Supplemental Reading - February 2025
Our supplemental reading(+) recommendations for February's Dear Readers selection, James by Percival Everett
A quick note from Cassie and Stevie:
Our “Supplemental Reading” is a way for our discourse on each month’s book to continue. We’ll be recommending other books that you may like if you liked the month’s pick; related books or articles by the author (or others); the source text that may have inspired the author; and movies, articles, and other media that feel appropriate to consume in light of the topic at hand. None of these lists are intended to be fully comprehensive, so please give us your suggestions as well.
Happy Black History Month and happy reading, Dear Readers!
xxoo, C+S
“Reading is the most subversive thing you can do. You might think writing is the second, but belonging to a book club is the second most subversive.”
Percival Everett on January 23, 2025, at a Seattle Arts & Lectures Event
Our February 2025 book club pick: James by Percival Everett, a literal retelling of Mark Twain’s 1884 classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective.
If you need a visual and a soundtrack, start here:
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance. Need we say more? Cassie can’t stop talking about this “flawless performance blending political resistance, historical context, Black perspective, lyrical genius, pop culture, poetic justice, and…perfect pettiness.” In fact, even if you saw it live, go back and watch it again and again. It gets better every time, and it’s no wonder Lamar has won a Pulitzer Prize. For that matter, give his 2017 album DAMN a listen—it’s the one that won him the Pulitzer.
If you want a powerful perspective from 19th century/early modern black authors:
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass written by himself. Published in 1881 (revised in 1892), this is Douglass’ third autobiography. In it, he details his lived experience as an enslaved person. The reception of the book was mixed, and it was heavily criticized at the time of publication. It offers a rare first-hand account, making it worth a read.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Cassie read this classic (published in 1937) for two different literature classes in college and a few times since. As a writer and an anthropologist, Hurston’s storytelling is a masterclass on weaving the human condition and the broader political and social conditions with the personal, lived experiences of Black women in the South. Hurston is known to be a huge influence on Toni Morrison’s work, as well as on Alice Walker’s. As if you needed any more of a reason to read Their Eyes Were Watching God, it’s a frequent flyer on many banned book lists alongside Morrison’s and Walker’s works.
Speaking of, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, should go on your lists as well. Also, consider checking out Sula by Toni Morrison, which is an influence/source text for our March book club pick—The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon.
If you need more Percival Everett, which let’s be honest, we all do:
Trees by Percival Everett. This was Stevie’s first Percival Everett, and she devoured it in a few hours. It is POWERFUL. Similar to James, you’ll find dialect plays a prominent role, and names are a prominent theme. The subject matter is heavy as it does have to do with lynchings. However, Percival Everett, true to his style and sense of humor,1 somehow manages to make this book funny. Our current President’s likeness does make a cameo, and Everett does him justice, y’all. NPR’s review is worth a read if you’re interested.
Erasure by Percival Everett. Everett wrote this book in 2001, and it was made into a film called American Fiction a few years ago.
This New Yorker profile on Everett was a delight. “Everett is American literature’s philosopher king—and its sharpest satirist.”
If you want to read a contemporary of Everett that feels in conversation with James:
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Stevie and several other of our Dear Readers had the chance to see this author speak on his latest book, The Message, at a Seattle Arts & Lectures event last week, and they reported back that he reiterated several times, as James did throughout the telling of his story: reading and writing are liberation. The Message is a collection of three essays exploring how myth shapes global/political sentiment. While you’re at it, pick up Between the World and Me, also by Coates.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Similar to Percival Everett, Beatty uses satire and humor to handle big topics about race, class, and politics in America. This book follows a young man from California who eventually finds himself part of a case being heard at the Supreme Court. Beatty won the Man Booker Prize in 2016 for this work.
If you couldn’t stop thinking about the pencil (talisman) in James’s pocket:
All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles, Winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2021.2
If you need a rabbit hole to fall down and the Harlem Renaissance sounds interesting:
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray. Once again, Stevie went down one (as she is wont to do) while she was reading James—this time regarding black writers and the Harlem Renaissance. The route that got her there, you ask? It’s a fair question given that James seems a far cry from Harlem. It started because she couldn’t stop thinking about James’ line, “I wrote myself into being,” which got her thinking about prolific Black writers, which led her to the Harlem Renaissance. (There was also a Langston Hughes poem involved, which we share below.) Anyways, while Harlem Rhapsody is historical fiction, the protagonist, Jessie Redmon Fauset, was the in-real-life literary editor of The Crisis magazine, the official publication of NAACP. She helped discover and mentor other well-known Black writers, and Langston Hughes referred to her as the “literary midwife” of the Harlem Renaissance.
Jazz as Communication, an essay by Langston Hughes. Really, any poetry or prose by Hughes is powerful. The Poetry Foundation has a lot of his work open to the public. Hughes was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
If you want to read subversive works from Civil Rights era authors:
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. We couldn’t not mention Baldwin,3 and both Stevie and Cassie have Giovanni’s Room on their TBR shelves. Meaning we are selfishly hoping all of you will read it and discuss it with us over coffee. Cassie also has The Fire Next Time in her library Libby queue. Baldwin was a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement and wrote about sexuality, masculinity, race, and class—making his works rich in detail and emotion.
The poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. A contemporary of Baldwin, Brooks was also a powerhouse with the pen. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950 for her poetry collection Annie Allen. The Poetry Foundation also has some of her work accessible, like this lovely poem: kitchenette building.
Once again, if you’re excited about all of the above and now have an even larger TBR, but at this moment, you just want a some poetry to carry with you into your day, we leave you with this:
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
By Langston HughesI’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Which he credits to his dad, Mark Twain, Groucho Marx, and Bullwinkle.
Stevie listened to this one as an audiobook and enjoyed it but, in hindsight, wished she had read it in physical form as she just had a hard time getting into it via her ears.
Fun fact: It’s likely that Jessie Redmon Fauset mentored James Baldwin too as she was a teacher at his high school following her tenure at The Crisis.