Sponsored by Flatiron Books publisher of Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez.
A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots—all in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.
Have you tried Worldle yet? If so how do you feel about it? I started playing it as other Rioters started talking about it, but didn’t realize people had strategies and such for it. In true me fashion, I have no strategy and just randomly start guessing five letter words. So far, it’s been cute. It’s been an entertaining little distraction each day I’ve played it. I like how it limits you to one game per day. It’s an interesting feature in a world that is now geared towards marathoning entertainment and other ways to get instant gratification. I’m curious to see how future games, shows, apps, etc. will adapt to fill certain gaps in our experience.
Nibbles and Sips
 |
I’ve been having a lot of rice-adjacent meals lately that weren’t curry, but got me thinking not curry. This one features red lentils (although you can also use chickpeas) and comes courtesy of Sweet Potato Soul. She lists out the ingredients for the spices, but you can be like me and just use the bottle of spice that simply says “curry” that you’ve got in the kitchen cabinet. I’m sure the flavor will be more robust with the additions of the other spices, but I just wanted to give you an option if you don’t cook Indian food much, or don’t have Ms. Sweet Potato’s thorough spice selection.
How Much Do You Know About MLK?
I wanted to focus on a few books surrounding MLK because, firstly, MLK day is on the 17th, and secondly, because I think what was omitted from the civil rights movement is interesting.
For example, fifteen year old Claudette Colvin was Rosa Parks before Rosa Parks, but wasn’t highlighted because she wasn’t light-skinned and had a teenaged pregnancy. This was despite the fact that she was a member of the NAACP Youth Council. The civil rights leaders of the time (including the machine behind MLK, which was church-based) didn’t see her as the ideal person to shape a movement around. Now, many people have never heard of her.
Similarly, there are other parts of Dr. King’s life and the rest of the civil rights movement that have been known of for a while, but simply not mentioned because of intentional efforts to frame the era in a certain way. Here are a few books to further flesh out the man and the time:
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Edited by Clayborne Carson
Where better to start understanding Dr. King than here? This is a first-hand account by King himself that details his thoughts on the movement he had become the face of, as well as how he balanced time with his family, his views on religion, and other aspects of his life. It also includes some of his famous speeches, like “I Have a Dream,” “Give Us the Ballot,” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Book Club Bonus: Discuss what you learned here about Dr. King that you didn’t know before. How does what you knew about him and the civil rights movement from years prior (like what you learned in school) compare with what you read about him here?
Sometimes learning about certain topics in the context of school can make us desensitized to whatever gravity they may hold. Do you feel that recent events (like the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, as well as other recent protests) have made what Dr. King writes about here feel more real than they did when you first learned about them?
I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters by Bayard Rustin
Rustin was MLK’s right-hand man who has been referred to as the civil right movement’s “lost prophet.” He organized the March on Washington in 1963, which was the largest demonstration for human rights in United States history at the time. Despite his importance within the movement, he was largely kept in the shadows because he was an out gay man during a fiercely homophobic time.
Book Club Bonus: As I mentioned before, the Black church at the time (like many other churches of the time) was not accepting of queerness. Discuss why you think this was the case? Was it because of the then perceived idea that Christianity was not compatible with all human identities, or was it a result of respectability politics?
Civil Rights Queen by Tomiko Brown-Nagin (January 25)
This biography of Constance Baker Motley is the first of its kind, and where I start to branch off from Dr. King’s close circle a bit, as she wasn’t close to him. She did, however, defend him in Birmingham. She was also one of the first Black women to practice law in the U.S., having graduated from Columbia Law school in 1944. She went on to be the first Black woman to do quite a few things, including the first to try a Supreme Court case and to help argue Brown vs. The Board of Education. She was also a gay rights ally.
Book Club Bonus: Have you ever heard of Constance Baker Motley? If not, why do you think she isn’t mentioned as often as other important figures of the time?
Suggestion Section
Honor by Thrity Umrigar is Reese’s January book club pick
The Maid by Nita Prose is GMA’s pick (I’ve actually already started reading this one)
Noname’s pick is Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal
The Beadworkers by Beth Piatote (*whispers* it’s $1.99 right now on kindle) is January’s pick for the Indigenous Reading Circle book club, which was previously known as erinanddanisbookclub on instagram.
Here are some book recs based on your horoscope for January
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as chattin’ with my new cohost Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.
Until Next time,
-E