bookgoodfeelgood

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How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis

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Diaspora-ish: Notes on Identities, Unbelonging, & Solidarities

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Classic Literature from the United States 🇺🇸📚🥧

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A collection of the most influential works in literature from the United States.

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The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

Anna Malaika Tubbs

In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, who were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. Berdis, Alberta, and Louise passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning--from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.

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callmepasta

Thoughts from 6%

I don’t understand why I am having some trouble with the writing of this book. I get lost in some phrases and I need to read them twice before understanding them. Is it just me? (Note: I should mention, English is not my first language but I do have a pretty high level of reading comprehension skills. Last year I managed just fine with LOTR - all three books - and some others and I usually both read and write ff in English)

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Tiny but Mighty Nonfiction

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Diaspora-ish: Notes on Identities, Unbelonging, & Solidarities

Gayatri Sethi

28%

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Diaspora-ish: Notes on Identities, Unbelonging, & Solidarities

Gayatri Sethi

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Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News

Alec Karakatsanis

From the prizewinning rising legal star, the deeply researched and definitive book on the way the media and police distract us from what matters“Copaganda,” as defined by Alec Karakatsanis, describes a special kind of propaganda that affects who and what we fear and what kinds of social investments we support to address our fears. At a time when the United States incarcerates five times more people per capita than its own historical average and five to ten times more people per capita than other countries, its vast punishment bureaucracy spends huge amounts of time and money manipulating the rest of us to see the world from its point of view. As a result, we see a grossly distorted version of crime, punishment, and safety in our newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets. The news generates fear by focusing on crimes committed by the most marginalized people while ignoring far more serious threats to our collective well-being, from wage theft by corporations to environmental crimes to the deaths that result from cigarette smoke (which make the number of violent crimes pale in comparison). And it falsely suggests that the best way to respond to our fear is to increase government repression through police, prosecution, and prisons as opposed to addressing the root causes of interpersonal harm. In the spirit of such classics as Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, Copaganda includes chapters on “What Is News?,” “Public Relations Spending by the Police,” “Whose Perspective? How Sources Shape News,” “How the News Uses Experts,” “How to Smuggle Ideology into the News,” and “Academic Copaganda.“ Already called “one of the most prominent voices on [copaganda]” (Teen Vogue), with a huge following on social media and appearances discussing copaganda on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Breakfast Club, Karakatsanis brings a legal eye, humor, gripping personal stories, and a keen ability to read between the lines to a topic at the forefront of one of the most pressing public debates in our society.

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spoilers

bookgoodfeelgood

Jan 12, 2026

3.0

Enjoyment: 2.5Quality: 2.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 4.0

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The Only Good Indians

Stephen Graham Jones

100%

bookgoodfeelgood commented on bookgoodfeelgood's review of Bone Deep: Untangling the Betsy Faria Murder Case

bookgoodfeelgood

Oct 03, 2025

3.0

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Review may contain spoilers

I was really excited to read this, and I did read the entire thing in one sitting. Took about 4 hours with breaks for a few things.

I wanted to enjoy it. I just didn’t. That’s not on the authors. The book was thorough and comprehensive, and walked me through absolutely every element of the Betsy Faria case — which was entirely new to me (wild, considering I lived in St. Louis when the case was retried and Russ was exonerated). They did a fantastic job detailing this saga, not surprisingly given that one of the authors was Russ Faria’s defense attorney… I just couldn’t like it.

I spent the majority of the book (rightfully) infuriated at the level of corruption and dishonesty within the police department and all the way up to the prosecutor and presiding judge. The original case was so shoddily investigated and this abysmal detective work (you can’t even call it that) was supported by an incredibly awful prosecutor and an incompetent judge.

But this isn’t new. God knows how many other violations of justice these individuals have committed, of course, but so have their compatriots the nation over. I kept thinking to myself that it just took 2 Karens to destroy Russ Faria’s life, but we also don’t hear enough about the countless lives that are destroyed by the inequities-by-design of the criminal “justice” system (who are almost always Black and Brown). And I wonder how many of them are fought so hard for and eventually exonerated as Russ was. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t deserve a second of the hell he got from these monsters inside the court system… but so many people don’t deserve it and are subjected to it without any recourse or hope.

It’s just really frustrating and I came out of this in a bad mood. Again, not really on the authors. It’s the subject. If you’re interested in this case and its specifics, this is the book for you. If you don’t need this level of detail maybe check out the Dateline TV series or podcast about the case. I’m still debating on whether I’m going to check those out or not since I’ve already read the book.

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bookgoodfeelgood

Thoughts from 31% (page 94)

not sure if it was just me but had a hard time for maybe the first 40some pages to get a grasp of characters and what was happening. found myself having to reread sentences multiple times because i wasn't exactly grasping the writing fully. very atypical for me.

now that i'm a bit further in though i finally feel like i've got more of a handle on things. and i guess it is more heavily focused on lewis at this point, which actually helps, because i felt like there was a lot of bouncing around from character to character and story to story initially, which made it confusing for me personally.

i'm invested enough in the ideas and plot devices that i definitely want to continue and see how things shake out. this is way out of my typical genre (usually just read nonfic!) so i recognize my challenges could very well be due to that :)

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bookgoodfeelgood

Thoughts from 31% (page 94)

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The Only Good Indians

Stephen Graham Jones

30%

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The Only Good Indians

Stephen Graham Jones

The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones. Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

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