Want to start the year as an awake and brave American? Read this.

Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen is a beautiful, though not for the emotionally avoidant or fragile, read. I read it a second time this weekend—and I’m so glad I did—my determination not to look away, not to be silent, is front and center, going back into the rhythm of my own life and service, going into the opening of the year and all that is likely to transpire in the coming months. 

Toni poignantly illuminates truths, uglinesses, and potentialities of this, our America. “This, our America,” becomes a power line running through the book, in which Toni combines her own story into the story of the country.

Whether you pick up the book Carry or not, please…, read. Reading is rebellious, it takes back our attention, it helps us remember what is true, what matters, where to tend.