I have to abandon a book. Jodi Picoult's book Small Great Things looks like it is probably a great book, but I just can't do it right now. I have, for no particular reason and with no sense of purpose, been reading a lot of books lately on a similar theme, and it is beginning to wear on me.
Books like this are important, socially. We all need to be, regardless of background, more aware of those deep rooted prejudices that we are subject to and fight against. However, reading book after book after book on the theme has left me feeling pretty cruddy. I don't think of myself as racist, but read enough books where characters continually insist that all white people are in some way and I start to internalize it. I'm sure that I have been guilty of racially insensitive from time to time but I've been on the receiving end of that too. People have an unfortunate tendency to categorize and make assumptions and it always feels bad to get caught in that.
So, I'm taking a break. I'm pretty sure I will come back to the book, but it's a difficult theme and I need to process what I've already read. That will take some time.
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