Below is my monthly sum-up of what I read the previous month. If you missed November’s, it’s here.

TL;DR: Read Wilkerson before you do anything else. Read Smith for a fresh air break. Skip Ho Davies.

The Warmth of Other Suns- So I started Caste (Wilkerson's second book) and realized I needed to buy it. Bought it. It took forever to come in so I forgot about it. Then I heard Wilkerson on Hear To Slay podcast (now The Roxane Gay Agenda) and I remembered Caste! Picked it up AGAIN and realized I had never read her first book on the Great Migration. And here we are. Y'all, this book is so, so fine. The stories drench you in pleasure not for their words (which are often painful) as much as the blessing that it is for these stories to be shared so honestly and generously. Wilkerson interviewed hundreds of people but settles her book on three people who leave the South at different decades. She doesn't take as much as *borrow* people's stories, returning them later, no worse for the wear, in the form of this phenomenal book. Wilkerson is a feminist enthnographer (my words, I think, Wilkerson calls herself a journalist) leaving a place better after she left it. So much history we're never taught in this book. Go read it.

Goldenrod, Maggie Smith. All poetry. Soothing and stimulating. It's a visual deep breath. I read a few pages at a time, then put it down. Went back a few days later for more. Pick it up for a breather from whatever else you're reading or doing.

A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, Peter Ho Davies. Man and woman want to have a child. Woman gets pregnant. They decide to have an abortion. What happens next in their marriage including how the abortion impacts their relationship with each other. Meh. I think I just need to stop reading men for a while. This book was FINE but it never seemed to go anywhere. Happily, it was short so I can say that I actually finished it. Call me when Ocean Vuong, Kiese Laymon or Robert Jones Jr have something new, otherwise, I'm done for a bit.