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I'm in a season of reading thought-provoking books.

 The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green is a collection of essays. Green can rip his heart out of his chest and then write poignantly about how it bleeds. The topics are wide-ranging: Cholera to Icelandic sports to climate change. Each essay concludes with a star rating of the subject. Cholera gets one star. ⭐️ Depression gets one star. ⭐️ Love gets five stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here." John Green.

It was engaging and provocative.

Much like the other book I read this week, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

 

Kidd juxtaposes the historical Sarah Grimke--daughter of a slave-owning family in Charleston--with a fictional enslaved person owned by the family named Handful/Hetty. The two lives are intertwined when Handful is given to Sarah on her 10th birthday. The writing is excellent. Each woman has a distinctive voice that tells the story of slavery and enslaver. The book brims with the burning desire to be seen, valued, and free. I stopped reading for a few days because I was worried about Handful, and I didn't see how there could be a happy ending for her. 

The invention of Wings is the March book for my book club. Great choice.