I quietly wonder if the longing ever goes away. This is November, the month of my mother’s death in 1983, and even though the pain has long gone away, the longing lingers. It was whipped up yesterday, like a storm whips waves across the ocean, when I had an unusual encounter.

Walking in the late afternoon, without the dog as luck would have it, I saw an owl, perched at shoulder height at the side of the path, well camouflaged from afar. I immediately thought of my mother who had a collector’s affinity to all things owl, don’t ask me why. The memory of that association has taken root in my own life, with friends and children keeping a tiny bit of memorial flame alive when they playfully allude to owls in our interactions. Since I don’t collect anything, I sometimes wonder what kind of association will endure beyond my own demise, that easily translates into spontaneous reminiscence when you see something. Crows, for all I know. Oh well.

The owl let me approach to never before encountered levels of closeness to an animal in the wild, about two meters, and checked out my iPhone which was all I had to take the pictures. She then chucked out a pellet of unknown lunch remnants right in front of my feet and continued to stare at me. When I finally left she flew away only when I turned around for one last time.

So, in this week dedicated to strong women, here’s a shout out to my mother and what would be her current reading list, if she was still around, of books written by even stronger women. (Shamelessly stolen from an essay by Kendi reflecting on Black women authors.) The perfect reminder that we have to look forwards, not backwards, but that revisiting the past can at times make a huge difference.

The Yellow House: A Memoir, by Sarah M. Broom

A finalist for the National Book Award, The Yellow House is a moving and intensely told story of 100 years of Broom’s family and their relationship to home place, to the unruly shotgun home in a neglected area of New Orleans that was devastated before and by Hurricane Katrina.

Everything Inside: Stories, by Edwidge Danticat

One of the greatest short-story writers of our time returns with these eight forceful, emotionally gripping stories set from Miami to the Caribbean and beyond, stories that unlock the forces that drive us away and together.

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, by Imani Perry

Raw, reflective, regal, this letter to Perry’s two sons is simultaneously an intimate love message of construction inside her home and a missive outside her home to destroy the racist forces not holding her black sons—all black children—as dear, as dearly human.

Crossfire: A Litany for Survival, by Staceyann Chin

This is the highly anticipated first full-length collection of poems—in all their power and force and vulnerability—from a respected spoken-word poet who is magnificently queering American letters.

Grand Union: Stories, by Zadie Smith (I might give her another try – I did NOT like her novels.)

In the first story collection of this critically acclaimed writer, Smith clenches us to the haunting legacies of history, identity, rebirth, and to the mysterious futures coming down on us.

Sulwe, by Lupita Nyong’o, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

A powerful critique of colorism for children, this book takes us on a magical journey into the darkness of night to see all its beauty—and I’ve already taken that journey several times with my daughter.

Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim, by Leah Vernon

As this incredibly instructive memoir asks us, if Vernon can find her way to live unapologetically as a big-bodied black Muslim woman, if she can own the rebellion that is her body and hold her hijab-covered head high as people look down on her, then why can’t anyone living in an othered body—then why can’t we?

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Longlisted for the National Book Award, Race for Profit masterfully dissects how exploitative and racist real-estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned in 1968, with policies ostensibly encouraging low-income black homeownership that ended up opening the doors to new methods of exploiting black homeowners.

She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

She Came to Slay provides a genre-bending and stunning blend of traditional biography, illustrations, photos, numbers, and engrossing sidebars to illuminate the incredible life of Harriet Tubman in an exciting new form.

The Revisioners: A Novel, by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

The Revisioners intricately probes and reveals the depths of women’s relationships, from the powerful to the marginalized, especially the bonds across the color line that make and break those relationships, and their generational legacies.

Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise of America, by Karine Jean-Pierre

Jean-Pierre inspires us to get involved in politics—every single one of us, no matter where we are from or who we are—by remarkably sharing her unlikely march from New York’s Haitian community to Barack Obama’s White House to the clear-eyed MSNBC contributor she is today.

White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue … and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation, by Lauren Michele Jackson

An incredible reimagining of Norman Mailer’s infamous 1957 essay of a similar name, White Negroes confronts the normalization of black cultural appropriation for white profit, issuing a clarion call for a truly empowered and compensated creative black community.

Black Towns, Black Futures: The Enduring Allure of a Black Place in the American West, by Karla Slocum

Drawing on years of interviews and observations, Slocum’s fascinating book examines Oklahoma’s historic black towns from their marginality at the junction of black and rural to their serving as sacred places that affirm dreams of black self-determination and community empowerment.

Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel, by Bernardine Evaristo

This fast-paced, rhythmically composed, heart-rending Booker Prize winner centralizes and gives voice to 12 unforgettable black British women characters who are often marginalized and silenced in Britain due to their race, gender, sexual orientation, and class.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance, by Tomi Adeyemi (I devoured the first volume!)

The second title in Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, it is a spectacular sequel to Adeyemi’s New York Times best-selling Children of Blood and Bone.

Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Mass Incarceration, and the Movement for Black Lives, by Donna Murch

Drawing its title from the Black Panther in Cuban exile, this collection of incisive and timely essays explores the emergence of the world’s largest police state and the youth-led organized resistance against state violence and mass incarceration.

There are your stocking stuffers! Any other way I can make your life easier?

Music today is a sweet clip of opera Diva Angel Blue interacting with kids and her performance of Kurt Weill’s Youkali.

Kids Meet Opera Singer Angel Blue