What the Royal Team is Reading on Sabbatical
Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.
– Roxane Gay
As we mindfully prepare to enter a period of rest and recharge, we here at Beloved have posed to ourselves, “How will I know when I am resting? When I am truly taking a break to recharge?” In response, a number of us on the Royal Team named “reading” as a way we know rest. As such, we joyfully share with you the books we look forward to diving into during our sabbatical as well as books with which we’ve had an ongoing love affair. We also share with you the names of a few Black-owned bookstores that we know, love, and seek to support in our communities.
Books
All About Love by bell hooks
Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin
Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to a Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster
Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Fifth Agreement by Don Jose Ruiz
You Belong: A Call for Connection by Sebene Selassie
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey
I am Diosa: A Journey to Healing Deep, Loving Yourself, and Coming Back Home to Soul by Christine Gutierrez
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils and More by by Arin Murphy-Hiscock
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathways to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang
The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
In the Dreamhouse by Carmen Maria Machado
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Local and/or Black-Owned Bookstores We Know & Love
Community Book Center (New Orleans, LA)
Baldwin & Co (New Orleans, LA)
Elizabeth’s Bookshop and Writing Centre (Akron, OH)
Semicolon Bookstore (Chicago, IL)