The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row - Anthony Ray Hinton

Over the past couple of years, I have tried to focus on black authors for the month of February. I had taken a look at the authors I was reading and found that I was gravitating to authors that looked a lot like me, namely white women of means. It's probably why I didn't understand the controversy surrounding the book, The Help (I went to an author talk and was quoted in a Chicago Tribune story about how much I liked the book - gulp). So I started reading more black authors and listening more intently to black voices. And what I learned, was that I knew nothing.

The Sun Does Shine was my fifth book for Black History Month. I had just finished Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy and Anthony Ray Hinton is mentioned towards the end. So although I felt tired and worn down by stories of racial injustice in our criminal prosecution system, I felt compelled to read Ray's story.

Five books. I felt worn down by the black experience. All those stories of marginalization, silencing, tone policing, tokenism, violence. I had READ them. So what does this kind of racism do to those that live these lives? It weathers them. (There's a very good article explaining just what "weathering" is here: https://psmag.com/social-justice/raci....) I work in health care. I'm aware of the health discrepancies between whites and minorities. And I too thought it was likely due to income inequality, but it's so much more insidious than this. 

Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on Alabama's death row as an innocent man. The shear magnitude of this injustice cannot be counted in days or dollars. That the state continued to deprive him of his freedom even when confronted with its inadequate evidence was so infuriating to read. When confronted with proof of innocence, the state was more willing to turn away from the proof to maintain a status quo. What was one more black man in the penitentiary system anyway?

While I was reading this book, the State of Alabama executed Nathaniel Woods. While serving an arrest warrant on Mr. Woods, police entered the house to arrest him and he surrendered. Woods' roommate, fearing he would be arrested, opened fire killing three officers and wounding a fourth. Both men were sentenced to death in Alabama. The state argued that Woods was just as culpable under a theory of accomplice murder, even though he never fired a shot and was in the process of surrendering when the officers were killed. Woods had not lived a perfect life. But he was black. The officers were white, and this was Alabama. And the old me, that person attending a reading of The Help, might have scoffed at the idea that race had anything to do with it. But that person didn't know that 84% of executions in modern era Alabama have been for crimes involving white victims, even though only 20% of the state's homicide victims are white. (you can read more about Nathaniel Woods here).

We could also discuss that in Alabama a jury can recommend life in prison, but the judge can override this decision and sentence a prisoner to death. Or that only 10/2 jurors can recommend the death penalty. Or that Alabama has no state-funded system for providing lawyers to death row prisoners. Don't have money? Your appointed lawyer will be given $1,000 to mount your defense and it's likely he/she has never defended a capital case before. It doesn't take common sense to understand that rich people with endless resources and money avoid the death penalty.

Yet this is a system that millions insist is providing value to our country. This is a system that has executed more than 1,500 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 but has exonerated more than 160 since 1973. This is an error rate that can't be ignored, unless you're okay with the idea of executing innocent people.

I wish Anthony Ray Hinton many more years of freedom and if I'm ever blessed enough to hear him speak in person I will be sure to tell him that our country doesn't deserve the grace he showed in "weathering" this type of injustice. 

4/5 Stars. 

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption - Bryan Stevenson

There's a wonderful momentum in setting a wrong right. There's an incredible grace in redemption and acceptance. Bryan Stevenson is a vessel of grace. Through the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson brings hope, comfort, acceptance, and redemption to those to whom the "justice" system in our country has terribly failed.

In Just Mercy, Stevenson says again and again that people are more than the worst thing they have ever done. It's one thing to say this kind of thing, but it's another to actually believe it, and through your life and actions, show others that this is true.

The history of the death penalty in the United States is a shameful story of unequal application disproportionately affecting the poor and people of color. How then is it justice? (spoiler alert, it's not). The fact that this country has absolutely put to death innocent people should give anyone pause as they talk about the reasonableness of the ultimate punishment. Couple this inexact science with the long history of racial discrimination in this country and you have a disgraceful recipe for injustice in the name of justice.

When Stevenson graduated from Harvard Law School, he set about with a mission to help others. And over the past couple of decades, he's done just that. He's championed cases such as that of Walter McMillan, sentenced to death in Alabama for a crime he did not commit, and of hundreds of children serving life sentences in our nation's penitentiaries. There is a better way, and it's because of people like Bryan Stevenson and his tireless fight for justice reform that we may someday earn the description "justice system."

5/5 Stars. 

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

I shouldn't be, but am surprised continually about the cruelty inflicted upon children by the adults into whose care those children are entrusted, whether that is through institutions and governments or by birth. It's so painful to see young hearts and minds wounded by cruelty and neglect. And in The Nickel Boys, Whitehead delivers cruelty and neglect in spades.

Based upon real events at the Dozier School in Florida's panhandle in the 50s through 70s, The Nickel Boys follows Elwood Curtis, a curious and sensitive boy, through his early childhood and into the injustice which puts him at the mercy of The Nickel School and its sadistic administrators.

You see, Elwood has a touch of the principle in him. He's idealistic. He believes in righteousness and fairness. He's been inspired by the speeches of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Unjustly sentenced as he is, he has no survival skills for a place like Nickel. Taken under the wing of a savvy boy named Turner, Elwood tries, and fails, to overlook the gross incompetence and flagrant corruption that keeps Nickel's leadership flush with pocket money and influence in the community.

That Elwood does not belong there is so obvious, and the atmosphere around every page that Elwood inhabits is so full of anxiety for his safety, that this book's short length is a gift because the pain in contains is immense.

