On today's episode of "Books You Should Read"
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Celie's dialect is a challenge, at times. But don't let that stop you from reading this book. I can honestly say that I got more insight into spirituality, religion and the enormous differences between them from this book than something designed to be "inspirational" like The Shack. Alice Walker is a fantastic writer, and she made me think about things that I had never considered before, that make absolute, perfect sense. For example: Jesus was black. That had never occurred to me because we are so bombarded by this ridiculous image of Jesus the Surfer Dude. But of course, this white man with flowing brown locks out of a shampoo commercial is completely inaccurate. This book really made me think hard about spirituality, and I think I could deal with that. It's religion that I think the world could do without.
To Kill and Mockingbird- Harper Lee
I LOVE this book. I read it in 8th grade and loved it, and I just recently read it again, and got SO MUCH more out of it. It's one of the best books ever written, hands down. It's a heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of the injustice of racial prejudice and prejudice in general- how we fear that which we don't understand- in the pre-Civil Rights time period. And it's told through the eyes of the totally innocent, which just makes it that much more profound.
If you don't read any other the books I'm suggesting, read this one.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode, in which we'll talk banned children's lit.
No comments:
Post a Comment