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Isaac's Song.
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Reading Progress
March 19, 2025
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 19, 2025
– Shelved
March 21, 2025
–
Started Reading
March 21, 2025
–
2.19%
"“My father never meant much to me. We weren't close. We didn't speak often. I'd call him on his birthday if I remembered, but if I didn't, it didn't matter.
We had built mutually exclusive lives that didn't allow-or invite-intimacy. Yet, much to my surprise, when I hung up the phone, I buried my face in a pillow and wept.� � I’m hooked!"
page
7
We had built mutually exclusive lives that didn't allow-or invite-intimacy. Yet, much to my surprise, when I hung up the phone, I buried my face in a pillow and wept.� � I’m hooked!"
March 21, 2025
–
3.44%
"“Nothing has ever happened to you that’s greater than your power to heal it.�"
page
11
March 21, 2025
–
6.25%
"“Once I started reading, I never stopped. I traveled the universe in my mind…You can live in the imagination when you can’t live anywhere else.�"
page
20
March 21, 2025
–
6.88%
"“Royalty is in the heart, my child. You are what you think you are.�"
page
22
March 21, 2025
–
11.88%
"“You’ll scar him for life!
“I can live with that. What I can’t live with is a son LIKE THAT!�"
page
38
“I can live with that. What I can’t live with is a son LIKE THAT!�"
March 21, 2025
–
25.0%
"“He’ll grow to appreciate it. If he don’t, that’ll be on him. Just do it (dance) well, honey. Excellence makes a way for itself.�"
page
80
March 21, 2025
–
33.13%
"“Words fascinated me, how they changed meaning by changing place in a sentence.�"
page
106
March 21, 2025
–
35.63%
"“Our hearts met in the ether and embraced like old friends.�
That’s a beautiful sentence."
page
114
That’s a beautiful sentence."
March 21, 2025
–
40.31%
"“I always thought I’d marry a man and have his children and endure like most other women do.�
“Is it endurance?�
“It is if it’s not what you want.�"
page
129
“Is it endurance?�
“It is if it’s not what you want.�"
March 21, 2025
–
45.94%
"“I knew he didn’t agree with who I was, so I stopped trying to change him too. Our beards drew a truce but never reached a treaty.�"
page
147
March 21, 2025
–
46.25%
"“…everything beautiful ain’t fragile.�
“You right. Some things beautiful is ring
³Ù´Ç´Ç.â€�
🥹🥹"
page
148
“You right. Some things beautiful is ring
³Ù´Ç´Ç.â€�
🥹🥹"
March 21, 2025
–
46.56%
"“How can that free people from fear?�
�"Well, I think art makes people imagine a world different from the one we live in. I wanna write stories that help people see themselves freer than they are now." He nodded, but I could tell he didn't fully understand.
"The whole point of writing is to make readers think about people and things in new and creative ways. That's how you change the world.""
page
149
�"Well, I think art makes people imagine a world different from the one we live in. I wanna write stories that help people see themselves freer than they are now." He nodded, but I could tell he didn't fully understand.
"The whole point of writing is to make readers think about people and things in new and creative ways. That's how you change the world.""
March 21, 2025
–
47.81%
"“We was tryin to survive, son. We didn't know nothin bout no readin and writin. We wanted it, that's for sure, but we needed land and resources first.�"
page
153
March 21, 2025
–
51.88%
"“That’s the point of knowledge � to merge worlds and generations so we see each other more clearly.�"
page
166
March 22, 2025
–
55.94%
"“I was still trying to blame someone for who I was. God was as good as anybody. I claimed not to believe in God, but maybe I did. I believed in something supernatural, and I needed to know if my being was calculated or if my desires were merely a reaction to not having a nurturing father.�"
page
179
March 22, 2025
–
56.56%
"“I decided to believe I was sent the way I was, and Gos was waiting for me either to accept it or not.�"
page
181
March 22, 2025
–
58.44%
"“After a few years, I stopped going to funerals and memorials…my heart arched. It couldn’t carry more grief. I was emotionally spent.�"
page
187
March 22, 2025
–
58.44%
"“I spoke with authority most kids didn’t have, as if someone had granted me permission to speak.�"
page
187
March 22, 2025
–
59.69%
"“If church had been nothing but music, I could’ve stayed. It’s the doctrine that ran me away.�"
page
191
March 22, 2025
–
60.31%
"“Our encounter was preordained. It had to be. The chick's need coincided with my sympathy at the appointed hour. And my help made the difference. Just as God's nắp had saved me. I'd fallen several times in life, but each time, I survived. Perhaps because someone had helped me. God-and my Dad.�"
page
193
March 22, 2025
–
60.31%
"“He was the invisible hand in my life, providing so excellently.�"
page
193
March 22, 2025
–
60.62%
"“This must be what God feels everyday� God uses human hands but it’s His design.�"
page
194
March 22, 2025
–
60.94%
"Hands down my favorite part of the book! It spoke director to me!
