The presidential race dominated my reading this year — like it seemed to dominate everything. So as I sift through my 2016 stacks, I see plenty of works on politics, candidate memoirs and books hitting on hot-button campaign debates.
Read MoreIn his recent National Book Award-winning book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, NEA Higher Ed member Ibram X. Kendi dives into the world of racist ideas. Recently, Kendi, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, talked with NEA Today about the evolution of racism in the United States, how it continues to impact public education, and how educators can create anti-racist spaces.
Read MoreLast week, the 2016 National Book Awards were announced. Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (Doubleday) was honored in the fiction category. Daniel Borzutzky won the poetry award for The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press), and Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Nation Books) was awarded the nonfiction laurel. In young people's literature, March: Book Three (Top Shelf Productions), a collaboration between Representative John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell, was recognized.
Read MoreWhen John Lewis took the stage Wednesday night to accept the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for his graphic novel March: Book Three, the congressman was on the verge of tears. The book, co-authored with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell, is the final installment in the trilogy that follows the civil rights movement through the eyes of Lewis, who was at its heart. “This is unbelievable … some of you know I grew up in rural Alabama, very poor, very few books in our home,” Lewis said, his voice shaking.
Read MoreThe Chronicle’s 50th anniversary is an occasion to take stock of the world we cover. What ideas and arguments might shape the next 50 years?
Read MoreEarlier this week, the comedian Amy Schumer appeared on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show to discuss her new book, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.
The conversation took a serious turn when Stern asked Schumer to discuss being sexually assaulted by her boyfriend as a teenager, an episode that she writes about in the memoir.
Read MoreIn the wake of a series of black men's shooting deaths during encounters with police and the killing of five police officers in Dallas by a sniper targeting white law enforcement officers, several of the nation's leading news organizations — The Washington Post and ABC News, the New York Times and CBS News — decided to include questions about race relations in their political polls. Among the questions: How would you describe the state of race relations? Are they getting better or worse? And should the next president focus on racial issues?
Read MoreYour reading list is about to get a lot longer. Lisa Lucas, the new executive director of the National Book Foundation, and Carlos Lozada, a book critic at the Washington Post, unleashed their book recommendations this morning with MPR News host Kerri Miller.
There's plenty of entertaining reads, but the list also has a serious side.
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