Books

My Year in Books 2024

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I’ve been busy the last year, so that is why I haven’t had time to post here!

My second year owning a brick-and-mortar bookstore is in the books, and I found time to read over 60 books! Most of the books below are new books, while others are rereads. I highlighted my favorite books in red.

Title Author
Pinktoes Chester Himes
First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent Lorissa Rinehart
Erasure Pervical Everett
Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body Lyvonne Briggs, Briana Boyd PhD
The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation Gene Roberts
Passing Neila Larson
Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World Amisha Padnani
Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum Antonia Hylton
Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements George Breitman
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song Judith Tick
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde Tia Williams
The Color Purple Alice Walker
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America Roxanna Asgarian
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them Timothy Egan
The Bookshop Sisterhood Michelle Lindo-Rice
The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song Henry Louis Gates Jr
The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon Adam Shatz
Journal of a Black Queer Nurse Britney Daniels
All The Fighting Parts Hannah V. Sawyerr
Feminist City: A Field Guide Leslie Kern
John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Country Raymond Arsenault
Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture Tricia Romano
The White Album Joan Didion
Africa is not a Country: Notes from a Bright Continent Dipo Faloyin
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” Zora Neale Hurston
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Isabel Wilkerson
Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics Michael G. Long
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s Doris Kearns Goodwin
Queenie Candice Carty-Williams
Southern Horrors Ida B. Wells
Juneteenth: The History and Legacy of the Holiday that Commemorates the End of Slavery in the South Charles River Editors
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA Liza Mundy
Seven Days in June Tia Williams
If They Come In The Morning Angela Davis
Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People Tiya Miles
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV Emily Nussbaum
When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II Molly Guptill Manning
On Juneteenth Annette Gordon-Reed
War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony Nelson A. Denis
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution C.L.R. James
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rashid Khalidi
The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War James Shapiro
Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era Lawrence Leamer
A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune Noliwe Rooks
Assata: An Autobiography Assata Shakur
Ride or Die Gail Agnes-Musikavanhu
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan Jake Adelstein
Capitalism and Slavery Eric Williams
Just for the Summer Abby Jimenez
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks Shauna Robinson
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat Edward Kelsey Moore
King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Adam Hochschild
Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History Yuante Huang
I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris Glynnis MacNicol
The Devil Finds Work: An Essay James Baldwin
In Cold Blood Truman Capote
Cuba: An American History Ada Ferrer
Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us About Breasts Sarah Thornton
Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street; One Hundred Years in the Neighborhood That Refused to Be Erased Victor Luckerson
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X, Alex Haley
The Black Utopians Aaron Roberts

 

Rozzie Bound’s First Anniversary and May Events

Rozzie Bound’s First Anniversary Party!
Saturday, April 27, 11 AM – 6 PM
Rozzie Bound
We’ll be celebrating our one-year anniversary on Independent Bookstore Day with an all-day party with book giveaways, free cookies, and other surprises.

Customers who buy any book in the store on Saturday will get a “blind date with a book” – a free, wrapped “mystery” book for your enjoyment! One free book per customer.

Author Talk: Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg
Monday, May 6, 6:30 PM
West Roxbury Branch, 1961 Centre St, West Roxbury
Rozzie Bound will sell books at this event. Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg will discuss their new book, What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate. Local news is essential to democracy. Meaningful participation in civic life is impossible without it. However, local news is in crisis. According to one widely cited study, some 2,500 newspapers have closed over the last generation. And it is often marginalized communities of color who have been left without the day-to-day journalism they need to govern themselves in a democracy. Veteran journalists Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy cut through the pessimism surrounding this issue, showing readers that new, innovative journalism models are popping up across the country to fill news deserts and empower communities.

Author Talk: John Dear
Wednesday, May 8, 7 PM
Sacred Heart Church, 169 Cummins Hwy, Roslindale
Rozzie Bound will sell books at this event. Rev. John Dear will discuss his book, The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence. He offers the first-ever commentary on the Synoptic Gospels from the perspective of active nonviolence in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King. He walks through every line of the three Synoptic Gospels, pointing out Jesus’ practice and teachings of nonviolence each step of the way.

Rev. John Dear is an internationally recognized voice and leader for peace and nonviolence. A priest, activist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, he served for years as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. After September 11, he was a Red Cross coordinator of chaplains at the Family Assistance Center in New York and counseled thousands of relatives and rescue workers. Dear has traveled to the war zones of the world, been arrested some 85 times for peace, led Nobel Peace prize winners to Iraq, given thousands of lectures on peace across the country, and served as a pastor of several churches in New Mexico. He arranged on many occasions for Mother Teresa to speak to various governors to stop an impending execution and helped draft Pope Francis’ Jan. 1, 2017 – World Day of Peace message on nonviolence. He is a co-founder of Campaign Nonviolence and the Nonviolent Cities.

Author Talk: John O’Connor
Saturday, May 11, 2 PM
Westwood Public Library, 660 High Street, Westwood
Rozzie Bound will sell books at this event. John O’Connor will discuss his new book, The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster. O’Connor is fascinated by Sasquatch. Curious to learn more, he embarks on a quest through the North American wilds in search of Bigfoot, its myth, and meaning. Alongside an eccentric cast of characters, he explores the zany and secretive world of “cryptozoology,” tracking Bigfoot through ancient folklore to Harry and the Hendersons while examining the forces behind our ever-widening belief in the supernatural. As O’Connor treks through the shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest, listens to firsthand accounts, and attends Bigfoot conventions, he’s left wondering—what happens when the lines between myth and reality blur?

Poetry Reading!
Thursday, May 23, 6:30 PM
Distraction Brewery, 2 Belgrade Avenue, Roslindale
Join us for some poetry and beer at Distraction Brewery! Featured readers include Linda Carney-Goodrich, Tom Daley, Toni Bee, Matthew Henry, and Maureen McElroy. Rozzie Bound will sell their books at this event. Read more about the poets below.

My WBZ Interview

WBZ interviewed my colleague Ana Crowley and me about our bookstore, Rozzie Bound, and the importance of diverse literature.

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