Ken Olende
@kenolende.bsky.social
Writer on history, race and politics. PhD researcher. Tai Chi teacher.
10/10 best books read in 2025
BLACK SPARTACUS: THE EPIC LIFE OF TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE - Sudhir Hazareesingh (2020). A history of the victorious uprising by the enslaved in what is now Haiti, This makes An excellent companion piece to CLR James’s BLACK JACOBINS, giving far more day to day detail.
BLACK SPARTACUS: THE EPIC LIFE OF TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE - Sudhir Hazareesingh (2020). A history of the victorious uprising by the enslaved in what is now Haiti, This makes An excellent companion piece to CLR James’s BLACK JACOBINS, giving far more day to day detail.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
10/10 best books read in 2025
BLACK SPARTACUS: THE EPIC LIFE OF TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE - Sudhir Hazareesingh (2020). A history of the victorious uprising by the enslaved in what is now Haiti, This makes An excellent companion piece to CLR James’s BLACK JACOBINS, giving far more day to day detail.
BLACK SPARTACUS: THE EPIC LIFE OF TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE - Sudhir Hazareesingh (2020). A history of the victorious uprising by the enslaved in what is now Haiti, This makes An excellent companion piece to CLR James’s BLACK JACOBINS, giving far more day to day detail.
9/10 best books read in 2025
LAST ON HIS FEET: JACK JOHNSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, Youssef Daoudi & Adrian Matejka (2023). Shows what you can do with a graphic novel! The rhythm of the images merges with the text to tell a subtle and moving story of boxing, oppression and resistance.
LAST ON HIS FEET: JACK JOHNSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, Youssef Daoudi & Adrian Matejka (2023). Shows what you can do with a graphic novel! The rhythm of the images merges with the text to tell a subtle and moving story of boxing, oppression and resistance.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
9/10 best books read in 2025
LAST ON HIS FEET: JACK JOHNSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, Youssef Daoudi & Adrian Matejka (2023). Shows what you can do with a graphic novel! The rhythm of the images merges with the text to tell a subtle and moving story of boxing, oppression and resistance.
LAST ON HIS FEET: JACK JOHNSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, Youssef Daoudi & Adrian Matejka (2023). Shows what you can do with a graphic novel! The rhythm of the images merges with the text to tell a subtle and moving story of boxing, oppression and resistance.
8/10 best books read in 2025
PALESTINE, IMPERIALISM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, Philip Marfleet (2025). A timely book that puts the horrific events in Gaza in a longer term perspective of imperialism and destroys various myths.
PALESTINE, IMPERIALISM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, Philip Marfleet (2025). A timely book that puts the horrific events in Gaza in a longer term perspective of imperialism and destroys various myths.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
8/10 best books read in 2025
PALESTINE, IMPERIALISM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, Philip Marfleet (2025). A timely book that puts the horrific events in Gaza in a longer term perspective of imperialism and destroys various myths.
PALESTINE, IMPERIALISM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, Philip Marfleet (2025). A timely book that puts the horrific events in Gaza in a longer term perspective of imperialism and destroys various myths.
7/10 best books read in 2025
BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO - Kate Clifford Larson (2003). A great biography of the heroic anti-enslavement activist, full of details - not just legends.
BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO - Kate Clifford Larson (2003). A great biography of the heroic anti-enslavement activist, full of details - not just legends.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
7/10 best books read in 2025
BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO - Kate Clifford Larson (2003). A great biography of the heroic anti-enslavement activist, full of details - not just legends.
BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO - Kate Clifford Larson (2003). A great biography of the heroic anti-enslavement activist, full of details - not just legends.
6/10 best books read in 2025
SAINT LEIBOWITZ & THE WILD HORSE WOMAN, Walter M Miller (1997). Belated sequel to classic post nuclear war SF novel A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ (1959) about Catholic monks trying to rebuild civilisation. I like it & how the monks interact with Native American traditions.
SAINT LEIBOWITZ & THE WILD HORSE WOMAN, Walter M Miller (1997). Belated sequel to classic post nuclear war SF novel A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ (1959) about Catholic monks trying to rebuild civilisation. I like it & how the monks interact with Native American traditions.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
6/10 best books read in 2025
SAINT LEIBOWITZ & THE WILD HORSE WOMAN, Walter M Miller (1997). Belated sequel to classic post nuclear war SF novel A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ (1959) about Catholic monks trying to rebuild civilisation. I like it & how the monks interact with Native American traditions.
SAINT LEIBOWITZ & THE WILD HORSE WOMAN, Walter M Miller (1997). Belated sequel to classic post nuclear war SF novel A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ (1959) about Catholic monks trying to rebuild civilisation. I like it & how the monks interact with Native American traditions.
