5781: Non-Fiction First

The theme for the first month of Non-Fiction First will be: Home / Housing I had initially thought I would read about the prison system as that has been one of the most popular topics in contemporary media and politics, but reading Stamped From the Beginning over the course of August (more on that soon) has required a great deal of mental and emotional processing. Given that I've already read Just Mercy , I know reading about the prison system can also get heavy, and since I want to be able to give it its due (spoiler alert!), I'm probably going to wait until October.  Home / Housing seems like a good choice for September for a number of other reasons though.   I live in the Bay Area, which is a SUPER expensive place to live with a SUPER large homeless population.  As a parent whose children will go to public school in a few years, I want to know more about how where you live impacts your cultural competency and educational opportunities, and...  There's ab...

I’m going to try to keep things pretty simple: Each month, I will explore a new topic.* My exploration of each topic will require the completion of two non-fiction titles, at a minimum.** Once I’ve read a book, I will report back via the blog.*** Topics will be determined sometime during the previous month. They will likely be chosen based on mood and/or current events.  *Topics that I’ve brainstormed thus far are quite broad and cover content areas that I’m either interested in learning more about or feel that I have a poor grasp of and SHOULD know more about. *Some topics may not seem to relate to racial/social justice, but I am going to try to keep this as a thread or undercurrent in my book selections. **If I finish two non-fiction titles before the month's end, I can choose between nonfiction or fiction as long as it still pertains to the assigned topic. ***I’m not sure exactly what these reports will look like, but I assume different books will affect me in different ways and...

More so than usual, I have found myself questioning my words, actions, values and thoughts this spring. Am I doing enough? Is what I'm doing considerate? Is what I'm doing healthy? What do I know? not know? What do I change? How do I change? The list goes on. While I'm fairly confident that I'm not at all confident about the answers to most of these questions, here are two conclusions I've reached so far: Doing something is usually better than doing nothing. Go to the experts. While both strike me as painfully obvious, they have, nonetheless, been widely applicable. But, here, on this blog, I am going to document the specific repercussions they will have on my reading life. For years, I've said that I want to read more non-fiction as a way of being better informed...about politics, science, you name it. Despite committing to logging and detailing my reading for the past three years, I've yet to make a profound change in the proportion of fiction to non-fic...