“…but you have a gift, Isaac. I hear it when you talk. Sometimes I see it in your expressions. You’re not afraid to feel, and I think that’s the key to creation. Just keep writing your story. I think you’ll discover that you’re doing more than simply
reconstructing memory. My guess is that you’re also creating it.�"
page
195
“…but you have a gift, Isaac. I hear it when you talk. Sometimes I see it in your expressions. You’re not afraid to feel, and I think that’s the key to creation. Just keep writing your story. I think you’ll discover that you’re doing more than simply
reconstructing memory. My guess is that you’re also creating it.�"
March 25, 2025
–
Finished Reading
March 30, 2025
–
0.31%
"The day my father died, a flock of red cardinals gathered in a tree outside my bedroom window. They chirped and shifted like fire.�"
page
1
March 30, 2025
–
6.56%
"awww! the origins of Isaac’s Song! Isaac hailed from a family of rich storytellers"
page
21
March 30, 2025
–
31.25%
"Day 16 - “suppose this is the way of trauma. We file hurt and pain away in dark parts of the soul, never knowing it finds its own way out, disguised as something else altogether.
We protect it with silence, but we don't heal it that way. We simply hand it to the next generation.
I'm trying not to participate in that, but I'm afraid I already have.�"
page
100
We protect it with silence, but we don't heal it that way. We simply hand it to the next generation.
I'm trying not to participate in that, but I'm afraid I already have.�"
March 30, 2025
–
54.69%
"This (sexuality) has nothing to do with God!" Cassie sneered. "And, anyway, why can't you be whatever you want to be? That's what identity is—the right to construct yourself." � AGREED."
page
175
March 30, 2025
–
54.69%
"“I was still trying to blame someone for who I was. God was as good as anybody. I claimed not to believe in God, but maybe I did. I believed in something supernatural, and I needed to know if my being was calculated or if my desires were merely a reaction to not having a nurturing father.�"
page
175
March 30, 2025
–
57.81%
"“Our encounter was preordained. It had to be. The chick's need coincided with my sympathy at the appointed hour. And my help made the difference. Just as God's nắp had saved me. I'd fallen several times in life, but each time, I survived. Perhaps because someone had helped me. God-and my Dad.�"
page
185
March 30, 2025
–
59.38%
"“…I'd never loved him for making it possible. His was the invisible hand in my life, providing so excellently…�"
page
190
March 30, 2025
–
63.44%
"“Chile, you got a lot to learn. Education ain’t never protected black people from
white folks� foolishness. DuBois has more education than you and they still called him ‘boy�.�"
page
203
white folks� foolishness. DuBois has more education than you and they still called him ‘boy�.�"
March 30, 2025
–
63.44%
"“Our people dreamed of knowledge, not because it would make white folks treat them better, but because it gave us opportunities to do better. Actually, you got off pretty easy�.You ain’t swinging from no tree, are you?�"
page
203
March 30, 2025
–
65.31%
"“That’s how we survived,� he said proudly. “We learned to dance with no music.�"
page
209
March 30, 2025
–
71.56%
"“I was wrong, in so many ways. but anything was better than loneliness. That kills a man after a while.�"
page
229
March 30, 2025
–
73.13%
"“I never understood why they never spoke of his sexuality. He said they didn’t need to. I guess closeness doesn’t necessarily mean vulnerability.�"
page
234
March 30, 2025
–
78.75%
"“Perhaps in this letter you’ll feel it, hear it in my tone, and let my words love you better than I ever did.�"
page
252
March 30, 2025
–
79.06%
"“Tell them I wasn’t always a good father, but I was always a man.�"
page
253
March 30, 2025
–
79.06%
"“The most precious thing I leave you is the land. It’s yours. Never sell it. It will support you when the world casts you aside. If you end up like me, with nothing and no one, you can always return to it, and it will love you and sustain you without judgment.�"
page
253
March 30, 2025
–
79.38%
"“Finally, I leave you this charge. Live your life freely, Isaac. Rise above our history and be your unapologetic self. Just remember that I meant well. Even in my failure, I truly meant well.�"
page
254
March 30, 2025
–
79.38%
"“And it wasn't the words that moved me so much as the sincerity of his heart. I'd never seen it, his heart, and now, staring at it, it looked and felt fa-miliar, like it was my own. His words were heavy and murky, like thick, muddy water, but they flowed easily. He asked me not to cry, but I couldn't help it.�"
page
254
March 30, 2025
–
79.69%
"“Letter by letter, I discovered the nuances of my father's soul. He was simply what the world said he should be: hardworking, emotionally unavailable, patriarchal. As a child, he'd tried to resist, but with no personal or cultural allies, he failed miserably...