I don't want to give too much else away except to say that survivors of the Dozier School, like their fictional counterparts at Nickel, have formed a support group and the shared trauma of their experience is something no one should have to suffer. Perhaps how a society treats its vulnerable children is telling more about the society than the children caught up in its disciplinary systems.

The Nickel Boys is a hard read emotionally, but for the understanding and empathy it encourages, it is an important one too.

4/5 Stars. 

Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

I finished this book this month shortly before the passing of Katherine Johnson who lived a long and distinguished life and is a real American hero.  My daughter has a children's book about Katherine that she loves to read. 

Hidden Figures is an impeccably researched book that follows the lives of the first black Computers at NACA (later NASA). These brilliant minds like Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson worked their way up through a system that was stacked against them to gain success and respect. The fact that Katherine Johnson was brilliant enough to probably be a head at NASA is not lost on the reader, but in the 1950s-1970s, that was just not going to happen for a black woman and it's truly NASA's loss.

I loved the strong supportive community Shetterly describes among the women of West Computing. That Dorothy and Mary both made choices to boost up others around them for opportunities and deserved accolades at the expense of their own career trajectories.

The scope of the book was enormous. Beginning in the late years of WWII through the hey day of the space program, Hidden Figures sheds light on the contributions of black women and some men to the programs that shaped our imaginations and air superiority. I loved the extra details about Nichelle Nichols and how Martin Luther King Jr. himself convinced her to stick with Star Wars to show that science and the future was multi-racial and multi-gender.

While this book can get a little tedious when the science meets the page, it's the enduring spirit of Dorothy, Mary, and Katherine that keep bringing the reader back to the text.

4/5 Stars. 

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

I'm going to say this one more time in case anyone missed my multiple IG posts, but I'm going to be an Angie Thomas fan for life. The Hate U Give (THUG) is the second Angie Thomas book I've read this year and I stand by my earlier review of On the Come Up that her writing feels real and her characters are authentic. Too many times YA novels get teens wrong, or work too hard to teach lessons that the authors forget to include real people with real issues. Kids are a lot like adults in that they're complex and full of conflicting motivations - they just haven't figured out how to fake it yet.

THUG wastes no time setting up the central conflict - namely that the protagonist Star Carter is present when a police traffic stop ends with the murder of her friend Khalil. Star tries to process her heartbreak over the death of her friend, her own trauma of witnessing it first hand, and the complex social set she's created for herself by attending an exclusive private school. All of these things inform who she is and how she reacts to the situation.

Star's mother and father present as strong parental figures in the story, with both of them providing stability and strength to Star in her time of need. That her father is an ex-gang member who is constantly battling with figures from his past, complicates their family life, but the love they share between them is real and deep.

I basically loved every character in this book (except King and Haley obviously) but each character is used for a specific purpose and creates such a vivid picture. The overarching theme of police shootings is timely and presented in a way that even real dummies should be able to understand the human cost of police violence.

I'm planting my flag in the Angie Thomas fan club soil. I'm going to read whatever she comes out with next. 

5/5 Stars. 

The Power - Naomi Alderman

Well well well. I do love a good premise and The Power has that in spades. Imagine if women evolved to have electrical power that made them physically stronger than men. How would society look? This book turns on its head the notion that women are more compassionate and thoughtful leaders because of our nature. How about instead, because we have an intimate knowledge of fear caused by intimidation and oppression, we are more inclined to show compassion. Once that fear is gone, well... maybe we'd just be like every other dictator hell bent on power.

And really, is The Power a nod to the actual power of electricity experienced by the women in the book, or the overall balance of power that shifts once women are able to physically overpower men. It's clever. Very clever.

The book is full of men railing against the injustice of women who are able to physically dominate them, as they begin to travel in groups or take precautions against sexual assault. It's so unfair they decry. And it is. Because sexual assault is terrible and awful, but does it drive home for men what maybe the experience of a woman has been like all these years?

The female news anchor now has a knowing look when her older male colleague makes a snide offensive remark. Is it really not surprising when he's exchanged with a younger male host who's good looks and talent are relegated to the cooking and soft segments of the morning news. The people want to hear the hard news from the stronger anchor.

Clever again. I mean, the most clever part of the book is taking a concept which I would typically support, the strengthening of women to the point where they could no longer be victimized and makes it so very unappealing as women begin to commit the very atrocities that are so reprehensible today.

A well done look at a very fascinating premise.

4/5 Stars. 

One of Us Is Lying - Karen McManus

Seriously, the title of this book could be "All of Us Are Lying." Every single one of these kids had something to hide and was lying about something throughout the book. But, I actually grew to like them.

One of Us Is Lying follows five kids in detention - Bronwyn - The Brain, Addie - The Princess, Cooper - The Athlete, Nate - A Criminal and Simon - The Basketcase. By the end of detention, Simon is dead and everyone else is a suspect.

The narration skips between the "Bayview Four" and does a really great job slowly teasing out their hidden secrets. I really liked trying to figure out what they were hiding and how it made a difference in solving the mystery of who killed Simon. I also liked the way McManus shows the developing relationships between the four as they bond over their shared experience.

The book read true to teenage issues and the narrator's voices were genuine. Sometimes YA literature can go to the bad condescending place or be overly cerebral. My favorite character was Addie because I thought she grew the most out of all the characters and she ended up being a bit of a bad ass at the end.

I know there is a sequel, and I'm going to read it. But I'm not really sure where they can go from here.

3.75/5 Stars.