Boston-area bookstores are sharing anti-racist reading lists. Here’s what’s on them.
“The work of anti-racism is more than just updating your reading list but asking why your reading list has always looked a certain way.”
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As thousands of people have gathered to demonstrate in Boston and across the state against police brutality and racism, independent bookstores are sharing anti-racist reading lists to help further education and change.
Booksellers in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline have created lists with scores of titles dedicated to addressing social justice and books by Black authors, while also urging customers to support Frugal Book Store in Roxbury, the only Black-owned bookstore in Boston.
Do you know our colleagues @FrugalBookstore? You should! If you’re interested in finding out about those who are doing the hard work every day, please consider giving them a follow! pic.twitter.com/G3K1oDuu7y
— Brookline Booksmith (@booksmithtweets) June 2, 2020
On Twitter, Harvard Book Store emphasized that “personal bookshelves speak volumes” about the society and world both inhabited by the reader and the voices being unheard. Both reading curriculums and canons are “notoriously exclusive,” store staff emphasized.
“The reading of books is never done within a vacuum!,” Harvard Book Store staff wrote on Twitter. “Even our most mundane experiences with books—EVEN the experiences which take us out of our world entirely—still operate within a world shaped by oppression and erasure. The work of anti-racism is more than just updating your reading list but asking why your reading list has always looked a certain way. “
“Purchase, share, amplify, and celebrate the work of black authors!,” they added. “Buy from black-owned bookstores! Support the latest & greatest publications while helping restructure a culture of silence!”
The reading of books is never done within a vacuum! Even our most mundane experiences with books—EVEN the experiences which take us out of our world entirely—still operate within a world shaped by oppression and erasure.
— Harvard Book Store (@HarvardBooks) June 3, 2020
Purchase, share, amplify, and celebrate the work of black authors! Buy from black-owned bookstores! Support the latest & greatest publications while helping restructure a culture of silence!
— Harvard Book Store (@HarvardBooks) June 3, 2020
Many of the lists shared by shops feature overlapping titles, and, in the last week, the bookstores said they’ve seen skyrocketing demand for the books.
“If you’ve noticed the websites of indie bookstores being slower than usual, we want you to know that apparently Indiecommerce traffic is up 83%,” Trident Booksellers & Cafe wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. “The large majority of these orders are for antiracist books.”
If buying/reading books by Black authors (**the reading part is important!**) is your way of showing up this week, by all means, our shelves are open. And we’re always looking for new suggestions. Share with us and we’ll RT. #BlackLivesMatter https://t.co/CdnBn34KJQ pic.twitter.com/pA8eH5nDme
— Harvard Book Store (@HarvardBooks) June 2, 2020
Black Lives Matter! We’ve compiled this list to amplify black voices. There is so much work to be done to dismantle structural racism in our society, but as a bookstore, we hope these books can be a source of education and a way to galvanise change. #BLMhttps://t.co/cERv90ctWw
— Papercuts J.P. (@papercutsjp) June 2, 2020
Also, it would be really great if you gave our neighbors across the river @FrugalBookstore a follow and some sales.
— Porter Square Books (@PorterSqBooks) June 2, 2020
We’re trying to do what we do best, which is amplify the voices of others, and help you find the resources you need. So we have another book list for you: Antiracist Reading List for Kids and Young Adults https://t.co/6MMBmupTXT
— Trident Booksellers & Cafe (@TridentBooks) June 3, 2020
Below, a look at just some of the books booksellers are recommending to readers interested in educating themselves about racism and long-standing social injustices in the United States.
- “How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective” edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- “Freedom is a Constant Struggle” by Angela Y. Davis
- “Black Skin, White Masks” by Frantz Fanon
- “The End of Policing” by Alex S. Vitale
- “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo
- “No Facist USA!” by Hilary Moore and James Tracy
- “Black is the Body” by Emily Bernard
- “The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind” edited by Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda
- “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi
- “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
- “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo
- “When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
- “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander
- “How We Fight White Supremacy” by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin
- “Policing the Black Man” by Angela J. Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Marc Mauer, Bruce Western, and Jeremy Travis
- “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla Saad
- “How to Be Less Stupid About Race” by Crystal Marie Fleming
- “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson
- “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall
- “Solitary” by Albert Woodfox
- “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide” by Carol Anderson
- “A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland” by DaMaris Hill
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Frugal Bookstore. Boston.com regrets the error.
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