Capita’s Summer Bookshelf (Part 2)
Earlier this summer we asked some of our board members, friends, and advisors to share their summer vacation reading recommendations with us. These books have already inspired, informed, and fostered a deeper committment to the work of our closest collaborators in 2019.We are pleased to share them with you and hope they will be read profitably wherever your summer vacation takes you! You can read the first installment in this summer’s series here.
The essayist and memoirist Cinelle Barnes is making a point to only read writers of color this year, so she recommended a number of books including The Mothers by Brit Bennett. Bennett’s debut novel, set in a black community of Southern California, asks “if, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.”
Cinelle also recommended All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, Heavy by Kiese Laymon, An American Marriage by Tayari P. Jones, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, and Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi Laskar. And, of course, if you haven’t read Cinelle’s own recent memoir Monsoon Mansion, be sure to check it out this summer before her next book arrives this fall!
Capita’s Director of Operations, Hilary Rikard, recommends 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple’s Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany.
After finishing 50 Children, Hilary observed:
It is easy to quickly become discouraged when looking at the difficulties, challenges, and tragedies faced by children in the United States and around the world. We often wonder where to start, and doubt that our seemingly small contributions really matter. This true story offers a heart wrenching but inspiring reminder that the faithful and steadfast efforts of even one person can change — and in this case, save — lives for generations. This kind of work — and each life — is always more than worth the effort.
Innovation Edge CEO and Capita Advisory Board member Sonja Giese commends another World War II focused story: The Choice by Dr. Edith Eva Eger.
About this book Sonja writes “this account of the horrors of World War II concentration camps and post war trauma is a profound reminder that while we cannot control what happens to us, each of us has the ability to choose our response and that in our response, lies our growth and our freedom.”
