Holiday book lists

Holiday book lists

It’s list time in book land; lots of outlets publish them to aid in holiday shopping.

I was delighted to nominate and recommend books for NPR’s annual Books We Love interactive list. Even with a list of 300+ books, I nominated quite a few books that didn’t make it onto the list. That’s good news and good news. The good news is that the books on NPR’s list are well curated, and the good news is that there is so much more to read!

Here are my four. I’m excited about all of them:

TRANSPLANT [memoir] by Bernardine Watson. I reviewed this book for Washington Independent Review of Books and for NPR’s Books We Love:

Bernardine Watson’s memoir about her journey through family estrangement, life-threatening kidney disease, three marriages, raising a son and an impressive career consulting for foundations and nonprofits is a page-turner. Watson insists the reader understand that kidney disease afflicts Black people and people of color in outsize numbers in the U.S. and that our health system continues to fail us. She tells a difficult story while threading affirmation and positivity through to finding her true love. Most important are her clear-eyed explanations about the complexity and challenges of kidney disease, all too ordinary in America.

MASTER SLAVE HUSBAND WIFE: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo. [nonfiction] For NPR Books We Love:

This book tells the story of Ellen and William Craft, who staged a life-threatening escape from enslavement in Georgia in 1848 and spent the rest of their lives advocating for Black freedom. Never far from the slave hunter’s maw, the Crafts joined the abolition movement and made tremendous contributions both in the United States and in England, speaking alongside great activists such as Frederick Douglass. Ilyon Woo’s ability to weave the Crafts’ personal love story and their love of family, alongside their public speaking and travel epic, makes for a gripping read.

THE LAUGHTER [novel] by Sonora Jha. For NPR Books We Love:

Sonora Jha’s fast-paced campus drama turns the tables upside down in this well-traveled genre. Jha deploys a clueless narrator, Dr. Oliver Harding, who becomes smitten with Ruhaba Khan, a Pakistani law professor. Jha gets inside the hubristic Dr. Harding’s head to show his obliviousness to his white privilege, his antiquated views on race, his impact on others and, ultimately, his fragile position on campus. The “laughter” is in Professor Khan’s sense of humor, but more so in the author’s own dark humor.

THE BOY FROM KIEV: Alexei Ratmansky's Life in Ballet [biography] by Marina Harss. I reviewed this book for Pointe Magazine and for NPR Books We Love:

Dance writer Marina Harss follows famed Ukrainian Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky from birth to the present day in a revelatory book about how he evolved into the internationally sought-after choreographer of the moment. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, this book is a must-read for balletomanes keen to understand Ratmansky’s Russian, Canadian and Danish influences, as well as his full-bore immersion into American ballet. It is also for readers who want to learn how a world-spanning dance career that includes two sides of an ongoing war unfolds.

Here’s to a healthy and safe Thanksgiving.

Read on!

Martha