Happy National Read A Book Day
One of my favourite days of the year!
September 6, 2022 is National Read a Book Day
Reading is one of my favourite ways to spend time. In honour of this wonderful day, I will share with you my favourite reads from my summer camping road trip.
The Personal Librarian
Coincidentally The Personal Librarian, co-authored by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, was recommended to me by my local library. This novel is a work of fiction, but is based upon true events, and an historical figure named Belle da Costa Greene.
Belle is part of a “light-skinned” Black family, and she is fair-skinned enough to pass as white at a time when segregation and blatant racism are rampant, and lynchings are regular occurrences.
This story is told through the perspectives of multiple strong female characters, with Belle’s being the central focus. This book highlights the pain and reality of racist and sexist policies throughout the 1900s, yet subtly reminds the reader these realities are not fully behind us.
Mary Jane
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau tells the story of a sheltered teenage girl who lives under the watchful eye of extremely conservative parents in the 1970s. The beliefs and values she has been raised with are immediately challenged when she meets the family down the street, after being hired to babysit their young daughter for the summer.
As Mary Jane gets to know this family, her perspectives change drastically, and she realizes how much life she has been missing out on. A uniquely told coming-of-age story, this book is incredibly engaging. I read it in only two days and highly recommend it.
Punch Me Up To The Gods
Punch Me Up To The Gods is a memoir written by Brian Broome. I usually prefer Fiction when I’m not reading books about autism, ADHD, education, and parenting — however, our local library recommended this book as well, and they usually make excellent suggestions.
They didn’t steer me wrong here.
This book is about a gay Black man growing up in the 80s and 90s, amidst a hyper-masculine culture, where being gay was seen as an affront to a man’s Blackness. Racism was still quite overt, so Brian had to navigate growing up in small town USA dealing with two conflicting marginalized identities.
As a white person, I will never understand what it’s like to be Black and experience prejudice because of the colour of my skin. I want to be clear about that, because I also did identify with some of Brian’s experiences.
Appreciating the atypical
As a late-identified Autistic and ADHD female who also discovered very late in life that I am also bisexual and perhaps kinda sorta non-binary, I identify with Brian’s feelings of being an outsider.
“…it’s like they have a Black boy rule book that they won’t show me, and I always end up doing the wrong thing.”
I feel like that about neurotypicals, as though allistics (non-Autistic people) have some sort of social rulebook that guides their interactions, one to which I am not privy.
I also very strongly identified with Brian’s expressions of internalized stigma. Brian sees a boy with whom he identifies in a department store one day. Instead of finding a kindred spirit, or at least a cohort, Brian immediately decides he hates this boy on sight.
“I hated him in a way we sometimes learn early to hate ourselves when we’re different.”
I used to dislike the students who were outcasts in my classes, just like I was. Instead of befriending them and feeling less alone, I was afraid my proximity to them would make me more hated by my peers.
I disliked myself because I had internalized all the negative messages I had received; the many people telling me what a loser I was couldn’t all be wrong.
Now my closest friends are people who like me for exactly who I am, and I genuinely prefer odd, quirky, awkward, and unique people — I have learned to embrace and appreciate those qualities in both myself and others.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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