About the book, BlackTold: 33 Dynamic Essays fron Andscape 
• Publisher: Hyperion Avenue (October 4, 2022)
• Hardcover: 304 pages
ESPN’s website, The Undefeated, publishes content that explores how race and identity impact American culture. This will be a collection of the best articles published on the site. Timely and relevant, BlackTold will cover current events such as the BLM movement, the Covid-19 pandemic, race and the NFL, and more.
Here’s a sample of some of the articles that will be included:
George Floyd’s mother was not there, but he used her as a sacred invocation. With his dying breaths, Floyd called for her as an assurance of memory.
The importance of Chadwick Boseman to African Culture
In many ways, Black Panther helped normalize African heritage and style in popular culture by truly celebrating it.
Naomi Osaka made sure Black lives mattered at the U.S. Open
She’s grown more sophisticated in how she discusses race, and more comfortable with doing so publicly
Can a black heroine fix the racist stereotypes infecting ‘King Kong’?
In new Broadway production, actress Christiani Pitts steps into the role first made famous by Fay Wray
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About the editor, Steve Reiss
Steve Reiss is the Executive Editor for Culture and Enterprise at Andscape. He has held leadership positions at many of the leading journalism outlets in the U.S., including the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, Crain Communications, and ESPN. He has worked with several winners of the Pulitzer Prize and of numerous other awards. He is the editor of the New York Times bestseller The Fierce 44: Black Americans Who Shook Up The World.
My Thoughts 
This collection of essays from Black writers should be required reading for all non-Black Americans. It is poignant. It is powerful. It is honest. And it is beautiful.
Each essay exposes a different aspect of life as a Black person in America. Some of the themes, such as the fact that everyone calls for their mother at their last hour – are universal, though the essay about George Floyd was not. It’s about more than just the facts of his murder at the hands of police, and it’s hardly the most difficult read in the collection, but it’s the first essay in the book, and that gives it extra impact.
Grouped into sections such as “Black Lives Matter,” “American History,” “Arts and Culture,” and “Sports” these essays run through every aspect of life, whether or not they’re about the Utah Jazz basketball players, identifying with Breonna Taylor, or talking about “Black Twitter” these essays are informative, thought provoking, and brilliant. As a recent emigre to Florida, the piece that struck me most was “The Gut-Wrenching History of Black Babies and Alligators, by Domonique Foxworth which not only discusses the way we weigh human life against animal life, but also talks about a particularly heinous piece of American history.
“Can you imagine an America when that was not true? Can you imagine an America when a child’s life was so insignificant that he was intentionally put into the pen of a dangerous zoo animal? An America when a child was intentionally placed at the edge of alligator-infested waters to lure the ferocious beast for hunters?” Foxworth writes, and then explains that using Black children – Black babies – as gator bait used to be standard practice.
Overall, this collection, carefully curated from ESPN’s website The Undefeated gives us a much-needed look into the truth of Black life in America. Hopefully, we will learn from it.
Check out the Other Participants on This Tour: 
Wednesday, October 19th: Instagram: @amysbooketlist
Tuesday, November 1st: Instagram: @naturegracereader
Thursday, November 3rd: Instagram: @kelly_hunsaker_reads
Monday, November 14th: TikTok: @thelife0fbooks
Thursday, November 17th: Instagram: @turnxthexpage
Friday, November 18th: Instagram: @shook_sbooks
Monday, November 21st: A Bookish Way of Life
Monday, November 28th: TikTok: @storytimewithshelbs
Monday, November 28th: Instagram: @bathtubbookworm
TBD: Friday, November 25th: Bibliotica
About the book, Birding Basics
Like the author who, according to some biographies, “grew up Geographic,” the familiar yellow rectangle that represents the National Geographic magazine has been part of my entire life. Once, I was even on a plane to La Paz, BCS, Mexico when I realized most of the men on the plane were wearing black baseball caps with that logo. It took me a moment to realize they were all photographers on their way to meet the National Geographic Society’s boat for a photography excursion. My point in relating this is that reading about one of the men “behind the scenes” of one of my favorite institutions was a natural choice for me. I love biographies. I grew up on National Geographic magazine and the TV specials and I even had a subscription to National Geographic World, which was designed for kids, when I was ten. When something is imprinted with that yellow rectangle, you know you can trust it.
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