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My Two Favorite Books of the Year

2021-06-01 · review / recommendation · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Advice & reviews · tags: timely hook

On their shared release day, John recommends his two favorite books of 2021 so far, both by authors he knows: Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed, on how the US reckons with slavery's legacies, and Ashley C. Ford's memoir Somebody's Daughter, the first book he ever immediately reread.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Disclosure, then How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith: slavery's legacies seen through present-day site visits

  • ★★★ Despite a month of Anthropocene Reviewed videos, John says other books exist, and recommends his two favorite books so far this year (2021), which both come out today. — 00:00:00 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
  • ★★ John discloses that he knows both authors; he knows many authors and doesn't think it affects his opinion of their books much, but it should be acknowledged. — 00:00:14
  • ★★★ How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith of Crash Course Black American History, is about how the US does and doesn't reckon with the history of slavery. — 00:00:20 · Crash Course
  • ★★ It is also about the present: through visits to sites from Monticello to a New York City slave-trade walking tour, Smith shows how profoundly the present is shaped by the past. — 00:00:29 · New York City
  • ★★ At his estate Monticello, Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people. — 00:00:35
  • ★★ Smith also explores how today's choices about where to center historical narratives shape our understanding of slavery, race and poverty. — 00:00:47

  • ★★★ The book is brilliant for its both-andedness: historical work and journalism, carefully researched and lyrical (Smith is a poet), deeply personal and sweeping. — 00:00:58

    “Part of what makes this book so brilliant is its both-andedness.”

  • ★★ Yvonne Holden (quoted): Yvonne Holden, who works at a plantation centered on enslaved people's experiences, notes in the book that legacies are not just what we choose; many we don't choose. — 00:01:20

  • ★★★ The book is about those legacies at work today and grappling openly with them, and about constructing false historical narratives to avoid confronting them. — 00:01:35
  • ★ Reading it, John kept thinking of Alice Walker's line that all history is current. — 00:01:50

00:01:56 — Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford: a memoir beyond summary, reread at once

  • ★★★ His other favorite this year (2021) is Somebody's Daughter, the first book by Ashley C. Ford, known from guest-hosting Dear Hank and John and from magazine writing. — 00:01:56 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★ Somebody's Daughter is a memoir: the story of a young Black girl living through abuse and yearning for the presence of her incarcerated father. — 00:02:05
  • ★★★ John feels genre and plot descriptions objectify or depersonalize the book's pain, love and particularity; it is far more wrenching, haunting, beautiful, damning and loving than any summary. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ The writing sears and soars; the granularity of Ford's memories makes a reading experience John will carry for the rest of his life. — 00:02:38
  • ★★ Roxane Gay wrote of Ford's ability to see people for who they are without looking away; John thinks that gift for characterization is much of what makes the book incredible. — 00:02:47
  • ★★ Like all his favorite books, it shows big themes through an individual lens: trauma, family, race, and how big systems such as poverty and racism harm children. — 00:02:57

  • ★★ There is nothing simple about the book; any attempt to summarize it, or even say what John loves about it, only essentializes the unessentializable. — 00:03:10

    “only essentializes the unessentializable”

  • ★★★ The moment John finished it he started rereading it; 43 and a lifelong reader, he doesn't think he has ever immediately reread a book before. — 00:03:20

00:03:36 — Ask for book recommendations; the vision board; sign-off

  • ★★ John asks viewers to say in comments what they thought of the books or what else they are reading, since he wants recommendations: his 2021 vision board says read more books. (playful) — 00:03:36

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: How the Word Is Passed · slavery in the United States · Somebody's Daughter

Also: People: Alice Walker · Roxane Gay · Thomas Jefferson · Yvonne Holden

Projects: Crash Course · Dear Hank and John

Works: The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)

Concepts: memoir · psychological trauma · racism · vision board

Places: Monticello · New York City

Only in the description or credits: Ashley C. Ford · Clint Smith

Also centred on slavery in the United States: The Evil Baby Orphanage Returns...for George Washington?

Also centred on Somebody's Daughter: Feelings, Little Tunnels, and Oprah: It's Question Tuesday with Ashley C. Ford

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