keeping track

Three-quarters of the way through 2015 and I've read 31 books. Just started number 32 (Coming Into the Country, although I may sub it out for something that lends itself to more stop-start reading than McPhee unleashed). Of those, 15.5 are by women (one co-authorship, Law and the Rise of Capitalism, I'm counting as 0.5), and nine are by people of color. Doing pretty well on the don't-just-read-books-by-white-men score.

paradise

Loved it, although I'm certain that plenty of the references and nuances went over my head. Morrison is an unbelievable writer and at times she can go word for word with pretty much anyone else, ever. The story is spooky and sad and somehow easier to understand than Beloved, which I also loved. It meanders and builds slowly and by the time I was 70 or 80 pages of the end she'd tightened the noose and I could hardly put the book down. Took longer to read than novels usually do because of the quality and density of the prose.

between the world and me

Yes. Toni Morrison is right. Brilliant. 

the warmth of other suns

Gripping and enlightening.