Book List #1 – August 21, 2009

And mini-Häagen-Dazs for breakfast! Can I get an oh yeah, Kool-Aid Man style?

Here is my short list of books to read and process (but not in the order I’ll read them):

The Gift by Lewis Hyde – I think his book will help me process the ideas on media I posted in the entry before this one. He talks about gift economies, the industry of writing and the effect of copyright on the production of creative works. Or at least, when I first bought the book, that’s what I thought it concerned. I may be surprised; it’s been months.

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti – I bought the infernal thing. I may try to crank out an impartial book review on it. I liked Latoya Peterson’s original draft for the compilation, and there are other interesting essays in it. However, I am still pissed off that the people who wrote countless commentaries on the original call for submissions went unacknowledged in the book. If it weren’t for their vocal disagreement on what types of actions and concepts would shape the idea of a rape-free culture, I doubt the book would be as good or potentially as substantive.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere – A gift I received from a fellow activist and scholar. I’ve heard SO many good things about it. It needs to get in my brain waves as soon as possible.

Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice by Paul Butler – I saw one of my law school professors writing about the book during a conference session, and I went in the red buying a copy to read.

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, edited by Bushra Rehman and Daisy Hernandez – I started this book during my last semester of law school. I want to finish it. And yes, I know I probably could have graduated with a much higher law school GPA if I didn’t blog during my first year and read all manners of stuff through my second and third years. But it is what it is, and I still graduated!

Orientalism by Edward Said – This is one of those books that has haunted me since undergraduate days and a gift from my wifey. We read an excerpt during an introduction to critical theory course and a lightbulb blazed and exploded in my head. I loved what I saw and now I have to see the rest. That class, coupled with plenty of other English courses, made me wish I’d chosen an English major. (I almost had enough credits to declare an English major, too. But I went with Law & Society and Philosophy instead. I need to contact my undergraduate school and find out why Philosophy is not listed as my second major even though I fulfilled all the requirements and declared.)

Lilith’s Brood trilogy by Octavia Butler – I’m partway through Adulthood Rites now, and I am loving her fiction. I have my own sci-fi/fantasy novel idea playing through my head, and her writing is guiding some conclusions about the world I’m creating. Plus, she’s just phenomenal. We lost a muse.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison – Another author and artist I love dearly. People have been raving about this book forever, and it’s just collecting dust on my bookshelf. No more! Gonna fix that as soon as I power through a couple of the nonfiction works. My mind needs imagination breaks.

Comment and tell me some awesome things you’ve been reading, or even your thoughts on some of the books I’ve listed! I don’t believe in spoilers; but other people probably do. So just be careful with releasing too much information about what you’re sharing.