540WMain Launches First Annual Summer Reading List

We are pleased to launch 540WMain’s First Annual Summer Reading List

Dear Community

Everyone who’s anyone knows that we here at 540WMain love to read! Reading is power. And it should come as no surprise that we are launching for the first time ever an official summer reading list. The books listed are what light our fire, keep up inspired and in many cases drive our courses and programs.

Whether you are on the plane, on the beach, louching in the garden, or listening to an audibook while you work this list features BIPOC authors and are a mix of fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, and novels. Some of the books are new, some have been out for years all are essential for anyone interested in allyship and antiracism.

Let us know in the comments if you read any books on our list! We want to hear from you.

540WMain’s First Annual Summer Reading List

1. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
2. Becoming by Michelle Obama
3. Queenie by Candice Carty Williams
4. On the Other-side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by DeRay Mckesson
5. I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyonce by Michael Arceneaux
6. The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey
7. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
8. Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram Kendi
9. Notes from A Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi
10. Boom!: Mad Money, Mega Dealers and the Rise of Contemporary Art by Michael Shnayerson
11. Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America by Victoria W. Wolcott
12. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class by David R. Roediger
13. Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly by Jim DeRogatis
14. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
15. Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching by Crystal N. Feimster

Bonus

• What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young

Read THREE books if you are feeling ready

Read FIVE books if you are feeling ready

Read TEN books if you are feeling ready

This is a sponsored conversation written by Calvin Eaton on behalf of Barnes and Noble. The opinions, text, and book recommendations are all his.