12 BOOKS EVERY BLACK WOMAN NEEDS TO READ IN 2018
Successful people have one thing in common - they read a lot. Booknetcanada did a survey recently and it revealed that only 22% Canadians read books on their free time.
I TRY to read at least one book per month. I wish I could read more. I personally feel that quality matters more than quantity. For some of you, you might be able to read one book per year. For others, you might be able to read one book per week. How many books you read in a week, month or year does not really matter. Instead of focusing on a particular number set a realistic bookshelf goals for yourself. Try to focus on reading books from different genre that will help sharpen your life, educate yourself, acquire new knowledge, offer you new perspectives, challenge and nurture your mind and increase your brain power.
I know 2018 will be busy! Like every year because life itself has its own agenda despite your own will, your google calendar and your alarm clock. I don’t want to know if you have 3 kids, if you juggle between studies and your work, if you have a hectic social life, if you are an entrepreneur or if you are planning your wedding…
You. Need. To. Make. Time. To. Read. BOOKS. !
It’s for your own sake and you know damn well I’m right.
If you have already set new year’s resolutions to improve or change your life that’s great. Change starts with reading.
In 2018 we’re going to need a lot of feminist, business, spiritual, self-help reading material. Fortunately so many great books are coming out this year! We‘ve listed a few of them to look out for:
1. This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins
From one of the fiercest critics writing today, Morgan Jerkins’ highly-anticipated collection of linked essays interweaves her incisive commentary on pop culture, feminism, black history, misogyny, and racism with her own experiences to confront the very real challenges of being a black woman today.
2. Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen Schaefer
Journalist Kayleen Schaefer relays her journey of modern female friendship: from being a competitive teenager to trying to be one of the guys in the workplace to ultimately awakening to the power of female friendship and the soulmates, girl squads, and chosen families that come with it.
3. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele
From one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors’ story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.
3. Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are “routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied” for speaking out.
4. The Terrible: A Storyteller's Memoir by Yrsa Daley-Ward
Through emotional snapshots that span from her adolescence through her early twenties, each brought to life in Yrsa’s gorgeous signature style of open white spaces and stirring, singular lines, The Terrible evokes the pain and thrill of girlhood, as well as what it means to discover the fear and power that come with being a woman. With a sharp eye and a rare talent for mining the beauty and the sorrow in the everyday, Yrsa recounts her remarkable life: growing up as one of the only black children in a poor, white, working class town; navigating the extreme Christianity of her family; inquiring after her paternity; moving through phases of addiction and sexual encounters; and ultimately finding her place in her family and in life.
5. Finding Selah: The Simple Practice of Peace When You Need It Most by Kristen Kill
The Psalms call it selah—the pause, rest, or interlude between the notes in a song. More than merely an empty space, selah is a chance to stop and resync with the story and song of God. For all the ways life keeps you running, this word and practice offers a way to re-center yourself on the One who holds all things together and makes all things beautiful.Join Kristen in Finding Selah for a journey that will transform the way you think about work, rest, and the little spaces in between that make all the difference.
6. Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma.
7. It's Only Blood: Shattering the Taboo of Menstruation by Anna Dahlqvis
Every day 800,000,000 people menstruate. Yet menstruation is still seen by many as a mark of shame. We are told not to discuss it in public, that tampons and sanitary pads should be hidden away, the blood rendered invisible. In It’s Only Blood Anna Dahlqvist tells the shocking but always moving stories of why and how people from the United States to Uganda, Sweden to Bangladesh, are fighting back against the shame.
8. It Takes a School: The Extraordinary Success Story That Is Changing a Nation by Jonathan Starr
It Takes a School is the story of how an abstract vision became a transformative reality, as Starr set out to build a school in a place forgotten by the world. It is the story of a skeptical and clan-based society learning to give way to trust. And it’s the story of the students themselves, including a boy from a family of nomads who took off on his own in search of an education and a girl who waged a hunger strike in order to convince her strict parents to send her to Abaarso.
9. Stronger than the Struggle: Uncomplicating Your Spiritual Battle by Havilah Cunnington
"Why do I still struggle if I'm faithfully following God?" We all face challenges. On any given day, the problems of real life can take our breaths away. Our marriages, finances, relationships, and health are regular struggles, and that's just the beginning. Doesn't the Bible say the war has already been won? So why do we still battle? In a down-to-earth, let’s-get-real approach, popular Bible teacher Havilah Cunnington cuts through the confusion and shows us how to discern whether we’re dealing with battles within ourselves, resistance from God, or genuine fights with the Devil.
10. The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders
In her late twenties, Cait Flanders found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat. Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy—only keeping her from meeting her goals—she decided to set herself a challenge: she would not shop for an entire year.
11. Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk
In this lively, practical, and inspiring book, Gary dissects every current major social media platform so that anyone, from a plumber to a professional ice skater, will know exactly how to amplify his or her personal brand on each. Crushing It! is a state-of-the-art guide to building your own path to professional and financial success, but it’s not about getting rich. It’s a blueprint to living life on your own terms.
12. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson
What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research. Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.
Have you started your 2018 reading list yet? What are the books you are planning to read this year?
Shirline is the founder of Black Milk Women. She finds inspiration in every areas of life. Creative, passionate and dreamy ... "Eat Beauty, Live Passionately and Drink Life '' is her everyday #Wordstoliveby.
Like music or romance she is old school she doesn't snap but she tweets.