2 Books Like Black Woman on Board

In the book Menah Pratt tells her story with raw emotion, sharing pages from her diaries, poetry, handwritten letters, and photographs from her past. It feels as though you are a part of her life as she is beautifully vulnerable. I was struck by the story of her mother and father, as her own story doesn’t manifest without them. Her father, Theodore, was a nuclear physicist and immigrated from Sierra Leone to the U.S. He married her mother, Mildred, who was a professor of social work and the granddaughter of an enslaved woman from Alabama. Both of her parents earned doctoral degrees and believed education was vital. Her connection to her parents and how they followed her through the valleys and peaks of her life is riveting throughout the book. She expresses complicated relationships with each of them, being both drawn to them and wanting to run at times.

Reading Smart University is somewhat scary as Weinberg’s arguments are based on extensive historical and current evidence. She warns about many of the day-to-day things we take for granted -- our phones, our computer programs, our use of AI in our "smart" homes, and the tools we as faculty use to teach. She urges us to ask important questions like: Are we trading our privacy for convenience? What are the consequences of colleges and universities’ access to student data? And what are colleges and universities doing to protect students’ interests? I was skeptical about this book initially as it's not something I normally read. However, it was very well written and the examples are excellent and engaging.