The Harlem Hellfighters

The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks with art by Caanan White (2014) 257 pages

This fictionalized historical graphic novel contains some characters that are amalgams and some that are real people. One real life black officer given some focus in the story is jazz band conductor James Reese Europe. Max Brooks explains at the end that he originally wrote a screenplay to tell the story of this African American regiment that fought in WWI. When no studios or producers bought it he eventually turned it into this graphic novel. It is exciting like a good historical movie. Life and death for the soldiers in the trenches and no man's land of France is, of course, gruesome. Racism is faced throughout their training in America and assignments "Over There." The popular song of the period How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm is sung by the soldiers many times, and it got stuck as I heard it in my head. The song takes on special meaning as the men think about how they will be treated when, or if, they return to America. The Harlem Hellfighters fought separately, but under French command, as top American military personnel routinely worked to repress them. The narrative structure of this story kept reminding me of the Civil War movie from 1989 Glory. This regiment in WWI fought valiantly and achieved much that sadly has often not been taught in American history. 

 

Homie

Homie / Danez Smith, read by the author, 98 pgs.

Wow, I'm not good with comprehending poetry but this has a lot of feeling.  I read more about the poet and this collection is influenced by the death of a close friend.  Honest and telling, we learn a lot by the deep feeling and language.  I'm so happy I listened to the author reading this because it reveals so much about the feelings of the words. Pretty fantastic.

The Water Dancer

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, 403 pages.

Coates's first novel is brutal and beautifully written look at the harsh world of a antebellum Virginia plantation from the point of view of a young man who has a rare view of the master's family and his fellow enslaved.
From the beginning we know something of main character Hiram Walker's gift, or rather, his gifts. While everyone, either among the "Tasked" or the "Quality" (as the enslaved and the white masters are referred to in this novel) on the plantation oknows of Hiram's prodigious memory, neither the characters nor the reader learn the true nature nor extent of the water-dancer's gifts for a while. Hiram, the not-quite acknowledged son of the master of the plantation, is offered a life less harsh than many of his fellow "Tasked," but as he learns more about his mother, his grandmother, and the horrors visited on those enslaved around him, he decides to  use his gifts and risk his life in a battle for his own freedom and the freedom of those he loves.The writing, as with all of Coates's writing, is phenomenal and the characters are luminous.. This was my favorite novel of 2019.

While several reviewers have compared The Water Dancer to Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (favorably so) and the author himself cites Toni Morrison (among others) as an influence, you can also feel thematic links to Octavia Butler's classic novel Kindred, Esi Edugyan's Washington Black, and also to Walter Mosley's underrated 47.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, 312 pages.

I can't believe that it took me so long to read this book. It's been on my list of to-be-read since it came out in 2010. Every word of it rings more true now than it seemed to (to me, in my bubble, anyway). Everything about this book is devastating. I feel like I have heard every (well, almost every) part of this book before, in one forma or another, but having all of the details of how racist, horrible and unfair our justice system is shocking and  depressing. Alexander does an excellent job of marshaling her facts and lays out a compelling case that things must change.

John Woman

John Woman by Walter Mosley, 377 pages.

Wow, what a weird trip this book is. John Woman, aka Cornelius Jones, aka CC has led an interesting life. We meet him as a teen, he is living with his father, who can't work due to an operation. Cornelius begins working his father's shifts at the silent movie theater so that his father doesn't lose his job. Shortly after this, when his mom has disappeared with her mobster boyfriend and his dad is dying, Cornelius finds himself defending himself and acting in a way that changes his life and his perception of himself. From that moment, he is changed and when his father dies shortly after, he changes his name as well, eventually becoming the title character.
As John Woman, college professor, he attempts to rewrite history in a way that is closer to his understanding of it. Woman must decide what to do about the offers he is receiving from a strange cult-like organization and he must decide how far he wants to go in coming to terms with his past. Multi-layered, complicated and sometimes difficult to process.

Let it bang

Let it bang: A young black man's reluctant odyssey into guns / RJ Young, read by the author, 224 pgs.

RJ Young always felt like he should avoid guns because he knew just having one could get him killed.  But when he marries and joins a family whose patriarch is a "good old boy" with an extensive gun collection, he decides to learn more about guns.  A black man and NRA member, he becomes an expert shot and becomes certified to teach classes.  An interesting look at gun culture and the differences of gun ownership for blacks and whites in America.  Well read by the author.

Invisible man

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 581 pages.
Our Big Book Summer read for 2018 was fantastic. Ellison's classic, besides being our shortest was the most accessible, while at the same time being the most enigmatic (Kathleen said it better).
We had great discussions led by Dr. Maxwell, jazz from Second Nature Horns, and a great lecture on Ellison and Jazz from Dr. Gerald Early. You can read all about it at our Big Book blog here.