5/10 best books read in 2025
THE OWL SERVICE, Alan Garner (1969). Fantasy classic id never read. Starts with a family holiday in the Welsh countryside and a distinctive set of dinner plates. Unsettling tale of class, gender & mythical history For children, but gave me the willies as an agéd adult
THE OWL SERVICE, Alan Garner (1969). Fantasy classic id never read. Starts with a family holiday in the Welsh countryside and a distinctive set of dinner plates. Unsettling tale of class, gender & mythical history For children, but gave me the willies as an agéd adult
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
5/10 best books read in 2025
THE OWL SERVICE, Alan Garner (1969). Fantasy classic id never read. Starts with a family holiday in the Welsh countryside and a distinctive set of dinner plates. Unsettling tale of class, gender & mythical history For children, but gave me the willies as an agéd adult
THE OWL SERVICE, Alan Garner (1969). Fantasy classic id never read. Starts with a family holiday in the Welsh countryside and a distinctive set of dinner plates. Unsettling tale of class, gender & mythical history For children, but gave me the willies as an agéd adult
4/10 best books read in 2025
MY COUNTRY AFRICA, Andrée Blouin (1983). Autobiography of a woman born under callous colonial rule, dumped in an orphanage by her father as a mixed heritage inconvenience, who went on to a leading role in fighting for freedom in Guinea & Congo. Harrowing but uplifting.
MY COUNTRY AFRICA, Andrée Blouin (1983). Autobiography of a woman born under callous colonial rule, dumped in an orphanage by her father as a mixed heritage inconvenience, who went on to a leading role in fighting for freedom in Guinea & Congo. Harrowing but uplifting.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
4/10 best books read in 2025
MY COUNTRY AFRICA, Andrée Blouin (1983). Autobiography of a woman born under callous colonial rule, dumped in an orphanage by her father as a mixed heritage inconvenience, who went on to a leading role in fighting for freedom in Guinea & Congo. Harrowing but uplifting.
MY COUNTRY AFRICA, Andrée Blouin (1983). Autobiography of a woman born under callous colonial rule, dumped in an orphanage by her father as a mixed heritage inconvenience, who went on to a leading role in fighting for freedom in Guinea & Congo. Harrowing but uplifting.
3/10 best books read in 2025
TRANSCRIPTION - Kate Atkinson (2018). I love everything she does, and while this is diminished by coming after her two greatest novels, its slippery mixture of wartime espionage and sexual and left/right politics is seductive.
TRANSCRIPTION - Kate Atkinson (2018). I love everything she does, and while this is diminished by coming after her two greatest novels, its slippery mixture of wartime espionage and sexual and left/right politics is seductive.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
3/10 best books read in 2025
TRANSCRIPTION - Kate Atkinson (2018). I love everything she does, and while this is diminished by coming after her two greatest novels, its slippery mixture of wartime espionage and sexual and left/right politics is seductive.
TRANSCRIPTION - Kate Atkinson (2018). I love everything she does, and while this is diminished by coming after her two greatest novels, its slippery mixture of wartime espionage and sexual and left/right politics is seductive.
2/10 best books read in 2025
BRING JUDGMENT DAY, Sheila Curran Bernard (2024). This biography undermines all we were told about the supposedly vicious early life of blues singer Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter. Roots music archivist John Lomax’s role in misrecording and mismanaging is shameful.
BRING JUDGMENT DAY, Sheila Curran Bernard (2024). This biography undermines all we were told about the supposedly vicious early life of blues singer Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter. Roots music archivist John Lomax’s role in misrecording and mismanaging is shameful.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
2/10 best books read in 2025
BRING JUDGMENT DAY, Sheila Curran Bernard (2024). This biography undermines all we were told about the supposedly vicious early life of blues singer Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter. Roots music archivist John Lomax’s role in misrecording and mismanaging is shameful.
BRING JUDGMENT DAY, Sheila Curran Bernard (2024). This biography undermines all we were told about the supposedly vicious early life of blues singer Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter. Roots music archivist John Lomax’s role in misrecording and mismanaging is shameful.
1/10 best books read in 2025
MOUNTBATTEN’S SAMURAI, Stephen Connor (2015). Britain has kept quiet about its use of captured Japanese troops at the end of WW2. The forced labour may be seen as par for the course, but using them militarily to suppress nationalists in Vietnam & Indonesia still shocks.
MOUNTBATTEN’S SAMURAI, Stephen Connor (2015). Britain has kept quiet about its use of captured Japanese troops at the end of WW2. The forced labour may be seen as par for the course, but using them militarily to suppress nationalists in Vietnam & Indonesia still shocks.
January 1, 2026 at 5:30 PM
1/10 best books read in 2025
MOUNTBATTEN’S SAMURAI, Stephen Connor (2015). Britain has kept quiet about its use of captured Japanese troops at the end of WW2. The forced labour may be seen as par for the course, but using them militarily to suppress nationalists in Vietnam & Indonesia still shocks.
MOUNTBATTEN’S SAMURAI, Stephen Connor (2015). Britain has kept quiet about its use of captured Japanese troops at the end of WW2. The forced labour may be seen as par for the course, but using them militarily to suppress nationalists in Vietnam & Indonesia still shocks.
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin
August 22, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin
Indeed, to oppress the populations they’d been occupying. It is so outrageous and it should be better known.
August 15, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Indeed, to oppress the populations they’d been occupying. It is so outrageous and it should be better known.