Reading Lists & Book Notes

My most recently read books are at the top.

• 2023
  • Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us – Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
  • Delicious Foods – James Hannaham
  • Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
  • What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation – Tom Finkelpearl
  • Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest – Laura Raicovich
  • Why The Museum Matters – Daniel H. Weiss
• 2022
  • The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin
  • How I Make Photographs – Joel Meyerowitz
  • Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop – Danyel Smith
  • Ill Fares The Land – Tony Judt
  • My Seven Black Fathers – Will Jawando
  • The Secret Lives of Church Ladies – Deesha Philyaw
  • Principles – Ray Dalio
  • Meditations – Marcus Aurelius (Gregory Hays translation)
  • I Can Make You Feel Good – Tyler Mitchell
  • The Chiffon Trenches – Andre Leon Talley
  • Sula – Toni Morrison
  • My Sister, The Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
  • Trapped In The Present Tense: Mediations on American Memory – Colette Brooks
  • The Final Revival of Opal & Nev – Dawnie Walton
  • The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia – Grafton Tanner
  • We Flew Over The Bridge – Faith Ringgold
  • On Photographing People & Communities – Dawoud Bey
  • White Girls – Hilton Als
  • Erasure – Percival Everett

• 2021
  • We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba
    A vital book on understanding the larger philosophy undergirding the police abolition movement, beyond slogans like #DefundThePolice.
  • Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll by Maureen Mahon
    A powerfully argued, and extremely accessible, exploration of the ways that gender, race and genre obscure and erase Black women’s contributions and achievements in rock music.
  • The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America by Marcus J. Moore
    A behind the scenes look at the talent, good fortune and hard work that made Kendrick Lamar an icon.
  • The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
    The New Orleans native asks how you hold onto what got swept away, both by water and time.
  • The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
    A resonant story of regret and sublime melancholy.

• 2019
  • Black Card by Chris L. Terry
  • The World According To Fannie Davis by Bridgett M. Davis
• 2018
  • Essentialism by Greg McKeown
  • An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
  • Into The Blue by Susan Henderson