Hi Hello and welcome to the Lost Friends Literary Club Newsletter!
It feels like many moons have passed since I sent one of these lil dispatches out. I hope you guys are safe, and healthy, and that you’re all remembering to take care of yourself. I’ve spent the last two weeks doing a lot of learning, and listening, and acting and reacting. I’m sure you have, too. It’s a lot. Everything is a lot. You’ve probably seen some form or another of an “anti-racist reading list” that is doing the rounds on social media right now and I hope you’ve taken some time to look it over; we all have a lot of learning to do and I think reading is a great place to start. I don’t have much for you this week, just a couple of quick highlights, but I hope that they’re encouraging and insightful, as we all continue to do the work to make ourselves and our country a little kinder.
Some Black owned bookstores for your book buying needs:
The Brown Bookcase was created by a very cool 9 year old named Rylei, who had a hard time finding kids books with characters that looked like her.
Marcus Books is the oldest Black owned bookstore in the country. They don’t currently have an online ordering system but you can order by filling out the form on their FB page.
Here is a more comprehensive list of Black owned independent bookstores. I encourage you to seek out one of these bookstores to order your books from now and forever.
The books I’m ordering this week, in case those reading lists are overwhelming you, too:
(important note: most of these are on backorder basically everywhere. I encourage you to order anyways. The learning doesn’t stop once the revolution slows down and I promise you it’ll still be important in a few months when it ships.)
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Some resources if you’re feeling lost:
Here is the original antiracist reading list from 2019 on the NYT. It includes a lot of obscure titles that you likely haven’t seen recently on social media in a variety of genres and subjects.
This twitter thread has incredible reading recommendations if you’re still overwhelmed.
Two books that I think are particularly important for white people in the South: Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America and Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation by Jennifer Harvey
These books can help you explain racism and protest to your kids.
And lastly, here’s what I read this week:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. I legitimately can’t believe this wasn’t required reading in school. It is excellent, please don’t skip the appendix.
Your Bookshelf May Be Part of the Problem by Juan Vidal for NPR. “We must recognize the inherent value that good literature has, and the ability of language to strike an emotional chord. But someone, at some point, has to get down to the business of reading…”
not an elegy for Mike Brown by Danez Smith, who has quickly become my new favorite poet.
Thanks, friend, for reading this far. These are important times! PLEASE continue to support Black authors, publishers, editors, book presses, and bookstores in the coming months (and forever). And if you don’t think this newsletter should be talking about this, I’m happy to tell you why you’re wrong. The author of another newsletter said it best this week: “You cannot consume books in a vacuum. You cannot read anything without making a political choice.”
If you enjoyed this dispatch, please share it with a friend or follow us on social media at the buttons below. Every book I recommend can be found on this Goodreads shelf. If you want to chat, ask for book recommendations, or correct my punctuation, you can reply directly to this dispatch or leave a comment on substack, where you can also find an archive of every dispatch I release.