BOOKS
Curator Reviews
Uzo Aduba
James Baldwin remains one of the most prolific and prophetic writers to have lived. Every page had been stamped by a genius. This autobiographical collection of essays moved my heart, expanded my mind to the larger, richer perspective of the black experience in Civil Rights America, and firmed up my opinion that, “There is more to being black than meets the eye.”
View Uzo Aduba's Top 10 Favorite BooksJesse Peretz
I had been thinking of this book of essays since I saw the Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro last year, and dipped back into it recently—I hadn’t read it since high school. Back then, it hit me hard. I realized there was a counter-narrative to all the history I had been taught, and I learned that lesson through Baldwin’s beautiful anger.
View Jesse Peretz's Top 10 Favorite BooksUzo Aduba
James Baldwin remains one of the most prolific and prophetic writers to have lived. Every page had been stamped by a genius. This autobiographical collection of essays moved my heart, expanded my mind to the larger, richer perspective of the black experience in Civil Rights America, and firmed up my opinion that, “There is more to being black than meets the eye.”
View Uzo Aduba's Top 10 Favorite BooksElif Shafak
Istanbul, London, Madrid, Boston…ever since my childhood I lived in numerous countries. One of the downsides of a nomadic life is that you can never keep a proper library. At some point, I had boxes of books in Istanbul, waiting to be shipped, boxes of books in Arizona. You have to let go of even your most beloved possessions when you live a peripatetic life, but there was one author whose voice I could never do without: James Baldwin—the observer, the commuter, the rebel. Notes of a Native Son is a collection of essays about language, racism, hatred, and ultimately, resilience and dignity.
View Elif Shafak's Top 10 Favorite Books