September’s Reads
Did you know that on average a person reads 12 total books each year?
If you’re anything like I used to be this number seems way to high and you’re wondering how anyone fits even 1 book into a month. I’m here to tell you it’s possible, support you in that journey and remind you that you can accomplish anything you’ve put your mind to.
If I could go back to tell my younger self anything it would be to replace television with the opportunity to explore and gain more knowledge through the experience of reading. I started my own venture so that I could help support others on their journey. So, if you need a reason to pick up or finish a book this month then keep reading, this is for you.
Saying I love television would be an understatement but decreasing my screen time and increasing the amount of time I spend reading has nourished my soul in a way I’d lost. There are so many benefits we receive when reading from reduced stress to increased empathy. If those two things alone aren’t enough to convince you to increase your reading time check out my article on the benefits of reading.
Otherwise, make sure you keep scrolling for some inspiration on your next read!
Kisses,
Kate
4.5/5 goodreads Summary
Although this book is a Young Adult, it was well worth the read on topics we face as adults. It was also a good way to see how gender, race, sexuality, and environment shape our biases from a younger age than most of us tend to consider.
It also addresses death, illness, homophobia, mental illness and if you’re anything like I was how awkward those high school years can be. My favorite part about this book is the inspiration that it provides that one person can effect change, especially when you gain the courage to ask for support from others.
Favorite Quotes:
“The thing about anxiety is that it looks different for everyone. I mean, yeah, of course there are some threads that run through all of us that mark us as, you know, anxious people: being restless, exhausted, just plain fidgety. But it’s the nuances that change the game.”
“Everything is so much more magnificent and complicated than I had initially budgeted for.”
“Just because it could be worse doesn't mean you don't get to acknowledge how much it sucks, you know.”
4.7/5 goodreads Summary
Even if you’re not a parent this book will move your soul and tug at each heart string as you read this father’s letter to his son.
The title of this book fits perfectly for the understanding it provides on the distance race can create between the world. This book providing answers to questions and an understanding I had been seeking about race, was likely the reason I somehow finished this read within a day.
I can assure you, finishing a book in a day has NEVER happened to me. I’m the slowest reader on the planet so if that doesn’t speak volumes and make you wanna carve out a little reading time keep scrolling for some further inspiration.
Favorite Quotes:
“My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own.”
“You have been cast into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at your heels. And to varying degrees this is true of all life. The difference is that you do not have the privilege of living in ignorance of this essential fact.”
“And I too felt bound by my ignorance, by the questions that I had not yet understood to be more than just means, by my lack of understanding, and by Howard itself. It was still a school, after all. I wanted to pursue things, to know things, but I could not match the means of knowing that came naturally to me with the expectations of professors. The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books. I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free. Slowly, I was discovering myself.”
4.0/5 goodreads Summary
This was one we voted on for Bibliotherapy Book Club. It’s nothing and everything I expected the read to be. It delivered the insight of others but not in the way I’m accustomed to from this author.
This was good for a few laughs, some terrifying twists and for some much needed reflection on what we want out of life.
Favorite Quotes:
“Sometimes your life changes so slowly and imperceptibly that you don't notice it at all until one day you wake up and think, 'How did I get here?' But other times, life changes in an instant with a lightning stroke of good or bad luck with glorious or tragic consequences.”
“This was rock bottom, I just licked a Kit Kat wrapper”………..”She seemed to be losing her sense of self, come on now get a grip, you’re too old for an existential crisis.”
“Journeys continued as they applied Marsha’s lessons to their day to day lives. Then 2, 3, 4 years later a good proportion came back to Tanquilliam House looking as unhealthy as they have been or even more unhealthy”…..”Marsha had only reset them temporarily in times of crisis they returned to their default setting.”
I fell in love with this author when I read “How to Be an Anti-Racist” back in 2019. I then came across this read when I had been specifically seeking information that gave me a better factual understanding of race. I wanted to gain the ability to communicate the anti-racist points I’d previously learned in a logical rather than emotional manner.
If you’re seeking any historical facts for better understanding how the ideas of race were built and have progressed throughout time, this read is for you.
Favorite Quotes:
““When men oppress their fellow-men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” Douglass, amazingly, summed up the history of racist ideas in a single sentence.”
“Whenever a Black person or group used White people as a standard of measurement, and cast another Black person or group as inferior, it was another instance of racism.”
“I was taught the popular folktale of racism: that ignorant and hateful people had produced racist ideas, and that these racist people had instituted racist policies. But when I learned the motives behind the production of many of America’s most influentially racist ideas, it became quite obvious that this folktale, though sensible, was not based on a firm footing of historical evidence.
Ignorance/hate >> racist ideas>> discrimination: this causal relationship is largely ahistorical. It has actually been the inverse relationship—racial discrimination led to racist ideas which led to ignorance and hate. Racial discrimination>>racist ideas>> ignorance/hate: this is the causal relationship driving America’s history of race relations.”