It’s black history month in the U.S., and James Baldwin is the second author-in-residence in my Goodreads group for the first quarter of 2022, so my plans for February and March involve reading a few of his books. I have a stack of books from the library as well as from my own shelves.
If Beale Street Could Talk and Notes of a Native Son from the Library of America edition are first up. I’m also planning to rent the movie I Am Not Your Negro from Amazon at some point during the month. The large book on the bottom is Exiled In Paris: Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett and Others on the Left Bank by James Campbell, which isn’t exclusively about James Baldwin, but covers a number of America writers, especially Black writers, who left the United States for the more welcoming climate of Paris. Fortuitously, it also includes Chester Himes, whose Rage in Harlem also happens to be on my February reading list.
Great plans! I just finished Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail so I’m shocked that I’ve actually completed something for a month event. So unusual for me! 🤪
I was planning to read Caste, but my hold came up early so I finished it in January. I read The Fire Next Time last year and thought it was outstanding, so I’m looking forward to diving into more Baldwin.
I really, really wanted to do James Baldwin this month (although our Black History Month is October!) but I am just not able to justify buying one for it. So I will look at your reviews as a guide and get to him later this year.
I’m so behind with my reading! I had to interrupt my regularly scheduled programming to blow through State of Terror by Hillary Clinton & Louise Penny because I waited for it for 16 weeks, and was running out of time to read it!