Wakanda ForeverWakanda Forever by Nnedi Okorafor

I’ve read a bunch of Wakanda graphic novels this week.

  • I think that superhero comics are really hard to get into because there is so much lore and backstory that you are always going to be behind if you are just starting.
  • I’m glad to see how Wakanda is depicted in these stories vs the movie.  It didn’t make any sense that Wakanda was shown as a small town featuring buildings with grass roofs.  In the comics it is a major technologically advanced city.  That makes so much more sense.
  • I don’t see myself reading any more of these.  The short format doesn’t really grab my attention.

A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in AfricaA Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa by Alexis Okeowo

“In A Moonless, Starless Sky Okeowo weaves together four narratives that form a powerful tapestry of modern Africa: a young couple, kidnap victims of Joseph Kony’s LRA; a Mauritanian waging a lonely campaign against modern-day slavery; a women’s basketball team flourishing amid war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante who takes up arms against the extremist group Boko Haram. This debut book by one of America’s most acclaimed young journalists illuminates the inner lives of ordinary people doing the extraordinary–lives that are too often hidden, underreported, or ignored by the rest of the world.”

These four stories show people standing up to power to make their world a better place.

  • In Uganda, men who were kidnapped as children to be soldiers and the women who were kidnapped to be their “brides” are often choosing to stay together after they escape.  This is causing a lot of upset in the villages they came from because how can you stay with a man who raped you and possibly killed people you know?
  • In Mauritiania, slavery was just recently officially banned but no one has told the slaves.  One man has built an organization trying to prosecute powerful people who keep slaves.
  • A man in Nigeria decides to fight back against Boko Haram by finding neighbors and family members who are part of the organization and turning them over to the military instead of looking the other way.
  • In Somalia, women are threatened with death for playing basketball but continue despite the risks.

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated AmericaThe Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Yeah, so I had this happen and I posted it on Facebook.

A person decided to perkily converse with me about the book I was reading at lunch.
“That looks like a fun book! What’s it about?”
“Um, racial discrimination in U.S. housing law.”
“That’s, um, different.” Then she rallied and got perky again. “Are you reading that for fun?”
“Yes.”
“Great! Have a good day!”
To be fair, the cover is colorful and that is all she saw before she started talking.  </end>

The book is interesting but I’m not going to finish it. I’ve read a bit about this before and this isn’t covering a lot of new material for me. It isn’t the most readable book. It is example after example of humans being horrible to each other and it wears on you after a while.