You Want to Learn More About MLK
You Want to Learn More About MLK
Are looking for a wild ride or are anxious about what the future may bring
Hey pals,
Hope those of you in the U.S. are managing the wild winter weather. We might get snow here in D.C. today and I have my fingers crossed for it to happen. If it’s going to be cold, I want snow.
And, now, what to read if …
You Want to Recognize Martin Luther King’s Legacy
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
After seeing Jonathan Eig’s new biography of Martin Luther King on countless “Best of 2023” lists last year, I knocked it to the top of my TBR, and I’m so glad I did. Like the best biographies, it brings to life not just a person, but an era. Spanning his parents’ childhoods through his assassination in 1968, King shows how MLK influenced the culture and vice versa.
The bulk of the book focuses on the thirteen years between King leading the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and his untimely death. While I had a high-level understanding of King’s accomplishments, seeing how much he did in such a short time was humbling. Eig, a veteran biographer, pays particular attention to King’s role as a faith leader, showing how his religious convictions drove his Civil Rights work, and J. Edgar Hoover’s obsession with King. (This might be the push I need to finally need to read Beverly Gage’s biography of Hoover, G-Man).
In his prologue, Eig writes, “This book seeks to recover the real man from the gray mist of hagiography. … King was a man, not a saint, not a symbol.” Drawing on newly released FBI files, telephone recordings and interviews, Eig succeeds at the goal, painting a full and complex view of the Civil Rights leader. If you’re looking to move beyond the one-dimensional view of King we often see, this is your book. (Don’t let the book’s length scare you off. It’s long, but tightly written and an engaging read.)
Reminder rec: Anna Malaika Tubbs’ The Three Mothers documents how the mothers of Martin Luther King Jr, James Baldwin and Malcolm X influenced their sons’ work, and in turn, the country.
You’re Looking for a Bonkers Read
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
Long-time readers of this newsletter likely know that I love a crazypants book. Sometimes, I want to suspend belief and go along for the ride. Vera Kurian’s Never Saw Me Coming fits this definition perfectly.
The book’s star, Chloe Sevre, arrives for her freshman year at Adams University with two secrets. First, she’s one of seven students in a study of psychopaths, and second, she’s there to kill her former friend, Will Bachman. In between trips to the campus coffee shop, classes and the renowned psychologist studying her and the other psychopaths, Chloe stalks Will, learning his schedule and befriending his frat brothers.
Her plans hit a bump, though, when a serial killer starts targeting students in the psychopath program. Chloe reluctantly teams up with two other students in the study — with all three knowing they can’t trust the other — to find the murderer, so she can commit a murder of her own.
Like I said: Bonkers. Chloe has such a distinct narrative voice that kept me hooked and even rooting for her to pull off her crazy plan.
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You’re Hoping This Year Will Be Better Than the Last*
Congratulations, The Best Is Over by R. Eric Thomas
The end of the year through early January can bring a sense of wistfulness and nostalgia (this might be compounded for me because I have a late December birthday?). It seems almost natural to take a breath and ask, “Who am I now?” That’s the question R. Eric Thomas seeks to answer in his latest essay collection, Congratulations, The Best is Over.
The book documents Thomas’s move back to his hometown of Baltimore, after a 12-year absence, when his husband, a Presbyterian minister, is offered the chance to lead a church there. He’s not thrilled about returning and struggles to build a community and make friends. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, he feared the loneliness and sadness he felt were permanent, but he finds solace in a new home in the suburbs, a place he’d sworn never to go.
Fans of Thomas’s humorous pop culture work will find a lot to love with Congratulations, The Best is Over (there’s a whole chapter on Oprah’s Favorite Things), but this poignant collection also delivers deep feelings. And despite the title, I don’t think he really believes the best is over, but that it’s a universal fear we all have occasionally.
*Congrats to those of you who caught the Counting Crows reference.
Thanks for reading. As always, if you’re looking for a book recommendation, let me know!
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I like the occasional bonkers book, too, Elizabeth. (And I’ve been doing a lot of nonfiction reading about psychopathy lately.) You’ve convinced me to try Never Saw Me Coming!
Very up for a bonkers serial killer book and Congratulations The Best is Over sounds great too - I was worried I had nothing fun to read after I finish my current book - so thank you!