2023 Readings Wherein I Failed to Comment

Night by Elie Wiesel 🔖🔖🔖🔖

Looking for Alaska by John Green ✖️

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly ✖️

Beloved by Toni Morrison 🔖🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published September 16, 1987 

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Awards: Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize • Winner of the 1988 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award • Winner of the 1988 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award

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Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.

Combining the visionary power of legend with the unassailable truth of history, Morrison’s unforgettable novel is one of the great and enduring works of American literature. (Source: goodreads)

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When I first tried to read this 13 years ago, I allowed narrowness to stop me after chapter one. Thankfully I've grown up since then.

This is one of the most amazing pieces of literature I have ever read. I was engaged, moved, invested, outraged, sad, disgusted. And so aware of my privilege of being able to shut the book and "forget" this is real life.

Toni Morrison was a brilliant woman and one of the best authors of all time. The flow of her words and story, the symbolism, the "beat" so to speak, is unmatched. The character development is a piece of art, and the imagery of how they developed for and into each other is amazing. There is so much depth to the imagery, I am certain I missed more than half of what this all meant. I am certain she didn't write this for me anyway ... I'm grateful I could eavesdrop on this masterpiece.

If you get a chance, listen to Toni Morrison read this story to you. Life changing.

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Why was this banned?  This book contains sexual activities; beastiality commentary; violence; racial commentary; profanity; and derogatory terms.

Sexual activities. Yes. 

Beastiality. Yes. This was a difficult part for me as a reader. 

Violence. There were discussions of how slaves were treated in great detail. 

Racial commentary. A lot. It includes slavery discussions and imagery. 

Profanity. More than 35 N word. A few B word. Several other infrequent curse words. 

Derogatory terms. N word as described above, and other terms regarding black people. 

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Further exploration: 

Curriculum unit from Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute 

Lesson plan from EDSITEment

The Great Questions Foundation

Antigone by Sophocles 🔖🔖🔖🔖

 How does one actually rate a book which has lived on as a classic for nearly 2500 years? That fact alone implies it's worth reading.