Invisible Man

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 599 pp.

This was the 2018 Summer Reading selection and a novel I had not read before. Christa's review gives a good synopsis of what the book is about. The unnamed protagonist is earnest in his attempts to do what is expected of him until he comes to the realization that there is no one, including himself, that he can count on to treat him honestly and fairly. While he is invisible in many ways throughout the book, the invisibility he settles on - living a reclusive, hidden life - results from his experiences and his discouragement with society. Given the subject matter, it seems odd to say I enjoyed it. Perhaps it is better to say I appreciated it. I look forward to seeing what the 2019 selection will be.

Invisible Man

Invisible man, Ralph Ellison, 599 pgs.

Our summer reading choice for 2018, a powerful novel of a young African American man who leaves his home in the south and goes to Harlem to seek his fortune.  Unnamed, the protagonist is involved in a series of events that reinforce his invisibility...often he is not seen in society.  Over time, he witnesses violence, is harassed and learns that many can not be trusted...they will use you and discard you.  The book is widely regarded as one of the best of the 20th century.  It is packed with imagery, meaning and is often reminiscent of jazz solo.  After not reading it for many years, it was good to revisit.

Furious cool

Furious cool: Richard Pryor and the world that made him / David Henry & Joe Henry, 304 pgs.

Richard Pryor was a man of contradictions, he was a comic genius but had a tumultuous personal life.  His childhood was difficult but he did no better as a father than his parent's.  He was raised by his grandmother and she was the only one who made him feel loved.  His success as a comedian contrasted with his mediocre movie output.  He had a hard time turning money down and it showed.  But all of his success was eclipsed by his drug habit.  He was a mostly unrepentant junkie who often told others he was clean but mostly made no effort to be so.  He was indisputably one of the greatest performers and a huge influence on those who came after him.  This book is not easy to read because you know things don't end well for Richard but it does pay tribute to his abilities.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, 219 pages.

Hurston's classic, moving novel was the capstone for our summer reading program. Hurston gives us the great character Janie Mae Crawford and explores her relationships with the natural world, with her Nanny, with her husbands, Logan Killicks, her second husband Jody, and then the love of her life, Tea Cake. Set in Zora Neale's native Florida, this book led to some great discussions. Check our summer reading blog here.

Breakthrough

Breakthrough! How three people saved "blue babies" and changed medicine forever / Jim Murphy 132 pgs.

In the 1940's, children who were born with heart defects were known as "blue babies" because they were oxygen deprived and so their skin took on a blue color.  Nobody at that time even knew what the root cause of the problem was until Dr. Helen Taussig spent a lot of time researching the problem and realized it was due to heart problems.  Dr. Alfred Blalock was the chief surgeon and a famous researcher whom Dr. Taussig tasked with figuring out a solution to the heart "plumbing problem." The most interesting of the three subjects of the book is Vivien Thomas, and African American lab assistant who had intended to become a doctor before his savings disappeared in a bank failure during the great depression.  Mr. Thomas was the head lab technician and invaluable assistant to Dr. Blalock. They worked closely on their other research topic, treating shock.  Thomas was a brilliant surgeon who effectively tested solutions on animal subjects.  When it came time to operate on the first human patient, Dr. Blalock had Thomas stand on a stool behind him so he could instruct.  This book does an excellent job of telling the story of this significant medical breakthrough...at the time, no one thought it was even possible to operate on a heart.  The book also tells the personal story of each of these extraordinary individuals who came together and worked to save thousands of lives each year.

Jonah's Gourd Vine

Jonah’s Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston, 229 pages.

We read this classic novel for our June Big Book discussion. Dr. April Langley, from the University of Missouri, Columbia, led the first discussion, and it was a lot of fun. The fifty or so readers talked about the characters in the book, mostly; with each table choosing a character with whom to identify. In the beginning of the book, the main character, John (first introduced as John Buddy) leaves the home he has lived in with his loving mother, his adoring siblings and his abusive stepfathater. He is 16, and he promises his mother that he will reform his (at this point not so) wild ways. Throughout the book he tries to be a good man, and can, in fact, be a very good man when he listens to his wife Lucy, but he cannot to seem to help but stray; he is addicted to his dalliances with other women, from Mehaly, whom he meets on his first day back at Pearson’s plantation, to the young Ora, with whom he spends his last night. John's weakness haunts him his whole life and he cannot mend the fabric of his life.
I blogged about our Wednesday night discussion in June here, and here.

