❝ You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.❞
— Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
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Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates Book Review
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Told in a letter of a father to a son, this book embodied what it’s like to grow up as a Black boy in a time and place where they are robbed off of their bodies just because of the color of their skin. It hoped to impart life lessons from centuries of oppression and injustice to his own son without passing on the same fear he had. A moving and heartbreaking recount of stories of Black people who lost their lives because of what has been deeply ingrained in the fiber of America -- a truth they have lived with, and feared over for centuries. This book helped me understand their pain and suffering, not in the way I could ever fully grasp and fathom, not even the closest, but this book opened up to a lot of things I was ignorant about, things that I should be educated about, things that mattered. I vow to never stop learning and to never stop listening to their plights, to their cries, while also acknowledging the fact that I am privileged enough to not have experienced this oppression. Chilling and profound, Between The World And Me should be in every person’s reading list.
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#BetweenTheWorldAndMe #TanehisiCoates #readdiversely
❝ The birth of a better world is not ultimately up to you, though I know, each day, there are grown men and women who tell you otherwise. The world needs saving precisely because of the actions of the same men and women. I am not a cynic. I love you, and I love the world, and I love it more with every new inch I discover. But you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know. Indeed, you must be responsible for the worst actions of other black bodies, which, somehow, will always be assigned to you. And you must be responsible for the bodies of the powerful — the policeman who cracks you with a nightstick will quickly find his excuse in your furtive movements. And this is not reducible to just you—the women around you must be responsible for their bodies in a way that you never will know. You have to make your peace with the chaos, but you can lie. You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured are very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold. ❞
— Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
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About to finish this heartbreaking book. I have been learning a lot, and will never stop seeking for their voices and for their truth.
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Hope you guys are safe, wherever you are. 😔
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#BetweenTheWorldandMe #TanehisiCoates #readdiversely
#CurrentlyListeningTo: Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown. This book is narrated by the author herself. Truly engaging!
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SYNOPSIS:
Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson's Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi's American Street.
Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor.
Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.
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I am just few chapters in but I can already say this is such a powerful read, the first chapters are narrated by a little girl with such innocence and uttering important questions. And would you look at that beautiful cover 🤎
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What are you reading?
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#BlackGirlUnlimited #Audiobooks #scribd #EchoBrown #readdiversely
Too much injustices all over the world. We are each fighting different battles day in and day out. And we are tired. I know what I am going to say is just a speck in the vastness of it all, but it’s better than silence. It’s better than complacency. Speak up, defend others. Let’s use our platforms to be better, to educate others, most especially ourselves. I learn everyday, I open myself to be corrected, and that’s should be our aim - to be better, to open our eyes more, check the privileges we have. Do not ever give the burden to Black people or non-black POC the obligation to educate us, they owe us nothing. Instead, seek for the truth yourself, and be educated.
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To my fellow Filipinos, I hope you are as outraged about the police brutality here in our own country, about the extra judicial killings, about the unspeakable terror going on in our own land. Solidarity in these trying times, upheld our rights not just today, but everyday.
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Let’s not read books by Black authors or person of colors just today, or just because it is AAPI month or Black History Month, let’s do it regularly. Read widely, read diversely. I am not the biggest diverse reader out there, I have my shortcomings too, but I vow to be better and make conscious choices.
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Donate to these causes and be an active anti-racist, an ally, again not just today, but everyday.
❝ We don't die so much as we return to the void. We dissolve. We lose our ego. We change from being just one thing to becoming everything. Most of us, at least. ❞
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War
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THE POPPY WAR by RF KUANG Book Review
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Complex and propulsive plotline with a surprising emotional depth.
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TW: Rape, addiction, abuse, violence, gore
.The Poppy War an adult fantasy that took me by surprise. It was gritty, dark, vicious and heart-stopping. RF Kuang explored politics, war, vengeance, prejudice, addiction and presented them without watering them down. It highlighted the bloody, gory and barbaric side of war without reservation. I truly commend Rin's character development, from a lowly opium runner for her foster parents to possessing immense power. This book showed the ugly, vulnerable, resilient and dark side of Fang Runin - making her character not wholly likable but understandable.
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The Poppy War gave off some mix of Harry Potter (Nezha like Malfoy; the Academy), Game of Thrones (I thought Rin is like Arya and Bran, then towards the end Daenerys, also because of the complexities of war and politics), Shaman King, The Umbrella Academy and Suicide Squad vibes. It is amazing in its own right. I love how vivid everything was, from the bigger picture down to the nitty-gritty details, the author took her time to bring forth more than what each scene could give. The characters were perfectly fleshed out and I can't wait for everyone's development for the next books.
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My main issue was there were parts that dragged on unnecessarily long and were repetitive to a fault - especially the one about Altan and what happened to the Speerly. This book started out really strong for me, I spent wee hours of the night to read it because I was so hooked but towards the middle it completely lost me, I felt the need to just read and read just so I could get to the best parts. The Poppy War is a celebration of fantasy that melds with historical events. It posits uncomfortable questions demanding clear cut answers. The Poppy War deserves all the hype.
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Until our next buddy read @lalalunareads 🔥
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#ThePoppyWar #RFKuang #StanAsianAuthors #nerdytalksreview
NINE SHINY OBJECTS by BRIAN CASTLEBERRY
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Synopsis:
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June 26, 1947. Headlines across America report the sighting of nine pulsating lights flying over the Cascade Mountains at speeds surpassing any aircraft. In Chicago, inspired by the news, Oliver Danville, a failed actor now reduced to a mediocre pool hustler, hitchhikes west in a fever-dream quest for a possible sign from above that might illuminate his true calling. A chance encounter with Saul Penrod, an Idaho farmer, and his family sets in motion the birth of “the Seekers”—a collective of outcasts, interlopers, and idealists devoted to creating a society where divisions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality are a thing of the past. When Claudette Donen, a waitress on the lam from her suffocating family, encounters the group, she is compulsively drawn to Oliver’s sister Eileen, but before she is able to join the enigmatic community, it has vanished.
Reunited across the country, the Seekers attempt to settle in the suburbs of Long Island. One night, their purpose suddenly revealed, a stranger emerges, and a horrific crime ensues. In the decades that follow, the perpetrators, survivors, and their children will be forced to face the consequences of what happened—a reckoning that will involve Charlie Ranagan, a traveling salesman; Max Felt, a dissolute late-1960s rock star; Alice Linwood, an increasingly paranoid radio host; Stanley West, a struggling African American poet; Marly Feldberg, a Greenwich Village painter; and Debbie Vasquez, a Connecticut teenager trapped by an avalanche of midnight legacies. Each will prove to be a piece of a puzzle that, when assembled, reveals a shocking truth about the clash between the optimism of those who seek inspiration from spacious skies, and the venom of others who relish the underworld—not only via conspiratorial maneuverings, but the literal unearthing of the dead. The result is one of the most exciting, and unforgettable, debut novels in recent memory, and the launch of a major career in American letters.
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Thank you @harpercollins for this arc. It comes out June 30! Watch out for it. #NineShinyObjects #BrianCastleberry
Hi, Eunice! I recently nominated you for the Liebster Award over at my blog. You may check it out here: http://bit.ly/1NNXwfh 🙂