Amber

I am Assistant Manager and Left Bank Books Foundation Manager here at Left Bank. Coming from the nonprofit and racial justice world, I read a ton of nonfiction about race--justice, intergroup relations, implicit bias, race and social issues, etc. In nonfiction, I also get interested in women's issues and religion/theology. My original loves were in literary fiction, though: Southern literature, African American literature, Caribbean, Irish, Native American, Austrian.... all sorts connected to cultures around the globe. Favorite authors: William Faulkner, Jeanette Winterson, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Rainer Maria Rilke. Favorite animal: my cat, Celia. 

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Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual By Luvvie Ajayi Jones Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984881922
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Penguin Life - December 28th, 2021

LIke your best friend telling it to you straight, because she knows there is better living for you out there. Jones is honest, funny, loving, and challenging, because she wants the best for you and for the world.


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The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States By Walter Johnson Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781541619586
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Basic Books - July 6th, 2021

Well-researched, eye-opening, excellent. I recommend "The Broken Heart of America" especially to St. Louisans, but really to anyone who wants to better understand the history of racism and colonialism in the United States. Johnson's deep-dive is essentially a "people's history" of the United States using St. Louis as a (very poignant) case study.


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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781620971932
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: New Press - January 7th, 2020

A MUST READ! "The New Jim Crow" is essential reading for US History, racial justice, social justice, criminal justice, and any real understanding of our country. Learn the critical history of how slavery morphed into segregation, which morphed into mass incarceration. If we have any hope of building racial equity in the US, we must face the reality Michelle Alexander reveals in this text.


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A People's History of the United States (Modern Classics) By Howard Zinn Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780060838652
Availability: Special Order
(This book cannot be returned.)
Published: Harper Perennial - August 2nd, 2005

Most people in the US, especially White folks, were not taught the dark truths about racism and structural inequality in our society, country, or world. Part of doing our work to unlearn racism is learning the truth. "A People's History of the United States" is a good place to start. It was admittedly emotionally hard to read, but the truth is important to acknowledge and know. I recommend fighting your way through the hard parts. Howard Zinn, for example, doesn't tell the story of Columbus as a hero who "discovered America"--no, there were humans here before him, and Columbus was actually the perpetrator of genocide and many atrocities that our history books failed to teach us. Learn the truth!


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Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort By Andrea S. Boyles Cover Image
$29.95
ISBN: 9780520282391
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: University of California Press - August 1st, 2015

Andrea Boyles does a deep ethnographic study of Meacham Park and Kirkwood, neighborhoods just outside the city of St. Louis. She looks at the history of Meacham Park, an historically Black neighborhood, and how it was annexed into Kirkwood, a mostly White suburb. The annexation took place after some shady dealings and led to half of Meacham Park being demolished and replaced with a shopping center, among other tragedies. There's been a lot of research on urban policing in Black communities, but Boyles was interested in what policing of Black communities looks like in a suburban context. Really insightful and interesting.


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A People's History of the United States By Howard Zinn Cover Image
$22.99
ISBN: 9780062397348
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Harper Perennial Modern Classics - November 17th, 2015

Heartbreaking, beautiful, relevant, and true. Toni Morrison is a must.


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The Souls of Black Folk: With
By W. E. B. Du Bois, Ibram X. Kendi (Introduction by), Monica E. Elbert (Notes by)
$14.00
ISBN: 9780140189988
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Penguin Classics - April 1st, 1996

Foundational philosophical work around race in America. Read it.


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Zami: A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography By Audre Lorde Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780895941220
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Crossing Press - January 1st, 1982

A queer, feminist, Black woman's experience growing up in America in mostly urban settings in the mid-20th century. Beautiful, honest writing, as only Audre Lorde can do. Important reading.


