When we learned about the Civil Rights movement in grade school, we watched videos of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches and some of the protests. I remember being horrified at the racist, white people screaming with all the righteous indignation their stupidity could muster. I figured they must be so ashamed of themselves now–having been caught on the wrong side of history with their violent ignorance. As much as those videos affected me, I still did not understand the reality of living in the South […]
What We Need to Get By (CANNONBALL!)
I’ve done it. I have found the perfect book, and I have reached the goal. 52 books read and reviewed in just over 10 months, and boy, am I hitting this milestone with a dozy. This is absolutely a contender for Book of the Year. Lies We Tell Ourselves is a book about desegregation in 1959 Virginia. It’s a book about accepting who we are and realizing that sometimes we are so much more important that we think. It’s a book about challenging the views that […]
YA that everyone should read
Set in 1959, Lies We Tell Ourselves follows the integration of Jefferson High School in Virginia. Specifically, we see how two girls — Sarah Dunbar and Linda Hairston — witness the events around them, and learn to coexist. “For eighteen years I’ve believed what other people told me about what was right and what was wrong. From now. I’m deciding.” Sarah Dunbar and her younger sister, Ruth, have been selected to integrate at Jefferson High, along with about a dozen other black students. Sarah agrees to do […]
UGH THIS WAS SO GOOD YOU GUYS
First, maybe don’t even bother reading this review. Just go get the book somehow. Borrow it. Buy it. Get on your Kindle. Steal it. No, don’t steal it. Get the book legally. Then read it. More people need to read this. I can’t believe it’s not more popular than it is. No, wait. Scratch that. I can believe it. I can believe it because this book isn’t one that lets you get away with your shit. It confronts you, makes you uncomfortable, and asks you […]