permanent exhibition

Books I started, finished, abandoned in 2012

Even though I read often, I read more slowly than I did when I was younger. I wanted to finally make a dent in my “I’m planning to read” list and get around to some titles I should’ve read but haven’t; not sure I was that successful. I tried to be intentional about not reading more than one book at a time, because I am famous for finding a new book and quitting something else so I can give myself permission to start on it immediately. I also have no qualms about putting down a book that doesn’t hold my interest or annoys/confuses me, either for a short time or forever. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

(EDIT: Oh, yeah, I get extra credit because I read Create Dangerously twice. Sister Danticat preached a word in that one.)

Those I finished are crossed out. IMO, not all of those I left behind are worth coming back to, and that’s real. I plan to finish #16 and #17. Wonder what will be my first new book of the year.

  1. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
  2. Brothers (and Me) by Donna Britt
  3. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  4. The Faces at the Bottom of the Well by Derrick Bell
  5. Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris-Perry
  6. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
  7. Search Sweet Country by Kojo Laing
  8. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
  9. Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat
  10. A Theory of Small Earthquakes by Meredith Maran
  11. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  12. One Hundred Names for Love by Diane Ackerman
  13. I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters by Michael G. Long
  14. The Obamas by Jodi Kantor
  15. NW by Zadie Smith
  16. Fire In My Soul by Joan Steinau Lester
  17. The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich
  18. This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

# books

Posted 4 months ago
From a really interesting radio story on Alabama segregationist Asa Earl Carter, who reinvented himself as a Cherokee novelist in the 1970s: In the early 1990s, The Education of Little Tree became a publishing phenomenon. It told the story of an orphan growing up and learning the wisdom of his Native American ancestors, Cherokee Texan author Forrest Carter’s purported autobiography. The book was originally published in 1976 to little fanfare and modest sales, but in the late 1980s, the University of New Mexico Press reissued it in paperback — and it exploded. By 1991, it reached the top of The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. It was sold around the world, praised by Oprah Winfrey and made into a Hollywood film. The Education of Little Tree would go on to sell more than 1 million copies. But the book and its author were not what they seemed. The Artful Reinvention of Klansman Asa Earl Carter [NPR]


From a really interesting radio story on Alabama segregationist Asa Earl Carter,
who reinvented himself as a Cherokee novelist in the 1970s:

In the early 1990s, The Education of Little Tree became a publishing phenomenon. It told the story of an orphan growing up and learning the wisdom of his Native American ancestors, Cherokee Texan author Forrest Carter’s purported autobiography.

The book was originally published in 1976 to little fanfare and modest sales, but in the late 1980s, the University of New Mexico Press reissued it in paperback — and it exploded. By 1991, it reached the top of The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. It was sold around the world, praised by Oprah Winfrey and made into a Hollywood film.

The Education of Little Tree would go on to sell more than 1 million copies. But the book and its author were not what they seemed.

The Artful Reinvention of Klansman Asa Earl Carter [NPR]

# NPR asa earl carter the education of little tree books

Posted 1 year ago 2 notes