Kindred by Octavia Butler

I haven't read much of Ms. Butler's work since high school. She is brilliant. I'm reading Kindred right now and, oh my word, she is brilliant. I remember when I learned Ms. Butler was a Black woman, my first thought was, "I didn't know Black people wrote Science Fiction!" I was only 15 at the time and hadn't even read The Color Purple. I went to parochial school for all my life, save one or two years, and, it would seem, literature written by Black people didn't exist in those schools. But goodness, she is brilliant. And I remember that that was my initial reaction when I first read her work even way back then when my mind was still in the compliant, good schoolgirl, "don't think too hard or ask too many questions" fog I was conditioned to be in: she's brilliant. A genius. I am awed by her work. She inspires me in a way that I can't describe. Like . . . that fire inside me, that deep-down feeling about the book I will write, it becomes stronger and more pronounced when I read each and every word she has penned.

She is a great writer. I hope to be a great writer.

Kindred is a book I highly recommend. I'm about halfway done.