When deciding to participate in the Broomfield Library Reading Challenge 2022, you’re required to read 52 books in various categories – for example: ‘books written in the year you were born’, ‘books written by a local author’, etc. While searching for books to complete this challenge, I’ve discovered so many new authors – my “Want to Read” list is now up to 400+ books. More importantly, this library challenge forced me out of my reading comfort zone.
I read to relax and normally enjoy gentle, heartwarming reads by authors such as: James Herriot and Miss Read. The stories tend to be about village life, where happiness and heartbreak are balanced by a good dose of humor, friendship and community engagement.
I also enjoy cozy mysteries [esp. MC Beaton, Bailey Cates Cattrell, Carolyn Hart], young adult fantasy novels [Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Tolkien, etc.] and fairy tales / fairy tale retellings. I rarely visit the more somber nonfiction / memoir sections of the library. Were it not for this library challenge, I’d have missed the 5 extraordinary non-fiction reads below.
5 Library Challenge Reads.
Recommended on Instagram:
- The Whole Picture: The colonial story of the art in our museums… and why we need to talk about it by Alice Procter. After taking a tour through Alice Procter’s ‘imaginary’ museum, you’ll never see museum collections the same way again.
An inspiring memoir:
- Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole. A Jamaican woman, Mary Seacole overcame racial barriers in order to nurse wounded soldiers during the Crimean War [1855]. A contemporary of Florence Nightingale, Mary’s remarkable life story is all but forgotten in today’s world.
By a local [Colorado] author:
- The Scholar and the Struggle: Lawrence Reddick’s Crusade for Black History and Black Power by David A. Varel. Lawrence Reddick’s (1910–1995) compelling biography reveals his many contributions to the struggle of the black freedom movement. Sadly, until this book, I wasn’t even aware that Reddick was Martin Luther King Jr.’s mentor throughout MLK Jr.’s entire public life.
By an author I’ve never read before:
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In a letter to his adolescent son, Coates shares the hard won wisdom of a black man living in the U.S. today. He quotes Malcolm X: “If you’re black, you’re born in jail” and points out something black parents know all too well – “No one will be held accountable” when the streets are wet with the blood of a black child.
Published in 2022:
- The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander. This book can best be reviewed by the author in the video below.
Books can change you. I thought I understood the oppression of racism; however, the five books mentioned above, allowed me to witness “With eyes no longer blind —” [a line in a Langston Hughes poem] the ongoing struggle against racial injustice.
“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children…
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…
More than 50 years have passed since Martin Luther King [MLK] Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Today’s Trayvon generation is still waiting for the world MLK Jr. dreamed of.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” … For oppressed people everywhere, justice cannot come soon enough.