Thursday discussion: books I want everyone to read

Happy Thursday, everyone! Welcome to this week’s Thursday Discussion. Essentially, this is a biweekly meme where you write a post based on the prompt for that week. The post can be as long or as short as you want, and you can talk about as much or as little as you want. Visit this page for the upcoming topics! It happens every other week, and I generally post the topics a month(ish) in advance.

This week the topic is books you want everyone to read, in the spirit of back-to-school and required reading. Today I only have two books, but they’re two important books. I truly think that if everyone read and listened to these books, the world would be a better place.

Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

Convinced that all women should be free to decide whether and when to have children, Gates took her first step onto the global stage to make a stand for family planning. That step launched her into further efforts: to ensure women everywhere have access to every kind of job; to encourage men around the globe to share equally in the burdens of household work; to advocate for paid family leave for everyone; to eliminate gender bias in all its forms. (blurb from Goodreads)

I think if you are interested in feminism and women’s issues, this is the book for you. It’s so well-written and interesting, and (surprisingly) intersectional. She talks about access to birth control, abortion, and family planning, unpaid labour, education, and child brides, among others, and how each of those things leads to and perpetuates the belief that women are lower in society.

Gates also does a great job acknowledging her own privilege. At one point she says, “I’m describing my own scene not because it’s a problem but because it’s my vantage point on the problem.” She also highlights other people and women where she can, particularly the women of colour who help her.

Essentially, all I’m saying is that everyone should read this book.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates takes readers along on his journey through America’s history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings — moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago’s South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America’s ‘long war on black people,’ or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police.

I buddy read this a little while ago now with Rebecca, and, basically, I think about it all the time. I think this is a book that everyone, particularly white people, particularly in America, should read. Coates does such a great job breaking everything down and making things obvious. I really recommend it.

So those are the two books I think everyone should read! Have you read either of these? what were your thoughts? Do you plan to read them? Which books do you think should be required reading? Let me know!

Ally xx