It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Recently Finished – Print and E-books
How This “Mr. Rogers” Moment Broke Race Barriers
Officer Clemmons is a memoir by Dr. François S. Clemmons. It was a July library book club selection, which was well received by the group, with one dissenting. We had a lively discussion about the author’s life and the obstacles he overcame growing up poor, black, and gay in the South of the 1950s. Along with his drive to succeed, his exceptional musical talent, outgoing nature, and that he found supportive adults (not his parents) willing to help him through the college admission and financial aid process, all contributed to his having a performing career and eventually an academic one.
François Clemmons’ role as the opera-singing policeman on the children’s TV show, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”, however, was his entree to concert venues and other gigs where racism would have otherwise prevented him alone from being invited to sing. Fred Rogers was a valued mentor and father figure, but the memoir isn’t focused on the author’s groundbreaking role on the show or on Mr. Rogers himself, but on the author’s life – his own family that rejected him and the families of friends that welcomed him; friendships kept or lost; personal joys, great and small; career successes; some regrets, and – above all – the music that is his lifelong passion.
Currently Reading
Read an excerpt from The Color of Air by Gail Tsukiyama.
I’m reading an advance e-copy of The Color of Air by Gail Tsukiyama but the novel was released on July 7. I’ve read four of the author’s earlier novels – Women of the Silk (1991), The Samurai’s Garden (1995), The Language of Threads (1999), and Dreaming Water (2002) but realize now that I haven’t read her more recent ones.
With The Color of Air, Tsukiyama revisits themes that have been constant over the course of her 20-year career, tenderly exploring the complicated web of family and the resilient nature of the human spirit, while also shedding light on an important period of Asian history, this time the indentured servitude of Asian people on the sugar plantations that were once Hawaii’s lifeblood. As always, Tsukiyama’s storytelling is deeply compassionate, undoubtedly buoyed by her personal ties to the material (her father was Japanese American by way of Hawaii), which lends a quiet and sincere intimacy to the proceedings.
BookPage
Read full BookPage review of The Color of Air.
Recently Finished – Audiobooks
Listen to a sample from Fair Warning by Michael Connelly.
Listen to a sample from The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.
read by Desiree Taylor
Listen to a sample from The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan.
Currently Listening – Audiobooks
Listen to a sample of All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg.
Please comment on this post to let me know what you’re reading this week. Thank you for visiting!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (#IMWAYR) is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever-growing TBR pile! This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at Book Date.