Uterish Book Club Picks of the Year 2018
Did you tune in every month and read our Uterish Book Club Picks on The Provocateur? Is this the first you are hearing of it? Welcome to our full round-up of each book we selected and wrote about on The Provocateur, our monthly newsletter, in 2018!
Alex’s February Pick —
The Mothers by Brit Bennet
The Mothers includes themes of suicide, loss, abortion, religion, mothers/daughters, young love, and growing up. Bennett primarily centers black women who are both flawed and deeply loved. I would definitely recommend! - Alex
"'Writing about ordinary black people is actually extraordinary,'" writes Angela Flournoy in a New York Times review of the book. "It's absolutely its own form of advocacy."
We also love this additional piece by Bennett: "I Don't Know What to Do With Good White People"
Alex’s March Pick —
Hunger by Roxane Gay
The word hunger encompasses all sorts of desire––perverse, natural, basic, necessary.
For Gay, hunger represents her response to early childhood sexual assault and her yearning for more despite living in an "unruly body". The memoir's power lies in its radical vulnerability and thoughtful insights about size, gender, race, and sexuality. I would super recommend! - Alex
As the New York Times put it, "At its most symphonic, it’s an intellectually rigorous and deeply moving exploration of the ways in which trauma, stories, desire, language and metaphor shape our experiences and construct our reality."
Greta’s April Pick —
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“I wanted the reader to be kidnapped, thrown ruthlessly into an alien environment as the first step into a shared experience with the book’s population––just as thecharacters were snatched from one place to another, from any place to any other, without preparation or defense” -Toni Morrison, in her introduction to Beloved.
Beloved remembers the sixty million and more. Morrison combines past and present to weave the impossible tale of slavery in the United States. It's not just a novel about slavery in the moment, but also the endurance of slavery through memory and generation.
It's remarkable. I have yet to read another book like it, and I would not be surprised if I never do. - Greta
Alex’s May Pick —
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
Here is a wound. Here is need, naked and unapologetic. Here is a mountain woman, towering in words great and small." — Roxane Gay, author of Hunger
In Heart Berries, Mailhot engages topics of mental health, institutionalization, complicated relationships, motherhood, intergenerational trauma, sexual assault, and life on a reservation. Mailhot's voice is profound. It's a short book but a dense read! - Alex
Greta’s June Pick —
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
There are two things that struck me about Housekeeping: (1) every sentence has purpose, and (2) in the first few pages all the men have died, and the rest of the novel continues on without them. However, it's not a malicious lack; moreso, Housekeeping is an experiment in how to write without men in a nondestructive manner. A beautiful must-read. - Greta
Alex’s July Pick —
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Kincaid’s essay A Small Place (1988) presents a vivid picture of Antigua after years of colonialism, imposed structural adjustment policies, a dependence on tourism, and an unaccountable government. In the opening pages, Kincaid writes from the eyes of the tourist. A Small Place goes very fast. It is an incredibly important read for everyone but especially those who travel. - Alex
For more: Check out the film Life and Debt by Stephanie Black which carries over themes and words from A Small Place to discuss Jamaica and the International Monetary Fund.
Anne’s August Pick —
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
In Carmen María Machado’s debut story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, she reworks tropes from fantasy, sci fi, and horror to write about women’s lives, women’s bodies, and the violence done to them. An electrifying read, this “may not be the version of the story you’re familiar with,” as Machado writes in “The Husband Stitch,” “But I assure you, it’s the one you need to know.”
This month's recommendation is brought to you by book club member Anne!
Greta’s September Pick —
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man is one of those books I've known that I'm supposed to read, but have never gotten farther than eyeing it from across the room. This month, I finally finished it, and now it's your turn. It is genuinely so complex and nuanced and––for lack of a better word––deep, that I feel silly trying to summarize it. It is a book in conversation with every possible reaction to slavery and the black American experience. Can the master's tools really dismantle the master's house? Ellison tells you.
Greta’s October Pick —
Play As It Lays by Joan Didion
Play It As It Lays is a deep delve into the psyche of a woman forced into crisis by the uncaring and brutal and desolate society around her. It is a commentary on society as a whole, but also on the insidious and constant ways women are forced to self-police, and the myriad of ways they are punished for daring to disregard impossible standards set up for them. - Greta
Alex’s November Pick —
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
In one of Angela Davis’ most recent releases, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, she elucidates the personal and political links between Black Lives Matter, the Palestinian Freedom Movement and everything in between. Filled with interview and speech transcripts, this book is written in accessible language and goes fast. Freedom is a Constant Struggle is for those interested in transnational feminism, prison abolition, Black Lives Matter, Palestinian Freedom, and Davis herself. Though the book is contextualized in Ferguson and global politics around the same time, Angela’s words and insights are incredibly valuable today, will be for decades to come. - Alex
Alex’s December Pick —
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Kindred exemplifies Octavia Butler’s unmatched ability to weave history, imagination, and reality into revolutionary works. The book tells the story of involuntary time-travel that uproots Dana, a black woman living in Southern California in the mid 1970s, to 19th C Maryland - on the very plantation where her ancestors were enslaved. - Alex
“Dana’s identity zeroes in on Black feminism’s core tenets that forces Black women’s lives out of obscurity and the idea that race, class, and gender operate simultaneously and should be critically examined to eradicate the silencing and subjugation of Black women in America and throughout the diaspora.” - this according to Graveyard Shift Sisters: Purging the Black Female Horror Fan from the Margins