I can own up to my history

The following were books I finished reading during the month of June.

• Gwendy's Magic Feather - Richard Chizmar
• The Hard Way - Lee Child
• Freakcidents - Michael A. Arnzen
• The Devil's Dreamland - Sara Tantlinger
• Misery and Death and Everthing Depressing - C.V. Hunt
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
• White Fragility - Robin Deangelo
• If You Died Tomorrow I Would Eat Your Corpse - Wrath James White
• If It Bleeds - Stephen King

I've been pushing myself to read more poetry, and I've had some terrific recommendations from Stephanie M. Wytovich, with whom I've been working as part of a mentorship program through Crystal Lake Publishing. She has provided so much help with my own writing, and her recommendations for new poets have been spot on.

My favorite read on the poetry tip this month is easily The Devil's Dreamland, which is an entire volume based on the gruesome history of H.H. Holmes, whose killing spree in Chicago I originally read about in The Devil in the White City. Tantlinger's verse is both narrative and vivid, and just a lot of fun to read.

And then there were important things that I read this month. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and White Fragility are different types of books, and they deliver on different messages naturally. As a white dude coming from a long line of white men in America it was valuable for me to take in more information this month on the responsibility I bear in addressing the legacy of race and oppression in this country. I have work to do, and people who look like me have a lot of work to do. It starts with learning.