Simon Sinek wrote a book titled Start with Why. You can use them to read any hard book, whatever that means to you. With Valencia’s permission, I’m sharing those steps with you as I approach Take My Hand.

In a WSIRN Patreon bonus episode called How to read hard books and Black joy recommendations, we discussed Valencia’s seven-step process for reading challenging books. Valencia hosts the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club at Bookmarks and she’s also a What Should I Read Next alum. I don’t think I would be reading this if it wasn’t this month’s selection.Įarlier this year I had a conversation with friend and fellow reader Valencia Taylor that helped me think more about how to approach these difficult books. Take My Handby Dolen Perkins-Valdez, the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club May 2023 selection, is about the forced sterilization of young girls, specifically Black girls, set in the early 1970s, in my home state of Alabama. These books can be challenging to everyone: the marginalized community experiencing the harm and the rest of society who may be unconsciously inflicting that harm. Personally, books that detail historical and societal trauma are ones that I find “hard” to read. What makes a subject or theme difficult is subjective and personal. For me, it’s a book that deals with difficult subjects and themes. What’s a “hard” book? For some, it might be a book with different (or dated) language, words, and dialects. I hope you enjoy and appreciate these insights as much as I did. When Shannan mentioned it could make a good blog post, I could not agree fast enough. Dear Readers, today I’m delighted to welcome MMD team member Shannan Malone to the blog! I love the conversation that inspired this post so much.

The camel club book series