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What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays By Damon Young Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780062684318
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Ecco - January 14th, 2020

Damon Young began writing as a pop-culture blogger, but this memoir shares his experience growing up Black in Pittsburgh. He illustrates how living as a Black man in America can create neurosis, because one never knows if someone is interacting with you a certain way because you are Black or just because they're having a bad day. An amazing, deep, funny, contemporary account of what Black experience can be like in the United States.


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Broken (in the best possible way) By Jenny Lawson Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250077035
Availability: Backordered
Published: Henry Holt and Co. - April 6th, 2021

Jenny Lawson is so good at being vulnerable, funny, profound, and totally weird all at the same time. In "Broken," she shares her tumultuous journey with mental illness in a way that is relatable and heart-warming, spattered with hilarious tangents that show how joy intersects even the most difficult times.


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Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto By Tricia Hersey Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780316365215
Availability: Ships quickly (1-7 days)
Published: Little, Brown Spark - October 11th, 2022

"Rest Is Resistance" is the word our society has desperately needed. The Nap Bishop, as the author Tricia Hersey is called, isn't here to make an intellectual argument for rest--she doesn't need to do that labor for us--but rather to chant into our souls the truth of our worthiness and divine right to rest. Take each page as a guided meditation as you take in over and over, WE WILL REST.


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When Women Were Dragons: A Novel By Kelly Barnhill Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780385548229
Availability: Ships quickly (1-7 days)
Published: Doubleday - May 3rd, 2022

Barnhill is a master of complexity in this wonderful imagining of our world with women and other gender-marginalized people able to "dragon." I am not usually a fantasy reader, but this tale was grounded and realistic enough for me to really enjoy and appreciate. The exploration of the experiences of women is deeply relatable, thoughtfully constructed, and moving.


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Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey By Florence Williams Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781324050452
Availability: Ships quickly (1-7 days)
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - February 14th, 2023

An intimate memoir of divorce intertwined with scientific research on how heartbreak affects the body. It is amazing how the body expresses our emotions and reacts to our experiences, from literal cardiac arrest to the gene expression in our cells. This is a fascinating, thoughtful read that put me in quite a reflective mood, revisiting the heartbreaks of my own life.


Liberated to the Bone: Histories. Bodies. Futures. By Susan Raffo Cover Image
$22.00
ISBN: 9781849354653
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: AK Press - November 15th, 2022

I have been curious about somatics and bodywork for a while now and this was a great deeper dive. Part speaking to the layperson, part to actual practitioners, this overview explains healing justice, bodywork, trauma, and how these all impact individuals and collectives. Our bodies live out our trauma, and thus our trauma informs our movement work. We cannot ignore healing ourselves and our societies if we want lasting change.


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The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality By Angela Saini Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780807093337
Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Published: Beacon Press - February 27th, 2024

Is patriarchy natural? Is it the way things always have been and always will be? Saini goes deep into the archeological records to explore and question the evidence tied to gender power structures all the way back to early human times. What she finds is an unexpected diversity in who holds power among cultures across time and place. She calls on us to critique our own biased lenses through which we interpret history, as what is possible may be more broad than we assume.


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What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat By Aubrey Gordon Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9780807014776
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Beacon Press - November 16th, 2021

A poignant analysis of how fatphobia isn't only an interpersonal wrong, but also a systemic injustice being actively perpetrated against fat people and harming all people. I was challenged to think about things I hadn't before and learned tons about how body size garners scrutiny, violence, and institutional oppression. It is urgent to everyone's well-being--fat people's, skinny people's, society's--that we wake up, start dismantling these injustices, and affirm all bodies as they are.


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Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir By Erika L. Sánchez Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593296950
Availability: On Our Shelves (Note - We update this inventory once per day.)
Published: Penguin Books - July 11th, 2023

A moving, honest, raw, and funny look into Sánchez's life growing up Mexican American, feeling out of place in herself, her family, and her country. I enjoyed journeying with her through all those moments in her awkward young life that most would be too embarrassed to share, but made her the unapologetic, beautiful person she is today