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What Members Thought
I finally got sick of waiting for this in the library line and bought the audiobook. And so glad I did. This book is so much. It demands relistening. First to grasp the magnitude and nuances of Coates' ideas and then for those gorgeous poetic paragraphs that make you exhale afterwards. The intensity and immediacy of Coates writing to his son are intensified by his reading of it. My heart broke and swelled each time he said "black body." The lie of the American dream is deadly to us all (and our
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I finished "Between the World and Me" late last week and have been mulling over how to review the book. The central argument and Coates' reflection on how his own life and family is powerful, moving, and important. I especially appreciated that Coates is unapologetically atheist, even as he recognizes that not being part of a faith community may have made him more pessimistic. I also found his focus on the black body both useful as a way to make his point and moving imagery. However, positioning
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this book was hard for me to get through at first.
partly because of the subject matter -- reality is just. so. hard. to face sometimes -- and partly because of the style of writing.
i like the idea of this book, and i appreciate it. but coates' free-form style, floating from one topic to another and back again, takes a bit of patience. at least for me.
i also gained a greater appreciation for our alma mater, good ol howard u, and for my adopted home, baltimore, in the words he placed on the page.
o ...more
partly because of the subject matter -- reality is just. so. hard. to face sometimes -- and partly because of the style of writing.
i like the idea of this book, and i appreciate it. but coates' free-form style, floating from one topic to another and back again, takes a bit of patience. at least for me.
i also gained a greater appreciation for our alma mater, good ol howard u, and for my adopted home, baltimore, in the words he placed on the page.
o ...more
Mar 27, 2018
Alison
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
dcpl_elibrary
A powerful, beautifully written, look at America as experienced by African Americans.
The headline appeared in FiveThirtyEight this summer: "Black Americans are killed at 12 times the rate of people in other developed countries". It's just one headline in a stream of others, including last week's video footage of the murder of a young black man in Chicago by police. How shockingly commonplace this all is. Coates' letter to his son speaks to the fear that haunts black Americans in a country with a long legacy of violence toward them. As personal reflection, it's illuminating. But
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should be required reading in the new America
Not a huge fan poetic prose. That said, voice was and is important; and the parts where he shared genuine feelings about his son, versus talking about himself, that were incredibly touching and real.
Nov 25, 2016
Megan Reichelt
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
adult,
non-fiction
Beautifully written, passionate, and personal book full of wisdom and pain. I learned a hell of a lot. Highly recommended to anyone.
Beautiful, lyric, tragic and oh so topical, Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me is over way too quickly.
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He is a very talented writer, beautiful prose. It will stay with me for a long time.
Jul 23, 2015
Claire
marked it as to-read
Aug 03, 2015
June
marked it as to-read
Oct 23, 2015
Jess
added it
Jun 03, 2016
Kate
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography-memoir,
non-fiction
