Episode 30 - On the Edge of Heartbreak with Cynthia Okechukwu

On this episode, Cynthia Okechukwu, the founder of Black Girls Read Chicago, and I discuss books that make you cry, her love of hardcover books, and what kinds of audiobooks work for both of us. She also gets to share an incredible story of getting a critical book put into her hands at a young age.    Black Girls Read Chicago Instagram  The Read & Run Chicago Gift Guide    Books mentioned in this episode:    What Betsy’s reading:  The City and It’s Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami  How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix  Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman   Books Highlighted by Cynthia: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou  The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn  The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison  Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine    All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.   Other books mentioned in this episode: Little House Box Set by Laura Ingalls Wilder  Matilda by Roald Dahl  Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe  Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing  Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson  Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport that Wasn't Built for Us by Alison Mariella Désir Will by Will Smith & Mark Manson The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey  Caucasia by Danzy Senna  It by Stephen King The Help by Kathryn Stockett