Three Books from the WritetoRight Blog

As a literacy-based organization, we obviously value the act of reading as centrally integral to our mission. Here, therefore, is a short list of books we found particularly interesting lately - and why they matter in the scope of what we should all aspire to do. 

Just Mercy is an account by attorney Bryan Stevenson documenting his career dealing with systemic racial injustices in the American justice system. Although it primarily focuses on the trial of wrongfully convicted Walter McMillian, the book blends a closely focused narrative with broader statistical and evidential scope. Just Mercy is an excellent work in its faithfulness to its human scope while simultaneously challenging far more immense societal pressures, something that all activism should serve. 

The Things They Carried is a collection of Tim O’Brien’s short stories detailing accounts of combat by veterans during the Vietnam War. Although a product of the anti-war literary movement, it is much less a political critique and more an account of experience - tragic, empathetic, and humanistic, with equal measures of grief for American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. The anthology uses particular metafictional elements to describe storytelling as a distinctly valuable process of resilience and humanizing mass tragedy - providing a needed tangibility to what could perhaps be otherwise perceived as activism’s too-broad scope. 

Beloved is Toni Morrison’s highest-profile work, and one that has indeed been featured by us before. Both historically grounded and a fascinating speculative piece, Morrison’s novel contrasts a visceral realism with the hauntological power of its magical elements. Beloved is grim and often uncomfortable - but there is value in being challenged like Morrison challenges her readers, and more value yet in her capturing of the full and horrifically powerful nature of slavery and the cyclical repression and trauma catalyzed by it.