Part of Dad's anger was his abandonment. He'd always wanted his mother's love, but he never got it. She died in his infancy..�"
page
255
Part of Dad's anger was his abandonment. He'd always wanted his mother's love, but he never got it. She died in his infancy..�"
March 30, 2025
–
80.63%
"“I had no sense that life would ve been sweeter in the country than in Kansas City. If Dad was any indication of the people, I knew for sure they wouldn't have like me. No, the country wasn't my home. But Dad transmuted into something beautiful down there... Throughout the day, he murmured things I couldat discern. It was a language only he and nature shared.�"
page
258
March 30, 2025
–
80.63%
"“Dad was never a failure. We lived totally separate lives as grown men, each searching for meaning in this world. When Mom died, instead of coming together, we retreated into our own private sorrow. He really loved her. I was happy to read that. He just didn't know how to nake space for her in his heart. He'd been taught to rule d control women, and Mom wasn't having it.�"
page
258
March 30, 2025
–
80.94%
"“He never considered why black people made gay people pay for authenticity, how it separated us from families, communities, the world, God. It probably never crossed his mind that he'd birthed a son who had to justify his existence…But when he saw Adam, desperate and sore, I think he saw the manifestation of his own narrow-mindedness. According to the letter, he realized that what
he hated he created.�"
page
259
he hated he created.�"
March 30, 2025
–
82.81%
"“They lived in darkness. I knew, of course, the evils of slavery, but I'd never considered the depth of darkness enslaved people endured. I'd never thought of light as a luxury. Human bondage really is un-imaginable.�"
page
265
March 30, 2025
–
83.13%
"“I couldn't write just anything. That's not a writer. A writer reates language that moves the heart or touches the emotions or at least delights the mind.�"
page
266
March 30, 2025
–
84.06%
""Shame to be a slave," she added, "and have nothin to believe in, ain't it?�
I thought about that. How black people survived bondage and emotional trauma by believing in the Invisible. When you consider it, they should've given up and died. Every single one of them. But for some reason, they didn't.�"
page
269
I thought about that. How black people survived bondage and emotional trauma by believing in the Invisible. When you consider it, they should've given up and died. Every single one of them. But for some reason, they didn't.�"
March 30, 2025
–
84.06%
"“Eventually, at nineteen, he escaped north and ended up in a place called Philadelphia-where Negroes roamed free and unchained. I could live here, he thought, but not without my brother.�"
page
269
March 30, 2025
–
84.06%
"& the fact that Philly is the city of Brotherly Love makes this all the more profound�"
page
269
March 30, 2025
–
85.0%
"“Perhaps I’d been arrogant to think that, just because I could read, I could write.� FELT!"
page
272
March 30, 2025
–
87.19%
"“This fascinates me because it makes me consider that I didn't know her at all. Isn't that something? That you can know a person your whole life and share everything you ever thought, only to discover they never shared their whole selves with you? I knew Mom and Dad had tough times� Each told me what they thought I could handle. I suppose I did the same.�"
page
279
March 30, 2025
–
92.81%
"“…pausing his descension into the earth…Jesse Lee nodded and sank slowly into the living grave.� - that’s powerful imagery from someone escaping death by hiding underground to be saved by the same brother who gambled his own freedom to return to save his only living relative"
page
297
March 30, 2025
–
93.44%
"“Matthew is Uncle Esau!"
"Of course you are," I cackled. "You're big brother. That's why you brought me here. To tell me the rest of the story."
"You'll find your brother," I said. "I promise. I'm writing the story." He nodded and cried."
page
299
"Of course you are," I cackled. "You're big brother. That's why you brought me here. To tell me the rest of the story."
"You'll find your brother," I said. "I promise. I'm writing the story." He nodded and cried."
March 30, 2025
–
93.44%
"“The context of the story was slavery because that's where it all began—the torced separation of black men from each other: fathers and sons, uncles and nephews, brothers and brothers.�"
page
299
March 30, 2025
–
93.75%
"“The hard part was exposing black men's hearts. That made me uneasy and insecure. I knew what I felt, what we felt, but I never wanted to surrender our vulnerability for public pleasure.�"
page
300
March 30, 2025
–
93.75%
"“Yet by exploring the lives of these precious brothers, I discovered that all men want the same things: validation, worth, purpose. They just never say it.
That's why some men dislike me—I'm willing to say it. That's also why I have to tell this story. Because it's a love song, a black male ballad, a lullaby most brothers can't sing. But I can.�"
page
300
That's why some men dislike me—I'm willing to say it. That's also why I have to tell this story. Because it's a love song, a black male ballad, a lullaby most brothers can't sing. But I can.�"
March 30, 2025
–
96.25%
"“…words let you outlive yourself. they take energy, your life force, and speak for you long after you’re gone.�"
page
308
March 30, 2025
–
96.25%
"“I didn't know, at the time, that I was searching for something absolutely true, something that wasn't a lie, something no man's hands had tainted. I wanted something to prove I was more than what my father thought I was. I hoped that, if I could write a great book, Dad might see me, even from afar, and apologize for having underestimated me.�"
page
308
March 30, 2025
–
97.5%
""Your letters taught me an amazing thing: all a man can do is try. It's the only thing that counts. We all fail. No life succeeds forever. Trying is the key; it's the only real achieve-ment. I see that clearly now, how hard you tried, and for that, I love you. Asé.""
page
312
