Review: My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"A calm, settled body is the foundation for health, for healing, for helping others, and for changing the world."

I’ve been reading this book s-l-o-w-l-y because the author wants the reader to stop and actually do the practices. There is a lot here about dealing with racialized trauma, not only for individuals but within communities. Specific practices are for black people, and others for white people. There are several chapters about rethinking how police are trained to deal with trauma as well.

If you know mindfulness practices, some of the practices here will be familiar if not quite the same. The strategies for settling the body are definitely some I will be working with.

He ends the book with a challenge for transforming communities and everyday activism. I read this in Hoopla but need to buy it as it isn’t possible to absorb it all the first time.

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New Books In, February 2016

Silent in the Grave (A Lady Julia Grey mystery) by Deanna Raybourn
The Perfect Match by Kristan Kiggins
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Violets of March by Sarah Jio
And One Last Thing by Molly Harper
Between the Tides by Patti Callahan Henry
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Unforgettable by Eric James Stone
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
The Last Librarian by Brandt Legg (ebook)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (ebook)
A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison (ebook)
Loosed Upon the World: the Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction edited by John Joseph Adams (ebook)
HebrewPunk by Lavie Tidhar (ebook)
Letter to Tiptree by Alexandra Pierce and Alisa Krasnostein (ebook)
Some of the Best of Tor.com, 2015 by Nino Cipri (ebook)
You by Caroline Kepnes (audiobook, read by Santino Fontana)

This month, being February I guess, I decided it was time to tackle my romance novel block. I asked for recommendations from friends, from Twitter, and from podcast listeners. I went armed with said list to several used book stores and the library. That explains the Raybourn (mystery-romance), Higgins (contemporary romance), Jio (historical romance), Harper (contemporary romance), Henry (southern romance), and a few more that I downloaded from the library.

My former podcast cohost snagged the Stone for me from LTUE, and it's signed by the author. I like spies, as everyone knows, and this one has... a quantum spy? Sign me up. Actually we discuss it on Episode 052 of the Reading Envy podcast, if you haven't listened to that one yet.

I purchased a few books full price, brand new for my own collection this month. I ordered the Chambers from Book Depository in the UK because it doesn't come out in print in the states until July, but that cover is ugly, and I just couldn't wait to read it. Buying it from a UK distributor was not expensive but took longer to get than my Amazon Prime deal. Totally worth it, loved the book, will discuss it more in the future. I pre-ordered the Anders, and although I haven't read it, it is the March selection for the Sword and Laser book club, so I'm ready to go! The Kabat-Zinn is required reading for the mindfulness class I start at the end of March. I read it last year but wanted my own copy, so I'm happy to have it.

Most of the eBooks listed (Legg, Ellison, Adams, Tidhar, Pierce/Krasnostein, and Cipri) were Kindle deals that I snapped up, usually $1.99, $.99, and free.  The Camus I downloaded because I wanted to re-read it quickly before starting The Meursault Investigation.  I needed a new audiobook that would grab my attention, remembered Misti saying You was her best read of 2015, and picked that. NO regrets, great listen.

Library Books August 2015

Five Good Minutes in the Evening: 100 Mindful Practices to Help You Unwind from the Day and Make the Most of Your Night by Jeffrey Brantley
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
The Garden Angel by Mindy Friddle
Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine: Poems by Jesse Graves
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron
Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda
Indonesian Cooking: Satays, Sambals and More by Dina Yuen
A Field of Greens: African Gourmet Slow Cooker Soups and Stews by Ivy Newton
The Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld
The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Baranbaum
Radically Simple: Brilliant Flavors with Breathtaking Ease by Rozanne Gold

This looks like a giant list but I have reasons for all of these! Actually one day I was looking at my bookshelves in Goodreads, namely my to-read shelf, and noticed I had quite a few cookbooks on there.  I decided to go ahead and get a handful from the library so I could take a look and get them off my to-read list. I have made one noodle dish from the Indonesian cookbook and one dinner from the Gold, but haven't even peeked inside the others yet.

Only one of these books is for a book club, although two started out that way. The Graves is one of the picks in my Southern Literary Trail group and since I was not going to read Go Set a Watchman I thought I could at least read some poems. I was pondering joining a local book club about classics, which is why I got the Dirda, for research! I ultimately decided I didn't really have the capacity to join another monthly book club, and also I wasn't overly excited by the classics idea. I think I just like book clubs. I may finish skimming that book but may return it unfinished.  I like Michael Dirda and recently enjoyed a review copy of his upcoming book, Browsings, a compilation of his book columns (not reviews) from the Washington Post.

Many many friends have waxed eloquently about the MacDonald so I want to give it a try, despite feeling no particular interest in hawks. Heck, I read an entire David Foster Wallace novel about the IRS, so I clearly will read about anything.  I checked out the Friddle because she is a graduate from the university where I teach, and will be on campus as an adjunct this semester. It looks to be similar to Sarah Addison Allen and Sarah Hoffman, which I enjoy from time to time.

The Chodron and the Brantley are all connected to my newly forming interest in mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy. The Brantley is hands on and the Chodron is a bit overly steeped in Buddhist jargon for me, but still has such great moments! That's one I'll end up buying so I can have it on hand.

A professor here recommended the Schumacher to me, and as she guessed, I laughed my head off; the Murakami I decided to read after listening to the audio and not quite getting to it - definitely not my favorite from that author. The Powers I got in anticipation of a podcast discussion (posting mid-September, recorded Thursday night) but I was overly optimistic about the amount of time I would have to read.

Have you discovered anything interesting at the library lately?

Jenny's Library Books Mid-April 2015

Ghost Moth by Michèle Forbes
Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
They Don't Kill You Because They're Hungry, They Kill You Because They're Full by Mark Bibbins
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Even though I was in Oregon for two of the last four weeks, I still managed to bring a bunch of books home from the library. This isn't even counting the rather steep pile of new recordings of storytelling that were ordered for my upcoming Storytelling class, all waiting for me in my office.

Of these six books, I have already read three! The Bibbins was my first poetry read of National Poetry month (and will be discussed on the next podcast episode). I read the Robinson for the SFF Audio podcast readalong episode. We will record our discussion on Sunday but I think it won't post for a few weeks after that. I read the Forbes in planes, trains, and hotel rooms during my conference (you can read my review in Goodreads) - it was lighter than I expected, both in content and weight!

The Forna was a replacement selection for my in-person book club, and looks to be a recent book set in Croatia. The Keegan got a lot of attention, a book of essays and stories by a new promising author who died in a car accident a few days after graduation. The Kabat-Zinn was the result of doing a search on mindfulness and grief after my dog died. I probably will return it to the library unread but it might be a better idea to read it!

What did you bring home from the library this month? Give me more to envy.