Fall/Winter Books
A Few Suggestions, and Links to More
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The 12 books highlighted in this post are books that I think might be of interest to AfricaFocus subscribers. The images and links are most often to Bookshop.org, which I highly recommend as an alternative to Amazon to readers who buy books in the United States or the United Kingdom. Bookshop.org shares its surplus income with independent bookstores, and has raised over $34 million for that since it was founded four years ago.
These days I hardly ever buy physical books. Living in Mount Pleasant, in Washington, DC, I am fortunate in having a good public library as well as an abundance of Little Free Library kiosks in the neighborhood, which supply my addiction to reading mystery novels and thrillers with a sense of place. Non-fiction books I want to read are harder to come by, since I have no access to a university library system. But an annual subscription to Perlego for $144 provides unlimited digital access to a library of over a million academic books.
See the end of this post for more suggestions on finding sources for books in libraries or from online sources.
The non-fiction books listed here include one on Africa (Independence and Revolution in Portuguese-Speaking Africa, by Aquino de Bragança), one on global issues (Winners Take All, by Anand Giridharadas), and six focused on the United States (The Green New Deal from Below, by Jeremy Brecher; The Barn, by Wright Thompson; Revolt of the Rich, by David Gibbs; The Sum of Us, by Heather McGee; The Third Reconstruction, by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II; and Power Concedes Nothing, edited by Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, & Maria Poblet).
The mystery novels are Gold of Our Fathers, by Kwei Quartey (set in Ghana), Shutter, by Ramon Emerson (set in Albuquerque and in Navajo country); The Wrong Side, by Robert Bailey (set in Tennessee and Alabama, and Hold Your Breath, China, by Qiu Xiaolong (set in Shanghai).
Non-Fiction
Green New Deal from Below, by Jeremy Brecher
One of the most optimistic books I have read this year. Despite national trends, there is positive action at the level of cities, states, and local institutions, such as universities, local school boards, and more. While individual action on climate may be only performative, when people work together it can add up. More
The Barn, by Wright Thompson
Well-written and meticulously researched. Detailed account of the murder of Emmett Till in 1955. Of particular interest to me because, like the author, I grew up in that part of the Mississippi Delta. He was born in 1976, and only learned about the killing of Emmett Till after he moved away to go to college. I lived on an interracial cooperative farm in Homes County, a country away from where Till was killed, which was forced to close that same year. But his investigation goes deeper into the history than any of the other books I have read about Till over the years. More
Aquino de Bragança, edited by Marco Mondaini and Colin Darch
Born in Goa, but most closely connected to Mozambique, Aquino played key role as an intellectual, a militant journalist, a clandestine diplomat, and a close advisor to Samora Machel and to other liberation movement leaders in Southern Africa. He was among others who died with Samora in the plane crash on October 19, 1986 at Mbuzini, South Africa, close to the point where South Africa´s border intersects with both Mozambique and Eswatini. More
Revolt of the Rich, by David N. Gibbs
Historian David Gibbs meticulously explores how the turn to the right in the 1980s epitomized by President Ronald Reagan was built on a legacy established during the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, and Carter. The subtitle sums it up: How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America´s Class Divide. More
The Sum of Us, by Heather McGee
When McGhee asks, at the outset, “Why can’t Americans have nice things?” she means the basics: good roads, well-funded schools, affordable health care, decent housing, clear air and water, jobs that pay a living wage. We can’t have nice things because white America would rather go without than invite Black America in. Over the past five decades, life has increasingly come to be seen as a zero-sum competition. We’ve been deluded to believe that what’s provided for one group must necessarily be denied another. The richest nation on earth suffers from a scarcity mindset, because of racism. More
The Third Reconstruction, by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II
North Carolina pastor Barber is one of the prophets of our time. The subtitle of his book is “How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear.” But he is not the only person seeing the time we are in as the Third Reconstruction, after the original one following the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the mid 20th-century. For a list of 10 books with this theme, including the original Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois, see https://bookshop.org/lists/third-reconstruction. More
Power Concedes Nothing, edited by Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, and Maria Poblet
This book is an analysis of the 2020 election in key states, including Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania, as well as essays on the role of communities of color, workers, democratic socialism, and grassroots mobilization. Still relevant in terms of thinking ahead for 2026 and 2028.
The November 2020 US election was arguably the most consequential since the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln—and grassroots leaders and organizers played crucial roles in the contention for the presidency and control of both houses of Congress. Power Concedes Nothing recounts these on-the-ground efforts that mobilized a record voter turnout in 2020. More
Winners Take All, by Anand Giridharadas
Anand Giridharadas, publisher of The Ink, is one of the most astute commentators writing today on U.S. politics. His blog often features other voices as well as his own.
This book, published in 2018, takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can—except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. They rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; they lavishly reward “thought leaders” who redefine “change” in ways that preserve the status quo; and they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. More
Mystery Novels with a Sense of Place
Gold of Our Fathers, by Kwei Quartey
Darko Dawson has just been promoted to chief inspector in the Ghana police service—and it even comes with a (rather modest) salary bump. But he doesn’t have much time to celebrate, because his new boss is transferring him from Accra, Ghana’s capital, out to remote Obuasi in the Ashanti region, an area notorious for the illegal exploitation of its gold mines. More
Shutter, by Ramona Emerson
Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases--she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook. More
The Wrong Side, by Robert Bailey
Robert Bailey´s novels are set in Pulaski, Tennessee (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan) and the state of Alabama just to the south of Pulaski. The protagonist of one series is Black lawyer Bocephus Haynes. Teen pop star Brittany Crutcher is found dead in small-town Tennessee. For attorney Bocephus Haynes, it’s just another night in Pulaski. Bo swore off criminal work after his last case, but the beloved singer’s murder demands answers. More
Hold Your Breath, China
With the air pollution worsening in Shanghai, the government is worried about the increasing power of an attractive activist named Yuan Jing and particularly about the documentary film she is preparing. Comrade Secretary Zhao wants Chen to collect as much damaging information on her as he can. More
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