“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”
—James Baldwin
Yesterday was his birthday, but I'm making the post today. I would like to strongly encourage you to begin consuming the work of James Baldwin. There aren't enough superlatives for him. I think the quality of his prose is unmatched, and he knows how to tell moving story. But more than that, reading Baldwin taught me more about myself than any other author I've read. To say nothing of his voice and impact as a public intellectual, essayist, and moral commentator. The greatest mind of the last century and the greatest writer America has ever produced. Basically, if you ever have something really important to say, it's always a good idea to make sure the James Baldwin hasn't already said it and said it much better than you ever could.
I strongly recommend you start here:
The Fire Next Time. A quick book that consists of one short essay and one long one. Can be read in one or two sittings. The longer essay, especially, entitled "Down at the Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind" is probably the greatest work of nonfiction I've ever read. These days, this is my sola scriptura—the only book I reread with regularity.
Go Tell It On The Mountain is a semi-autobiographical novel. If I had to pick one, this is probably my favorite of his novels.
Eddie Glaude Jr's recent book, Begin Again, is one part biography, one part literary analysis, and one part social commentary. And even though I'm only partway through it because I just got my copy, it's incredibly good and you should totally read it.
And then you should watch Barry Jenkins's utterly marvelous, gorgeous, wondrous cinematic realization of If Beale Street Could Talk.