Read All About It

Stories and Songs for Black Histor y Month

By Donna Ruth Morgan

In February we focus on African American contributions to history. African Americans contribute to our country, our community, and our centers every day, but we set aside this month to mark their essential role in our past and to examine how they are shaping American life now.

All these books are available to Brunswick County libraries, and February is a great month to stay home and read.

Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson (2021) takes us from the performer’s childhood in Philadelphia to recent events. It’s a fascinating look into a “charmed life” as it plays out in a series of lessons, personal striving, and determination. Living a public life requires a strong ego, but at times Will’s braggadocio seems a cover for personal inadequacies. Nutshell review: The author wraps motional catharsis and self-promotion in sincerity that invites readers to identify with him.

Will Smith is a popular actor, rapper, and film producer. He has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards. His autobiography is reviewed

The Other Black Girl (2021) was touted as a psychological thriller plus science fiction in literary realism style. Debut novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris moves beyond commentary on racism in the workplace, mocking office politics and coworker drama and culminating in a zany scheme of brain manipulation to create compliant Black women employees. Snarky and satirical, but too many characters and a meandering storyline detract from the entertainment. Nutshell review: Genrebending with intriguing concepts.

The Love Songs of

W.E.B. Du Bois (2021) is an epic read—816 pages spanning 200 years with a focus on Black and Indigenous women. Honoree Fanonne Jeffers’ novel is full of trauma, tragedy, and triumph in an ever-shifting timeline. Parallel excerpts from Du Bois’ works (songs) precede chapters that chronicle an American family from colonial slave trading through the Civil War to the present. Nutshell review: Heavy read, physically and psychologically.

Kaia Alderson’s Sisters in Arms (2021) follows two fictional women from Harlem serving in the factual Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during WWII. They fought the Nazis and their own cultural biases while overcoming misogyny and racism. Their deployment was with the All-Black 6888th Battalion in Europe, which was tasked with clearing warehouses of undelivered mail to ensure soldiers at the front heard from their loved ones. Nutshell review: Rather disappointing in its paucity of actual occurrences to address underrepresented Black History.

Photo by Carlos M. Vasquez II

Amanda Gorman, the first Na onal Youth Poet Laureate, recites her inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb," during the 59th Presiden al Inaugura on ceremony in 2021. Gorman’s musical poetry is widely popular and her 2021 book, Call Us What We Carry, con nues her contemporary crea ons and is reviewed below.

Richard Wight’s legendary novel Native Son and agonizing autobiography Black Boy were de rigueur reading for generations. The

Man Who Lived

Underground (2021) is a novella in three acts—an expansion of a 1946 short story. Over three-quarters of a century later its message about injustice horrifyingly is unchanged. The short book is appended with a lengthy essay, “Memories of my Grandmother,” the background to the story. Nutshell review: Existential, almost philosophical at times.

Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman creatively presents a mix of poetry, prose, historical documents, and modern communiqués in Call Us What We Carry (2021) This book is so deeply emotive its seven sections often brought this reviewer to tears: remembrances of those lost, collective grief over pandemics past and present, mourning over inhumanity and the earth, and hope for the future. Nutshell review: Shaped poems, wordplay and thematic devices add to the reading experience.