Kendra Stanton Lee is my guest for this 3rd episode of the Reading Interview Series, where I chat with bookworms, avid readers and learners, to unpack their reading habits and philosophy. She’s a freelance writer based in Boston, but really, there’s not one thing that can describe her. She’s a teacher, writer, calligrapher, and entrepreneur. You’ll love this conversation with her. We talked about her reading life, some contemporary and important books, her writing life, and her experience with the publishing world. My personal favorite part is towards the end of the episode where we talk about intercultural relationships. Stick around to the end for that.
Connect with Kendra:
Kendra’s blog: www.kendraspondence.com
Twitter: @Kendraspondence
Mentioned Books, Authors, Podcasts, and Links
Blubber by Judy Blume
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother by Janny Scott
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
The Promise by Chaim Potok
Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth by Richard Wright
American girl books
The Rules Do Not Apply: A Memoir by Ariel Levy
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Minute Markers:
Kendra’s life story in books [1:27]
Her approach to guide her kids to love reading [11:36]
How she discovers new books, favorite genres [15:20]
What makes her break up with a book [18:18]
Why an author’s voice is important [21:24]
Contemporary books that are important for women to read [22:36]
Why Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and her novel Americanah, rocks [22:59]
Why Between the World and Me is required reading [28:23]
The book that made a man moved away from sitting next to Kendra on the subway [33:14]
Kendra’s approach to writing; why writing is important to her [36:50]
Using daily occurrences as inspiration for writing; finding humor in life [40:50]
How she found/developed her voice in writing [45:20]
Experience with the publishing world through her book project a few years ago [47:40]
Intercultural relationships [49:09]
Why conversations on intercultural relationships/families are important [53:55]
Intercultural relationships from a faith perspective [56:24]
What raises up cultural conversations in her family [58:55]
Why messy conversations are sometimes necessary [1:00:08]
Attributions
Music: Orbiting a Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz. Licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
Picture: Kendra Stanton Lee
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