by Akala
Trenchant
Category archives: ★★★★★
The Space Between Worlds
by Micaiah Johnson
★★★★★
You Exist Too Much
by Zaina Arafat
★★★★★
Lady Sings the Blues
by Billie Holiday
★★★★★
Ring Shout
by P. Djèlí Clark
★★★★★
Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism
by Uma Narayan
Fluidly written essays about cultivating dissent and critical thinking amidst intermingled identities and the complications of colonialism
Carceral Capitalism
by Jackie Wang
★★★★★
Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream
by Blair Imani
★★★★★
Excellent Language Learning Textbooks
Other excellent language learning textbooks read before 2016.
French
- Hugo French in 3 Months by Ronald Overy, Jacqueline Lecanuet
German
- Kontakte: A Communicative Approach by Tracy D. Terrell, Erwin P. Tschirner, Brigitte Nikolai
Italian
- Da Capo: An Italian Review Grammar by Graziana Lazzarino, Annamaria Moneti
Japanese
… Read moreAs We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance
by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
This is one of the most resonating works I’ve ever read, forging resistance against the entwined forces of colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy—with a radical resurgence centred on living relationships with the land; engaging with stories; constellating with communities that do not replicate anti-Blackness, transphobia, anti-queerness; embracing … Read more
How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
by Crystal Marie Fleming
A brilliant, affirming, clear, and concise primer on antiracism.
Notes: I wouldn’t equate being bullied for wearing ‘ridiculous’ Pentecostal garb with Islamophobic aggression, nor imply that headscarves represent nothing but religious oppression. Crystal also seems to have a grudge against the idea of an immigrant work ethic … Read more
We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America
by D. Watkins
★★★★★
Lent
by Jo Walton
★★★★★
From the Ashes
by Jesse Thistle
Jesse’s writing is magnetic and his story’s intense. Facing racism and bullying and dropping out of school in grief is the faint overlap I’ve lived. I thought about when a friend from Turkey told me that he was never bullied growing up—because the school system was so oppressive … Read more
Difficultés expliquées du français for English Speakers
by Alain Vercollier, Claudine Vercollier, Kay Bourlier
I’m really into well-formatted language-learning textbooks and this is one. It’s not visually busy which blights many modern textbooks, it’s colour-coded sensibly so that pertinent information is accessible at a glance, and the exercises are helpfully reinforcing.
Death’s End
(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)
by Liu Cixin
In between significant and smaller blind spots—including, like Goethe, promoting a stalker’s idea of love—is a work of phenomenal imagination. It’s the most absorbing book of the three, and excitingly explores ideas of humans in time and space.
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Editor)
★★★★★
Thick: And Other Essays
by Tressie McMillan Cottom
★★★★★
Spirits Abroad
by Zen Cho
Zen Cho is my new favourite short story writer. Generally I find magical realism exhausting and irrelevant (García Márquez). Spirits Abroad is the first work I’ve read whose magical elements complement the stories—which pulse with inventiveness and humour.
Warcross
(Warcross #1)
by Marie Lu
I didn’t know I needed this book in my life till I started it. It’s populated with my personal wish fulfilment characters in a rainbow of representation.