Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – Historical Nonfiction
In this historical nonfiction book, Isabel Wilkerson weaves narrative and stories about real people in America, including Martin Luther King Jr., Satchel Paige, and herself. She draws parallels between the caste system in the U.S. to India and Nazi Germany. In the exploration of this caste system, she unearths the surprising health costs it incurs, the mental health effects it has, and the ways it influences culture and politics. Caste has been adapted into a motion picture named “Origin,” directed by Ava DuVernay. It left Cinemark and Salt Lake Film Society theaters on February 13, but will soon be available to stream on Peacock. The book can be checked out from both the Eccles Health Sciences Library and the Marriott Library.
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington – Historical Nonfiction
This dark historical nonfiction novel reveals how Blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing but also unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Harriet A. Washington also explores how the pseudoscience of eugenics and Darwinism was used to justify exploitation of Black Americans in the medical field. Shocking details about the government’s infamous Tuskegee experiment are revealed. For a full picture of the Tuskegee experiment, first read Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, which is also a part of this reading list for Black History Month. See below:
Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment by James H. Jones – Historical Nonfiction
For 40 years, the United State Public Health Service conducted an experiment on 600 sharecroppers, 399 of them had syphilis and the rest did not. They were told that they were being treated for “bad blood,” a term that at that time was used to describe multiple ailments including syphilis, anemia, and chronic fatigue. The men who had syphilis were not told that they had the infection. Though the men were told that in exchange for participating in the experiment, they would receive free healthcare and burials, they received no treatment. More than 100 of the infected died. An introduction that was added to this book in a new and expanded edition inspired a play and a movie titled Miss Evers’ Boys.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – Fiction
Spanning three continents and eight generations, Homegoing examines power, privilege, memory, and legacy. The novel begins with two Ghanaian sisters in the 18th century. One sister stays in Ghana and marries a wealthy slave trader, while the other sister is sold into slavery in America. The novel continues through the lives of their descendants on the beaches of Ghana, on Mississippi plantations, through the Civil War, and the Jazz Age in Harlem. Yaa Gyasi won the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for this novel. She was 26 at the time. She went on to write Transcendent Kingdom, which was published in 2020.
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid – Fiction
This novel is told between the perspectives of two very different people. First there is Emira, a 25-year-old Black woman, recent college graduate, part-time typist, and part-time babysitter to 3-year-old Briar. Then there is Alix, a wealthy white woman that Emira babysits for. When Emira is with Briar at a grocery store, a security guard accuses Emira of kidnapping. Onlookers record the incident, and the videos go viral on the internet. After this incident, Alix takes an uncomfortable interest in her babysitter. This novel interweaves topics such as race, femme relationships, jealousy, and morality. Such A Fun Age was Kiley Reid’s debut novel. In January of this year, she published her second novel, Come and Get It.
Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy, M.D. – Memoir
Damon Tweedy examines the complexity of the ways Black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and sometimes contradictory terrain of race and medicine. When Tweedy began medical school, he felt optimistic about a bright future in which his segregated, working-class background would be irrelevant in his field. Across his years as a medical student to a practicing physician, he discovers how much race influences patient relations and he confronts the disproportionate health burdens Black patients face.
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon – Memoir
In this memoir, Kiese Laymon tells his story of growing up as an only child to a single mother in an intellectual household. Delving deep into his unhealthy relationship with his mother, he unpacks the complexities of struggling with anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and gambling. His memoir has been described as necessary reading for those who want to gain a deeper understanding of the Black experience in America. Kiese Laymon also wrote a coming-of-age science fiction novel called Long Division.
Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts – Poetry
Through this collection of poems, Reginald Dwayne Betts showcases a wide range of emotions and experiences such as love, homelessness, underemployment, incarceration, drug abuse, domestic violence, and fatherhood. While these poems are an intimate look at Betts’ life, they also speak to universal truths that many audiences can relate to. This is the third installment of poetry by Betts.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson – Memoir
“Navigating in a space that questions your humanity isn’t really living at all. It’s existing. We all deserve more than just the ability to exist.”
― George M. Johnson
This memoir-manifesto was the second most banned book in the U.S. in 2022, with Gender Queer at number one. All Boys Aren’t Blue is about growing up Black and queer; feeling out of place and not having the language to express it. Written in a series of personal essays, Johnson recounts getting bullied in elementary school, his first sexual relationships, and cheerful memories, such as going to the flea market with his grandmother.
Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Bowen Matthew – Nonfiction
Just Medicine offers an inventive plan to eliminate inequalities in United States healthcare. Over 84,000 Black and Brown lives are unnecessarily lost each year due to unfair, unjust, and avoidable differences between the quality of healthcare provided to minority groups in America. Dayna Bowen Matthews divulges that health disparities arise primarily from unconscious racial biases held by physicians and medical centers.
