Waking Up White by Debby Irving
This is an interesting blend of story of personal journey to awareness and attempt at creating awareness in a very specific audience. To the extent that it avoids sounding didactic, I think it’s primarily by making it personal to her — and never shying away from detailing the sometimes humiliating mistakes she has made herself. So many personal books I enjoy do this. Who’s the biggest asshole in the book? The author herself, and she always owns up.
It comes with a “question for you to consider” at the end of each chapter that I could’ve done without — a lot of them felt like they were only designed for one answer. I wonder how the book would be for someone whose background is very different from hers.
Amy P. Knight 