What are your favorite books about Oakland?
Arguably the most foundational Oakland book from the past decade is “There There,” by Tommy Orange. Orange writes vignettes from the perspectives of different Native characters across the U.S. who gather for the Big Powwow at the Oakland Coliseum. Somehow, Orange’s sophomore novel, “Wandering Stars,” gives us even more Oakland, expanding through time and neighborhoods in his unforgettable voice. Yes, this is the Oakland we love: vibrant, scrappy and complex. And what a relief it is to finally see it woven in the glorious thread of language.
Young adult novels get a bad rap, maybe because, even when we were teenagers, we wanted more from the stories we were given and assume the same lack from the Y.A. that exists today. But Carolina Ixta’s debut Y.A. novel, “Shut Up, This Is Serious,” proves that it is possible — and vital — to give young people a story that is rooted and complicated, crafted by an author who believes these readers are competent enough to handle an honest depiction of Mexican American girlhood in East Oakland. Ixta tells a compelling and beautifully written coming-of-age story, and even if you’re not a young person, you will find this is one of the most nuanced contemporary novels set in Oakland.
What should I read to learn about the Black Panthers?
You cannot read the Bay Area without understanding the impact of the Black Panthers. In particular, Oakland’s history of resistance has an important place in the archives of the Black Power movement and its continuation in Black Lives Matter and beyond. “Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton,” by Bobby Seale, and “Revolutionary Suicide,” Huey P. Newton’s autobiography, are important, but Elaine Brown’s memoir “A Taste of Power” deserves more attention as the firsthand account of the only chairwoman of the Black Panther Party in the organization’s history and a critical examination of misogyny within the movement.
You can find these books, and more by and about Black activists, at Marcus Books, one of the oldest Black-owned independent bookstores in the United States, which stocks classics as well as work from local authors and independent presses.
Where should I go to read at U.C. Berkeley?
Visit the Morrison Library, a beautiful, electronics-free reading room, and read cult classics by Berkeley alumni like Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s mesmerizing “Dictee,” which grapples with language in unexpected ways. You can also explore books by writers who taught at the university and left their mark on the literature of the Bay Area, such as “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker, and “Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems,” by June Jordan.
