Person
Every book Wesley Morris recommended on podcasts
Wesley Morris is a prominent culture writer and critic who has discussed literature and history on various podcast episodes of The Book Review. Morris mentioned reading George Schuyler's satirical novel Black No More for a second time, highlighting its themes. He also discussed reading Nancy Isenberg's White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of White People in America to better understand historical class structures and whiteness in the United States. In conversations about notable nonfiction, Morris talked about Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me and shared insights drawn from Matthew Desmond's book Evicted regarding the harsh realities of urban poverty. Additionally, Morris reflected on his lifelong engagement with the works of Toni Morrison, recalling how he first discovered The Bluest Eye in high school, attempted to read Beloved when he was eleven years old, checked out a copy of Tar Baby from his high school library, and evaluated Morrison's later novel Paradise during a discussion on the author's enduring literary legacy.
Books recommended by Wesley Morris
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Evicted
Evicted by Matthew Desmond is a non-fiction sociological study detailing the severe housing crisis, poverty, and urban decline experienced by low-income residents in Milwaukee.
Discussed“and I was reading if you read the Matthew Desmond book the most shocking evicted the most shocking thing in that book to me is the desperate certainty”
Where to get it
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White trash
White Trash by Nancy Isenberg is a comprehensive work of nonfiction that explores four hundred years of the untold history of class, poverty, and whiteness in America.
Discussed“so I'm reading the the Nancy Eisenberg book White Trash the 400 year Untold History of white people in America”
Where to get it
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Black No More
Black No More by George Schuyler is a satirical science fiction novel exploring the societal chaos that erupts when a medical procedure allows Black Americans to magically turn white.
Recommended“well I am reading for the second time George Schuler's black no more”
Where to get it
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Beloved
Beloved by Toni Morrison is a powerful historical fiction novel that tells the harrowing story of Sethe, an escaped enslaved woman haunted by the trauma of her past and the literal ghost of her daughter.
Discussed“I tried to read beloved first oh yeah when I was 11 years old I tried to read beloved”
Where to get it
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Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a powerful, epistolary memoir structured as a letter from a father to his teenage son regarding the realities of growing up Black in America.
Discussed“tas's book came out you know a year ago a couple weeks ago and I think I might have looked at it the week after it came out the the book and then I looked at it in February and it was still on the list”
Where to get it
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Paradise
Discussed“Paradise I agree with Dwight that it does suffer in some ways from being overwritten”
Where to get it
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Sula
Sula by Toni Morrison is a powerful and lyrical novel that examines the complex, lifelong friendship between two Black women growing up in a small Ohio town while confronting the oppressive weight of racism and community expectations.
Discussed“and yeah I think my Katie had read she had read Sula because that was the book that I was most fascinated to read”
Where to get it
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Tar Baby
Toni Morrison's novel Tar Baby received thoughtful reflection and recommendation across multiple episodes of The Book Review in July 2024.
Discussed“and then a couple years later I checked out a copy of tar baby this this very Edition um from my my high school library”
Where to get it
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The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's devastating debut novel that explores the destructive impact of societal beauty standards and systemic racism on a young Black girl growing up in mid-century America.
Discussed“and and one day one of them pushed Across The Bluest Eye by Tony Morrison”
Where to get it
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecting the Dots Between Reconstruction and Jim Crow | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 1 |
| From the Archives: Colson Whitehead and Jeffrey Toobin | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 3 |
| Toni Morrison's Legacy | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 5 |
| Inside The New York Times Book Review: Colson Whitehead and Jeffrey Toobin | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 2 |
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“there was this book that this woman had written about slavery and I don't know if at the time it was like talked about as like in some way related to roots or what”
“I know Leon Urus it's not really I read all of exodus”
“there's the JD Vance book which I haven't Hill I haven't gotten it yet”