Weekly Round-Up #19!

I had a bunch of stuff to do after work this week (almost everyday) so I didn’t get much reading done. But I did read some very interesting books that I would love to share with you all. One of the first books I read this week was a graphic novel called March: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. This book is about John Lewis, who is one of the key figures of the Civil Rights Movement. This is the first book in a trilogy and explores John Lewis’ childhood and his start in the Civil Rights Movement. From his first meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. to the nonviolent lunch counter sit ins, this book covers a lot of ground about Lewis’ beginnings. I’m not much of a history buff myself but I very much enjoyed this first volume. I will definitely be tracking down the other two books in the series so that I can read them as well.

The next book that I finished up this week was called Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West. I talked about this book a little bit in my last post and I finished up this week so I thought I would give you my complete thoughts now since I’m all done. I absolutely loved this book. If you are a woman and you have ever felt like you don’t belong in a certain space (for me it was always video games) then this book will resonate with you hard core. This is also a great commentary on how hard it is to be a woman on the internet these days (especially if you are not rail thin with a perfect body). I thought this would be a hard read for me because anytime I read something like this where a woman is constantly being belittled it makes me sad and angry so it’s sometimes hard to get through. But this book was not like that. I loved it from the moment that I started reading it. As soon as I was done I went and found Lindy West on Twitter and followed her. I’m going to be looking up some of her writing this week as well and checking some of that out too.

The last book that I really enjoyed was a HUGE (like 600 pages huge) graphic novel called Blankets by Craig Thompson. I really connected with the MC, Craig, throughout this book. He was raised in a strict Christian household with (at least to me) a domineering father (especially during his younger years) and a church mouse mother. He grew up in Wisconsin with his family (father, mother, & little brother) while going to church and school and questioning his faith all the while. As someone who was raised in a Baptist household (although no where NEAR as strict as Craig’s household) I really connected with him and how he questioned his faith. I also loved the pages where he went to church camp and was totally blown away by how un-churchy those kids were (it’s me!). The same thing happened to me the first time that I went to a church sanctioned camp. All the kids brought stuff that they weren’t supposed to and hooked up and did all sorts of very un-Christian like things while off at church camp. I was like, Craig I feel you and your massive discomfort, I was right there with you about 15 years ago. If you are a former or questioning church kid then this book will be right up your alley!

That is it for this week! I’m hoping to get more reading done this up coming week but who knows if that will happen. I may just catch up on all my missed sleep from this last week. Come say hi on Twitter or leave a comment down below! I would love to hear from you guys.