Scatter and Collect

I grew up in broken pieces...

Listening to punk rock in an apartment...

Howling at the moon on the back porch...

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley

I think that everyone should read this book to understand a portion of the black struggle in America during the early 20th century.  Regardless of what you've heard or think of Malcolm X, his story is one of poverty, pain, struggle, betrayal, and ultimately redemption.

The Stranger - Albert Camus

They don't call Camus the father of French Existentialism for nothing.  It's almost jarring how emotionally detached the main character is.  In other words, he just doesn't give a ****.

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Communism and Stalin allegories are brilliantly done. I should have read this in grammar school or high school, but I didn't end up reading it until after Undergrad's.

History of the United States (Mental Floss) - Erik Sass

Love history? Of course you do.  This little ditty might teach you a thing or two that you didn't know about American History.

The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Theme for English B - Langston Hughes

The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you-- Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem, through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York, too.) Me--who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn't make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white-- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me-- although you're older--and white-- and somewhat more free.

Native Son - Richard Wright

I couldn't put this book down, because it brought my family to mind. 

My family had moved to Chicago from the South a little more than 10 years before this story took place and lived in the Black Belt (the area of Chicago's southside that was predominantly black) much like the characters in the book.  I won't have a chance to ask many of those family members about their struggles, pains, and sorrows of their youth, but I always imagine that they weren't that far off from those of the characters in the book. 

Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger