We read for many reasons. We read to find adventure. We read to escape our problems. We read to learn about others. We read to learn new things. We read to be entertained. Perhaps most of all, we read to know we are not alone. A well-written book can show us who we are and can make us feel we belong.
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It was a joy to read Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves. It is a collection of essays by African-American women detailing their own transformative experiences of finding themselves in a book. The feeling of belonging you get when you encounter someone just like you. The way it helps you understand your inner self more, and accept and love yourself for who you are. "White" culture is everywhere; "white" is often depicted as the norm, just as "straightness" is depicted as the norm. Minorities are often left feeling like they don't belong, like there is something inherently "wrong" with and about them. It is heartening that there are ever more books and movies and tv shows depicting minorities. Everyone needs to know they belong, needs to see themselves in both fiction and non-fiction. Needs to feel validated in who they are.
I think for minorities in particular, it is empowering to find ourselves in books. I remember coming across a book with a lesbian character for the first time in my teens. I remember my sense of amazement, my feelings of connectedness, my appreciation that I was not alone -- the sense of hope this engendered in me! This was 20+ years ago and I had lived a very sheltered life. And of course, there weren't all that many books about LGBQT+ people back then. The book that feeling about females the way I felt about them. There, staring back at me from the pages, was somebody like me -- a girl who liked other girls.
The stories in Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves are beautiful, heartfelt, and touching. Some of them made me laugh, others made me cry. They all made me appreciate books even more. After every 3 chapters, Glory Edim provides lists of recommendations for various genres of books written by Black women. This was dangerous for my TBR list which is now quite a bit lengthier than it was before I read this!
Well-Read Black Girl is a book most book-lovers will appreciate and identify with!
