Beacon Broadside

Fifty-Five Years Ago Today…

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Yes, this publicity hit is from February 26, 1958, but we didn't have a blog (much less the not-to-be-missed Beacon Buzz report) back then … The New York Times published this review of James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, written by Langston Hughes.

James Baldwin writes down to nobody, and he is trying very hard to write up to himself. As an essayist he is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves, to flow and beat, advance and retreat, rise and take a bow in disappearing. 

Read Edward P. Jones' introduction to our new edition of Notes of a Native Son on Scribd.

You can get a copy of our new edition of Notes of a Native Son (or any other African American Studies title) for 20% off and free shipping if you order with code FEB2013. Check out the details of our Black History Month Sale at Beacon.org.

Recent Notable Mentions

Into Great Silence: A
Memoir of Discovery and Loss among Vanishing Orcas by Eva Saulitis

OnEarth magazine’s profile of Eva
Saulitis, titled, “The Woman Who Loves Orcas” made the cover of their
Spring 13 issue.

She had heard killer whales
before, but this was "something other." Communicating across great
distances, they would caterwaul in long, siren-like cries, turned up at the end
as if they were questions. "This was a voice at once strident and
mournful," she writes in her memoir, "a strange hybrid instrument,
part trumpet, part oboe, part elephant, part foghorn. And loud." But when
the lone scouts were joined by more members of their group, the calls changed
to "upswept squawks punctuated by silence; bangs and cracks, like axe
blows against one-by planks, some we could attribute to fluke slaps, and some
not. Now and then a syncopated blast of echolocation, like automatic
gunfire." [Read More]

 

Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common
Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman

Q&A
with Chris Stedman on BuzzFeed.

 

Divided we Fail: The Story of an African
American Community that Ended the Era of School Desegregation by Sarah
Garland

C-SPAN/Book
TV aired their “After Words” episode with Sarah Garland interviewed by Marc
Lamont.

 

Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation
Is Shaping Our World by David D. Burstein

Write-up of Burstein’s Politics
and Prose event.

“Sick of getting a bum rap? Millenials fight back.” David Burstein
on MSNBC’s The Cycle.

Interview on The
Diane Rehm Show in a panel discussion titled “What It Means to be a
Millennial.”

Excerpt, “Millenials Will Save Us,” on Salon.com. 

“A Very Fast Future,” online at Forbes:

“FAST FUTURE is a fantastic read for anyone who is
curious about the mindset and perspective that the Millennial generation is
bringing to their businesses, their politics, and their personal lives.
Millennials will continue to shape that world as their ranks elevate to higher
levels in corporations and governments and, if FAST FUTURE is any indication,
they’ll not be shy about letting you know that they’ve arrived.” [Read
More]

 

Shout, Sister, Shout!:
The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by
Gayle Wald

Watch author Gayle Wald and be amazed by the
extraordinary guitar playing of “Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock
& Roll” on the PBS
American Masters website.

Excerpt
from Shout, Sister, Shout! featured
on Scribd’s homepage in their “Best of the Day” section.

Enter
to win a copy of Shout, Sister, Shout!
on Beacon.org

 

“In a Single Garment of Destiny”: A Global
Vision of Justice by Martin Luther King, Jr.

An excerpt, “Racism
and the World House” is now online at Yes!
Magazine.  

 

Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury
after War by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini

Featured in a Chicago Tribune column by Robert Koehler:

This remarkable book, published in 2012, takes a long,
hard look at the dehumanizing effects of war, through the experiences of a
number of vets from various wars (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) who share their
suffering — and bare their souls — to the authors.

"Soul Repair" is an assault on the mythology and public relations of
war, on the default setting of nationhood, that: "We sleep comfortably in
our beds at night because violent men do violence on our behalf." No
matter how many lies are at the foundation of a given war, no matter how
disastrously unnecessary and destructive it turns out to be in retrospect —
oops — the myth of war is ever-unsullied: This time the danger is really
there. This time it's crucial that we carpet bomb civilians, then send in our
boys and girls to clean out the enemy insurgents. This time it's really for
democracy and the American Dream and a good night's sleep.

 

Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of
Violence by Geoffrey Canada

On the Freakonomics
podcast, Steve Levitt calls Fist Stick Knife Gun: “one of the best books
I’ve ever read in my life. I urge people to go and find it. It’s fantastically
insightful.”

 

Coming Soon

Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods by
Christine Byl

Library Journal review: “This is no Walden: each chapter
begins with a meditation on a tool, including an axe, rock bar, chainsaw, and
skid steer… Byl’s writing is superb and doesn’t romanticize her dirty work.”

 

What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the
Practice of Medicine by Danielle Ofri

“Here is a book that is at once sad and joyful,
frightening and thought-provoking.  In her lucid and passionate
explanations of the important role that emotions play in the practice of
medicine and in healing and health, Danielle Ofri tells stories of great
importance to both doctors and patients.” Perri Klass, author of Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young
Doctor

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