Por DENISE SMITH<\/p>\n
February is Black History Month. During 2019, we saw some big award winners released that focus on the African American experience. Michelle Obama\u2019s \u201cBecoming,\u201d a memoir by the former first lady that chronicles the experiences that have shaped her life, from her childhood in Chicago through her setbacks and achievements in the White House, was a best seller and in high demand at the La Mesa Branch Library. The New York Times placed it on their \u201c100 Notable Books\u201d list for nonfiction and memoir categories. \u201cBecoming\u201d is the La Mesa Library\u2019s Book Club selection for discussion on Feb. 19, at 10:30 a.m. A copy can be picked up at the front desk.<\/p>\n
\u201cNickel Boys,\u201d Colson Whitehead\u2019s follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize winner for \u201cUnderground Railroad,\u201d chronicles the daring survival story of a cotton plantation slave in Georgia, who, after suffering at the hands of both her owners and fellow slaves, races through the Underground Railroad with a relentless slave-catcher close behind. This novel was also placed on the New York Times Notable Books list for fiction and won the Kirkus Prize for fiction, one of the richest literary prizes in the world.<\/p>\n
Finally, we saw the release of the movie \u201cIf Beale Street Could Talk,\u201d based on the novel by James Baldwin. This movie, about a woman in Harlem desperately scrambling to prove her fianc\u00e9 innocent of a crime while carrying their first child, won both an Oscar and Golden Globe.<\/p>\n
Looking forward, the following February releases are available to put on request.<\/p>\n
\u201cDriving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights,\u201d by Gretchen Sorin, explores the African American mobility experience from the antebellum through the 1960s, going beyond what we saw in the Best Picture Oscar winner. Sorin recounts the freedom and restrictions the open road offered to many in a car during this era.<\/p>\n
Walter Mosley, known for his great American noir writing, gives us another entry into his \u201cLeonid McGill\u201d series, with \u201cTrouble Is What I Do.\u201d Detective Leonid McGill is forced to confront the ghost of his felonious past when a 92-year-old Mississippi bluesman is targeted by an infamous assassin.<\/p>\n