It's been a long time since a book inspired me to create a Spelling It Out.* Generally speaking, it coincides with an author's shifting onto my MRE lists (Must Read Everything). Consider it official: Z.Z. Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere makes her a MRE author for me, and now I'll
HarperCollins, 2012 Baratunde Thurston's book begins with a disclaimer; he announces straight-off that if you bought this book hoping to change your race, there will be no refunds. It sounds funny when he says it. Well, humour is hard to predict, right? But I thought it was funny when
Dorothy West’s The Wedding VMC No. 431 (1995) I’ve been moving through time on Thursdays in Black History Month, from the mid-19th-Century in Hannah Crafts’ The Bondwoman’s Narrative, through Zora Neale Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine, through the 1950’s in Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones, and now to the Oval area
Paule Marshall's Brown Girl Brownstones VMC No. 87 (1959) Without knowing anything of it, I chose Paule Marshall's novel Brown Girl, Brownstones to read with Black History Month in mind (along with Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative and Zora Neale Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine). It was kind of a random
Zora Neale Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine VMC No. 276 (1934) Two of Zora Neale Hurston’s published works are books of folklore and perhaps it was her background in anthropology that led her to recreate dialogue just as it was heard rather than consistently in “the King’s English”. It was a
