long time. It is how Toews' imagines that the women who survived the "Bolivian Ghost Rapes" might have processed the terror they experienced.
27. Pride (2018) by Ibi Zoboi is a Black-Latinx, Brooklyn-based YA version of Pride and Prejudice. I haven't read Pride and Prejudice, but I really enjoyed Pride's love story.
28. How to Fight (2017) by Thich Nhat Hanh is a beautiful little book about how to not keep cycles of harm going in our personal lives. It might be more accurately called "How Not to Fight."
29. The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education: Fostering Responsibility, Healing, and Hope in Schools (2016) by Katherine Evans and Dorothy Vaandering explains the values and beliefs behind restorative justice and how to use restorative practices proactively in schools.
30. The buzz around Educated: A Memoir (2018) by Tata Westover has been inescapable for the last year and half. I now understand why. I thought it was the story of a woman growing up in a cult, but much more than that, it is a woman's story of how she beat the odds and found her voice and her power.
31. One of my former colleagues encouraged me to read Redeeming Administration: 12 Spiritual Habits for Catholic Leaders in Parishes, Schools, Religious Communities, and Other Institutions (2013) by Ann Garrido. It has been a wonderful catalyst for reflection as I begin a new chapter of my career.
32. Although it took me two years to finish, I truly loved Patrisse Khan-Cullors' When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Manifesto (2017). It was powerful to learn about her family history as a way of understanding her personal context as she founded a movement that has been important to the country broadly and me individually for the past few years.
33. Last year I went to a book talk for Brittney Cooper's Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (2018). The book talk was memorable. It was right after Black Panther had come out and the talk felt like it built on the momentum of the movie. Additionally, she was interviewed by Damon Young in the book talk, and the two of them were a perfect mix of thoughtful and delightful. The book itself has much of that same mix, and comes across as particularly bold and brave. It made me both laugh and feel empowered.
34. I loved every page of 27 Views of Carolina Friends School: A Quaker Community in Prose & Poetry. I learned a great deal about the school and I loved each of the personalized windows into people's passion for the place.
35. I earned The Untethered Soul: The Journey beyond Yourself (2007) by Michael Singer for my participation in my school's wellness week. There are parts of it that resonated about healthy detachment from our emotions, but overall it felt a bit too ungrounded for me. It was always interesting to read a few pages at the beginning of Meeting for Worship for the past couple years.
36. Reading The Testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood was like watching a great movie. I could not put this down. In the chaos of our current world, it was powerful to read about at least one imagined society that made its way to the other side.
37. I read The Madwoman of Cahillot by Jean Giraudoux (translated by Maurice Valency in 1947) because it is the play that my school is doing this fall. It's satirical and very weird in a way that I'm not sure I fully appreciated. But it's critique of capitalism is just as relevant now as it was 70 years ago!
38. I started reading Singletasking: Getting More Done - One Thing at a Time by Devora Zack (2015) several years ago because the author presented in a professional development program I attended. It reminds me of Skinny Bitch in that I have continued to go back to it over the years when I need a push to abandon bad habits. I'm not sure it's totally groundbreaking, but it definitely has great reminders.
39. When looking for a different book, I found on my Quaker bookshelf an old copy of Barry Morley's Beyond Consensus: Salvaging Sense of the Meeting (1993). It catalyzed meaningful reflection on the ideals we're going for with Meetings for Business. Although the processes can be stressful, this pamphlet explores their potential power.
40. As a spontaneous adventure, I saw the play Burn This (by Lanford Wilson, 1987) on Broadway this spring (because Facebook ads were telling me that it starred Kerri Russell and Adam Driver [who was absolutely brilliant!]. It spoke to me in a profound way, and I bought a magnet to remember its lessons. A week ago I was trying to remember what those lessons were, so I bought a copy of the play. The heart of what I love about it is that the right thing doesn't always present itself clearly. Sometimes the right thing for us is messy and hard. And we just have to trust that everything will be okay.
41. I read the Pendle Hill pamphlet Building Bridges: Four Stories from the Bible (2019) by Elizabeth O'Sullivan for an upcoming book review. It's not that often that I encounter Quaker works that center Biblical stories and Jesus, and I appreciate those intersections wherever they exist.
42. The Story (2004) by Tracey Scott Wilson is a play about the defining experience of my mother's life. It was powerful to read it on the anniversary of my mother's death. I was reminded of just how much of a force of nature she was. It's a thoughtful piece that addresses race and class in an honest way.
43. I picked up A Sin by Any Other Name: Reckoning with Racism and the Heritage of the South (2019) by Robert W. Lee because it was in the local authors section of a local bookstore. Robert W. Lee, despite his relation to Robert E. Lee, has been a voice for racial justice in the last couple years. I found his book easy to read in many ways, but I also had questions in the end about how easy it was for him to tell his story when so many people of color fight the same issues go unnamed and unnoticed. I can't hold it against him that he found his platform, and yet I wished in the end that I had gotten his book out of the library instead of buying it.
44. Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood (1976) was described by its author, James Baldwin, as a story about childhood for adults. It did not do particularly well when it was written and was out of print for a while. It was originally panned for not having too much of a story arc, but I appreciated the window into James Baldwin's world that it offered.
45. My Sister, the Serial Killer (2018) by Oyinkan Braithwaite was a quick and easy read. The story was interesting and leads to some interesting questions about the limits of loyalty.
46. I feel as though having started a new job this year, I was not the target audience for Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams. It is a great how-to book for people thinking about their next steps. She's had a very interesting and very successful career, and this books takes the reader inside of how she worked strategically since her youth to get where she is.
47. I listened to How to Be an Antiracist (2019) by Ibram X Kendi as an audiobook, and I did not find it particularly engaging, as I did not feel like I was learning much that I could apply to my life or my work. I found his ideas and stories interesting, but there was not much that felt new in important ways.
48. I've been reading Angela Davis's Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (2015) for several years now. I'm grateful that someone with whom I share much of my views of justice has such a powerful and public platform.
49. Washington Black (2018) by Esi Edugyan is an epic story of a boy born into slavery in Barbados and swept into adventures around the world. I would say that I admired its storytelling and was entertained, but it was less thought-provoking than I had hoped. That could be because it was hard to keep all of the story elements straight because I listened to it as an audiobook.
50. I've been watching His Dark Materials on HBO, which led me to read Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (1995). I love the book even more than the show because of all of its details. My second adventure story in a row, but I absolutely delighted in this one!
51. I was less engaged reading Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife (1997) than The Golden Compass. As the second book in the trilogy, it felt like it was working hard just to be a bridge between the beginning and the end of this epic story.
52. I absolutely loved Mira Jacob's Good Talk (2018), a graphic memoir about race in modern America, especially for an Indian-American woman and her biracial (half-white) son who is beginning to have questions about his identity after Trump's election.
53. I got The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living (2016) by Meik Wiking because my friend Andrea has long told me about the practice of hygge (coziness), and she cultivates it in her life and home, which is why I think of her house as my retreat center. The book felt more like food for thought than an actual practical guide, but it was very pleasant reading.
54. Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass (2000) was a powerful ending to the His Dark Materials trilogy. The book explores themes of religion, good and evil, sacrifice, agency, and so much more.
55. Elena Aguilar's The Art of Coaching Teams: Building Resilient Communities that Transform Schools (2016) was the single most influential book of my fall as I became a principal. This book was absolutely transformational in my designing meaningful staff meetings.
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