Jonah's gourd vine

Jonah's gourd vine / Zora Neale Hurston 316 pgs.

The story of John Pearson's rise and fall post Civil War.  Pearson is a powerful African American preacher who is riddled with weakness and shortcomings.  This story is based on Hurston's parents which makes the narrative compelling.  Young John leaves his family of sharecroppers by crossing the creek into the wealthier (and whiter) area.  Like the saying about being from the wrong side of the tracks, John's youth is spent in a place that is so isolated, there were not even tracks.  He is shocked by his first sighting of a locomotive.  John falls in love with Lucy Potts, who he marries. Lucy believes in him and makes him a better man but he continues to fall short and can't stop himself from partaking in sins of the flesh.  When Lucy dies, he marries Hattie, a woman who is as bad for him as he is for her.  Their divorce leads to his expulsion from his church.  He moves on and starts over, once again finding a good woman who helps him make something of himself.

I read this book long ago but that was before I knew the back story of the author and the significance of the work.  I enjoyed it then but got much more out of it now.

Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates  152 pp.

I cannot adequately put into words my feelings about this important book except to say I am glad the author was honored with the National Book Award for putting into words the experience of living in black skin in this country and the false construct in the concept of "race" in this essay to his son. I believe everyone, regardless of the amount of melanin in their skin, should read this brief but very important book. As a white woman of privilege I have not, and never will have those experiences. However, I know from friends that here in the U.S. the "crimes" of walking/driving/just breathing while black can and too often does result in abuses of power by actual and supposed authority figures. But Coates also speaks of his days at Howard University, which he calls his Mecca. Coates message to his son is one of love, fear, and a pessimistic hope that somehow things will change.

Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine

Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy, 294 pages.
Unlike several other books by physicians that I have read recently Tweedy's seems mostly positive. He doesn't spend much time talking about how the changes in health care have ruined medicine. He focuses more on the disparity of care that has existed for Black Americans, and the disparities that can still be found, despite improvements.
Interesting and readable,even if it is not the best of the recent crop of medical memoirs the author does tread new ground and seems to keep his sense of curiosity intact. He also refrains from displaying the omniscience that some long-time practitioners let creep into their narratives.
Tweedy seems to have a positive outlook on health care overall.

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: a Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League / Jeff Hobbs 406 pp.

This may be the saddest book I've ever read.  Robert Peace grew up in a hard but not desperate neighborhood in Newark.  He was blessed with a mother of extreme dedication and strength who scraped to put Robert through solid Catholic schools.  This, combined with Robert's evident powerful intellect and capacity to work fiendishly hard saw him through a Yale bachelor's degree, funded by a wealthy donor to his high school.  He graduated with a degree in hard science, debt-free.  So far so good.  But Robert, who was also good-looking, athletic, compassionate and a born leader, carried substantial psychic debt.  Hobbs was his roommate at Yale for four years and traces Rob's life from birth until his heartbreaking death, nine years after college graduation.  Hobbs is incredibly sensitive, mostly avoiding the temptation to make Robert a symbol of wider social ills.  He paints an individual human being so clearly that the reader feels his death as a personal loss.

A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports by Gerald L. Early

A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports by Gerald L. Early, 263 pages.

A wonderful collection of essays by Washington University's Gerald Early. Curt Flood, Donovan McNabb and Jackie Robinson are at the center of several of the works. Early explores the racism that has run through sports and through American Society and he does so with an even hand, quick wit, and a great knowledge and love of sports. Entertaining and thought-provoking, Early seems to be several steps ahead of anyone else talking about the African American experience in sports.

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The Complete K Chronicles / Keith Knight

The Complete K Chronicles by Keith Knight. 501 p.

Keef is an alt-comics artist (and rapper); this huge collection starts in the early 90s and runs up into the Bush administration. The later strips become somewhat more political, but I always enjoy his take on things. I especially enjoy the tales from his second job working in a youth hostel. And I cannot express how much I love the little woolly sheep that turns up in the background of so many strips.

Plus I find that cartoons from the relatively recent past--editorial, or in this case more sociological--are a great way to pick up on culture change. Often I think "I remember that! Wait, how old is this? Wow, I didn't things had changed (not changed) that much."

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Native Son by Richard Wright

Native Son by Richard Wright, 594 pages, literary fiction.
Wright's story of Bigger Thomas, a young black man with no prospects, set in 1930's Chicago really stands the test of time. Bigger commits a crime in the heat of the moment, and this crime, and his attempts to extricate himself from the situation, lead to his downfall. We had a great discussion about this iconic work for our February book group meeting.

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