I thought I would spend the month of April delving into the literature that has made me the person I am today.
1] In this list you will find some of my favorite books, but you will also find books that I appreciate and books that I would recommend although they may not be my favorite. These are books that changed my way of thinking or my way of looking the world. These are books that helped solidify the core of who I am.
2] These books are in order of the theme that I came away with not alphabetical by title or author.
About this book:
One of the most influential and widely read texts in all of African American letters and history, The Souls of Black Folk combines some of the most enduring reflections on black identity, the meaning of emancipation,and Afican American culture. This new edition reprints the original 1903 edition of W.E.B. Du Bois's classic work with the fullest set of annotations of any version yet published, together with two related essays, and numerous letters Du Bois received and wrote concerning his widely read text. The introductory essay combines the sensibilities of a historian and a philosopher to capture the contours of Du Bois's life and writings along with the early-twentieth-century reception to the book. Photographs, a chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliography, and an index are also included.
Publication Date: first published in 1903
One of the most influential and widely read texts in all of African American letters and history, The Souls of Black Folk combines some of the most enduring reflections on black identity, the meaning of emancipation,and Afican American culture. This new edition reprints the original 1903 edition of W.E.B. Du Bois's classic work with the fullest set of annotations of any version yet published, together with two related essays, and numerous letters Du Bois received and wrote concerning his widely read text. The introductory essay combines the sensibilities of a historian and a philosopher to capture the contours of Du Bois's life and writings along with the early-twentieth-century reception to the book. Photographs, a chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliography, and an index are also included.
Publication Date: first published in 1903
Why this book:
This is one of those books that is so much a part of a culture that when you read it the whole world makes more sense.
I'm sad to say that I probably wouldn't have read this book had it not been for Missouri Scholars Academy and Douglas Anthony. I'm glad I did, though, as it helped me change the way I look at myself, at my country, and at my people, and by people I mean the human race.
After all don't we all have a song within us, a question within our souls and duality that we must debate with on a daily basis.
It seems I can always find an essay in this book that answers the question that I'm pondering.
Mentioned here.
This is one of those books that is so much a part of a culture that when you read it the whole world makes more sense.
I'm sad to say that I probably wouldn't have read this book had it not been for Missouri Scholars Academy and Douglas Anthony. I'm glad I did, though, as it helped me change the way I look at myself, at my country, and at my people, and by people I mean the human race.
After all don't we all have a song within us, a question within our souls and duality that we must debate with on a daily basis.
It seems I can always find an essay in this book that answers the question that I'm pondering.
Mentioned here.
Have you read "The Emperor of Ocean Park" by Stephen Carter? One of my favorites. It involves a mystery, politics, Martha's Vineyard, academia and introduced me, as a white person to the upper middle class world of Blacks. Stephen Carter is a professor of law at Yale, a Christian, and a wonderful writer. I have read this book and others by him, more than once.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie! I love your theme for the A to Z challenge. Now I'm wondering what I would say are the books that really changed my life. They're probably mainly philosophy books, like Nietzsche's "On the Genealogy of Morality," which discusses the origins of the Good vs. Evil divide, and compares it with a Good vs. Bad viewpoint. I also read a lot of dystopian fiction in high school (1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, etc.), which probably made me much more pessimistic about the world than I ought to be, haha. I will have to ponder this question now.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great theme. It really has me thinking about the books that I have read though I have mainly stuck with fiction as reading has always been my escape.
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