Summer reading doesn't have to be junk
By Matthew Schwartz
Every now and then everyone needs to take a break from the
standard reading we all do to educate ourselves and read just
for enjoyment. Summer reading doesn't have to be junk. Here are
a few progressive books recommended by our readers.
Rex Stout, "The Doorbell Rang: A Nero Wolfe Mystery." Not
normally a progressive character, in this book Nero Wolfe
exposes the covert practices of illegal searches and other
wrongdoings of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.
Patricia Cornwell, the Kay Scarpetta Mysteries. Follow along
with Kay Scarpetta and her lesbian niece as they solve
mysteries together using forensic science.
Barbara Neely, the Blanche White mysteries. "Blanche on the
Lam," the first of these clever books, introduces the
unorthodox detective, a Black woman escaping welfare and prison
who uses her inside position as a domestic worker to crack a
murder. Takes the mystery genre and demolishes stereotypes.
Michael Moore, "Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses
for the State of the Nation!" Michael Moore does it again with
this best-selling book, writing against the "Thief-in-Chief"
otherwise known as George Bush and his power elite.
Sembene Ousmane, "God's Bits of Wood." A novel about the
great 1947 railroad workers' strike in Senegal. An African
perspective on class and colonial oppression and why resistance
cannot be crushed.
Alistair MacLeod, "No Small Mischief." The hard lives of
coal miners, fishers and timber cutters in Nova Scotia whose
ancestors were driven out of Scotland by poverty. Not a
clinical, sociological view; the author bares his heart tracing
the characters' debt to their cultural roots.
Lurene Cary, "The Price of a Child." A woman slave escapes
to Philadelphia on the Underground Railroad, but one of her
children is still in the South. The price of her freedom is her
child. From the author of "Black Ice."
Jamie James, "Andrew and Joey." We follow the progress of
their gay relationship with its ups and even bigger downs, told
entirely by the characters via email correspondence.
For younger readers:
Patricia Hilliard, "One Pledge Unspoken." We follow a high
school student, Elizabeth Ellen Anderson, who takes a stand
against the war in Vietnam and learns about the oppression of
those who speak out.
Sandra Cisneros, "The House on Mango Street." A stunning
tale about a young girl growing up in the Latino part of
Chicago.
Reprinted from the Aug. 8, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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