Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

Part-memoir, part–literary study, this book has something for everyone. Griffin (English, comparative literature, and African American studies, Columbia Univ.; Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II) tells her own history, intertwined with analyses of Toni Morrison’s novels, Barack Obama’s autobiography, and other Black literature. Griffin includes excerpts and context from the texts, so readers don’t need to have read them (though Griffin encourages it). The book is organized thematically instead of chronologically, illustrating that the works often mirror contemporary Black experiences regardless of their age. Griffin writes evocatively about themes of joy, beauty, love, justice, mercy, and death, with concise language and varied sentence structures. When she describes her experience of her father’s death, the sentences are short and urgent, matching her worry and confusion; in the chapter on beauty, the sentences become more elegant and descriptive.