After sharing my top 25 books via Twitter last weekend which included Animal Farm, a few tweeters noted they wanted to re-read it. I suggested we read it for another Twitter book discussion and somehow I was hoodwinked, ahem, nudged into hosting it.

So join in the Twitter discussion of Orwell's brilliant political allegory beginning August 15, 2011 at 4pm CST (5pm EST). You can follow me @browngirlspeaks and the hashtag will be #AnimalFarm.



Discussion schedule (tentative):
Monday (8/15) - ch. 1-4
Tuesday (8/16) - ch. 5-7
Wednesday (8/17) - ch. 8-10

Twitter chum, @sweat_btwn, asked me to share my top 25 books to show support for the upcoming launch of a new literary piece: Specter Magazine.  Then I was asked to make this a permanent post so others could bookmark it. Sure. Why not?

This list is composed of books that transformed me in some way...emotionally, intellectually, and the like. These are the books I typically ask others if they've ever read and feel that they should. These are the books I bring when discussing reads that were "mind blowing", "life altering", "game changers", and so on.


I'm sure this list will evolve as I read more amazing works but for now, here it is and in no certain order...

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
2. Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
3. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker
4. She by Saul Williams
5. Does Your House Have Lions? by Sonia Sanchez
6. Like the Singing Coming Off the Drum by Sonia Sanchez
7. The Wife of His Youth by Charles Chesnutt
8. The Big Sea by Langston Hughes
9. I Put a Spell on You: Autobiography of Nina Simone

10.  Slumberland by Paul Beatty
11.  Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim
12.  Let the Lion Eat Straw by Ellease Southerland
13.  The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
14.  Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
15.  Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
16.  Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
17.  Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie
18.  Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
19.  No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
20.  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
21.  Animal Farm by George Orwell
22. The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
23.  The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
24.  Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok
25.  The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

Ernessa T. Carter's debut novel, 32 Candles, introduces us to Davie Jones. She lives in small town Mississippi with an abusive and wanton mother. Davie is also the school's target for taunting and teasing with a nickname only mean-spirited children could concoct. She soon finds solace in Molly Ringwald movies namely, Sixteen Candles. Enter the new kids, the ultra-atrractive Farrells who are heirs to a prominent hair care company. Naturally she falls hard for the lone son, James. After Davie spends months pining over him and thinks she has finally gotten him to notice her, she falls victim to a humiliating prank and running away takes her to the other side of the country. In L.A. she begins to thrive as a night club singer and one day, she literally crashes into her past. James is now the one falling hard for Davie, a woman he no longer recognizes from high school. However, others soon show up in L.A. and they do remember and pose a big threat to Davie's Sixteen Candles happy ending. 

What can I say about Davie Jones? She's a little neurotic but who wouldn't be after spending several years voluntarily mute to avoid her mother's abuse and being called "monkey night" by her peers. I ♥ Davie Jones for being able to not let life's bullsh*t keep her down...even the kinda psycho schemes she pulled off to later retaliate against the Farrells. Carter has written such a real character that a lot of us can (unfortunately) relate to and not just in Davie but those Farrells as well. They're those popular kids that others made even more larger-than-life through adoration and fantasizing. What Carter reveals through them, however, is that they even know that things and status are not always what make you awesome but resilience, wit, and bravery. Of course, it's always wonderful to see Black characters who cover a variety of lifestyles and experiences. Even the author's approach to the often materialistic world of the Farrells is not overdone or obnoxious. Rounded out by a gloriously flawed supporting cast including a short-tempered but fatherly club owner, 32 Candles should be on everyone's reading list.