A Year in Reading: LaToya Watkins

I read to escape a dying world in 2023. I spent the first part of the year visiting people in hospitals. There seemed to be pain and suffering at every turn. I also did quite a bit of driving. I really got to know Texas that way. Made her mine as much as I could. At first, I was driving for family. Visiting the sick, the dying, the dead, and then it transitioned to research. I went to rodeos and visited animal farms. Bought a pair of cowboy boots and considered buying a Nigerian Dwarf goat. I went to the Alamo in San Antonio and tried BBQ from all seven regions. I stayed at a haunted hotel in Jefferson and visited the former site of the Branch Davidian compound just outside of Waco. And I met the most beautiful people. I met a woman with 113 grandchildren, and she knew every one of their names. I met a man who went fishing every morning and then cleaned, deboned, and filleted his catch before donating it to the elderly in his community. I met caretakers, secret keepers, storytellers, shopkeepers; and it’s the people who are the whole of Texas to me.

I wanted to drive every part of her this year, but I had to make sure I was on the right highways and that I was never on them at night; I had to know which highways and towns I should stay away from altogether. And I did. I’ve always known. My mother taught me just as her mother taught her. I’ve had to pass this on to my children. This lesson about where they aren’t welcome in their home. I’ve had to tell them that if they choose to stay here, to fight here, it comes at a cost. For all her beauty, home can be painful in the night.

Sometimes, as I drove, I listened to audiobooks. When I wasn’t driving, I was holding a book in my hands. I’m thankful for the many works that held me, gave me hope, and offered me some form of light in the darkness this year.

Here are some of the reads that stuck with me.

nonfiction