Since I’m up for no good reason and Productivity is not down for my reindeer games I’ll share some of the books that have been influential to me in honor of World Book Day.  In no particular order and hardly close to exhaustive, here goes:

FICTION

A Brave New World Aldous Huxley

Oh the Places You’ll Go Dr. Seuss

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith

And Do Remember Me Marita Golden

Segu Maryse Conde

Lillith’s Brood Octavia Butler

Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe

A Separate Peace – John Knowles

NONFICTION

The Fire Next Time  James Baldwin

The Four Agreements Don Miguel Ruiz

Assata Assata Shakur

The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson

Slave Culture Sterling Stuckey

The Bhagavad Gita

Blues People Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka)

Bloods: Black  Veterans of the Vietnam War Wallace Terry

Killers of the Dream Lillian Smith

Blink Malcolm Gladwell

Altogether Elsewhere: Writers on Exile

POETRY

Blood Dazzler Patricia Smith

The Chicago Poems Carl Sandburg

The Country Between Us Carolyn Forche

Brutal Imagination Cornelius Eady

Nejma Nayyirah Waheed

for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow was enough Ntozake Shange

Wounded in the House of a Friend Sonia Sanchez