3 Books to add to your reading list this month

Reading can help you do both. Check out these three books and consider adding them to your list of books to read this month or this year.

• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti–Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and anti-racists.

From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W. E. B. Du Bois to legendary anti–prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading pro-slavery and pro–civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America.

As Kendi illustrates, racist thinking did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Racist ideas were created and popularized in an effort to defend deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and to rationalize the nation’s racial inequities in everything from wealth to health. While racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much–needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers tools to expose them—and in the process, the reason to hope.

• Woman Evolve: Break Up with Your Fears and Revolutionize Your Life by Sarah Jakes Roberts

Reimagining the story of Eve, Sarah Jakes Roberts draws lessons from

Scripture and from her own life show women how to use the

mistakes of their past to overcome the challenges of today. Discover Sarah Jakes Roberts, with life lessons she’s learned and new insights from the story of Eve, shows you how the disappointments and even mistakes of your past can be used today to help you become the woman God intended.

Who would imagine being friends with Eve–the woman who’s been held solely responsible for the fall of humanity (and cramps) for thousands of years? Certainly not Sarah Jakes Roberts. That is, not until Sarah discovered she is more like Eve than she cares to admit. Everyone faces trials, and everyone will mess up. But failure should not be the focus.

Your focus should not be on who you were but rather on the pursuit of who you can become. In Woman Evolve, Sarah helps you to understand that your purpose in life does not change; it evolves.

• Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Tunde Oyeneyin

From Tunde Oyeneyin, the massively popular Peloton instructor, fitness star, and founder of SPEAK, comes an empowering, inspiring book about how she transformed grief, setbacks, and flaws into growth, self-confidence, and triumph—perfect for fans of Shonda Rhimes, Brene Brown, and Glennon Doyle.

On any given day, thousands of devoted people clip into their bikes and have their lives changed by Tunde Oyeneyin. From her platform in a Peloton studio, she encourages riders with her trademark blend of positivity, empathy, and motivational “Tunde-isms” to push themselves to their limits both on and off the bike.

Now, fans and readers everywhere can learn about her personal journey, and discover how they too can “live a life of purpose, on purpose” with Speak, a memoir-manifesto-guide to life inspired by her immensely popular Instagram Live series of the same name.