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If you’re looking for something to read, listen to or watch heading into the new year, Barack Obama has shared his list of his favorite books, songs and movies of 2018.
“As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists,” Obama wrote on Facebook Friday. “It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books, movies, and music that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers — some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before.”
It’s hard not to miss the former Reader-in-Chief, but I’m glad he continues to share his reading life.
The book and film have made it crystal clear that not only do black kids read… white kids (and adults!) will read books with a black lead.
A black female lead, at that.
And THUG was only the beginning. 2018 saw the success of YA books like The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton and Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, which both debuted on the New York Times bestseller list; Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi has not only stayed on said list for more than 40 weeks, it was also the inaugural pick for the Jimmy Fallon Book Club and has a film adaptation lined up; Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson and Pride by Ibi Zoboi were sophomore novels released to critical acclaim (and a bit of critical controversy ― you tell ’em, Ibi!); bestseller The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo won the National Book Award; and A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney was optioned for television.
Love this piece that’s a reminder that black kids read—and that white kids will read books featuring black main characters.
Chic in black, Melba Whatley surveys her library, a 2,400-square-foot modern structure with vaulted ceilings connected to her Tarrytown home in Austin via a walkway. Whatley devotes her time to her work on the boards of the Contemporary Austin and the Waller Creek Conservancy, of which she’s a founder. Rice University professor Carlos Jiménez designed the library, home to about 10,000 books, filed into ten-shelf-high maple bookcases. “It’s a great disaster to collect books,” Whatley says. “They require a lot of space. My husband, Ted, is a teacher of history, so he had a large collection of history and biography, and I had fiction and art books. We were meant to be together with those two collections.”
Swoon over these personal library photos.
Source : Barack Obama Shares His Favorite Books, Music, and Movies of 2018: Critical Linking, January 3, 2019
