(First off, I heard this on Audiobook, and I URGE you to do the same. I'm sure the book is just fine, but on the audio version you get Baratunde's narration and original recordings from the interviewees)

Wow, to think this is the debut from Baratunde Thurston. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next... This book may be funny, but the message in it couldn't be more serious and straightforward. I feel like a door was opened to me, exposing a little bit of what an American black person goes t More...

I am loving this book so far. If nothing else, the conversations, smirks, giggles, and very confused looks I've gotten while reading this book in public have been great. Having an older African American woman point at the book, smirk and say "Good luck with that!" was a highlight of my week. And then just a few days later an older African American gentleman went on a rant to me about "in his day" black people were trying to be white and now there were too many white folks trying to act black, bu More...

How to Be Black is the reason audiobooks were created. Being many things professionally: a humorist, a political voice, a technologist, it is not surprising that Thurston's delivery in his audiobook is so top notch and versatile. Thurston's tone matches the theme of his book : part memoir, part satire, part political and historical commentary. This is what makes this book so great is that all of these elements are necessary for a thoughtful discussion on race in America. The audiobook includes i More...

Baratunde Thurston is like a kinder, gentler, Aaron McGruder. He's not afraid to tackle issues of racial relations (while interrogating the notion of "blackness", whatever that means in the broader cultural and personal sense) and he's really fucking funny. Seriously, I can't remember when a book made me laugh while reading on the bus. I think part of the book's strength comes from its format, part memoir, part satire, and part group discussion (comprised of black bloggers/writers/artists and to More...

I don't always read Baratunde Thurston books in public, but when I do I get asked about it every time. Or someone just stops walking past me and bursts out laughing. Thanks, Library Coworker! I was ready to burst out laughing as well, because Thurston's autobiography is just that funny. Of course, he wasn't familiar with the book or Thurston until I mentioned The Onion.

So maybe this isn't a book for white girls to read in public. Or maybe the title is an ingenious marketing scheme because I had More...

My first introduction to Baratunde Thurston was on the TWIT network as a guest on This Week in Tech. He's made a few appearances I've seen him in, and maybe another TWIT show too. In any event, he's very humorous, and is very keen on his satire, as well as first-account living, of African-American culture. As a black man who doesn't really "act" black, sometimes I feel like a fish out of water. Listening to the book was pretty refreshing, hearing not only Baratunde's very personal narration, but More...

I recommend the audiobook. In it, Mr. Thurston wonderfully performs his book. Really that's sound advice for most books like this one. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Bill Cosby, the late great George Carlin -- listen to them perform their books!

Baratunde Thurston co-founded the black political blog, Jack and Jill Politics and served as Director of Digital for The Onion before launching the comedy/technology startup Cultivated Wit. Then-candidate Barack Obama called him "someone I need

More...

3.5 stars. I had to laugh when I started this book and read "Even if you're reading the book years after its original publication, it's probably February-ish on your calendar." I swear, I first heard about this book in January, from someone on my friend's list, and my library hold didn't come through til February!

This is a somewhat uneasy mix of genuine memoir and satire about black stereotypes, and I found it enlightening, mostly goodhearted, but more amusing than laugh-out-loud funny. Quite po More...

This was a great satirical look at race that I enjoyed and could completely relate to. The book is part memoir--Baratunde Thurston discusses his childhood--living in a rough DC neighborhood at the height of the crack-cocaine epidemic, yet attending Sidwell Friends school and getting Chelsea Clinton to sign his yearbook. It's also part guidebook: he provides "guidance" on "How To Be the Black Friend," "How to Be the Black Employee," "How To Speak for All Black People," etc. I've been "the" black More...

Wow. This book was great. Funny and fresh, insightful and inspiring - all the these I've come to expect from Mr. Thurston. I first fell in love with "Burritotunde" when he appeared on the Nerdist Podcast (for more niche-flavored self-improvement goodness, check out Nerdist host Chris Hardwick's The Nerdist Way) Ever since then I've tracked down other interviews with Baratunde, stalked him silently and ever so whitely on Twitter, and download his Baratunde Cast whenever the busy Director of Digit More...

This was my first experience of an audiobook and that probably affected my enjoyment of it because I just can't seem to get the hang of audiobooks. I listened to it on my friend's mp3 player, often while on public transport (as that's where I usually read) and I'd keep missing bits because there'd be a train announcement or something, and then I'd try to go back, but I'd go back too far, etc etc. Also it took me a lot longer to read compared to a print book but I guess the advantage of audiobook More...

Baratunde Thurston seems like a pretty cool guy. He has a fairly interesting story about how (basically
through his mother's determination) he grew up in "inner city*" Washington, DC, attended the Sidwell
Friend's school and Harvard, and then became a dominant internet personality. (He made his name on
the internet writing for the Onion, and Jack and Jill Politics and his twitter coverage of the 2012 republican national convention was hilarious.) I would love to get the chance to hang out
with h More...

This book begins as memoir of growing up as an African American in Washington DC with a militant/hippie mom. Despite starting his life in a stereotypical urban neighborhood, Thurston attended Sidwell Friends, the private Quaker school the Obama girls attend now, went on to Harvard, and into the tech industry—not your stereotypical African American life as portrayed in mainstream media. Throughout the book, he calls on The Black Panel to weigh in on various topics. The Black Panel is a group of h More...

I finished reading HTBB a few weeks ago and enjoyed it thoroughly, except for all the profanity. I realize nowadays people spread profanity around like confetti. There is no shame to their game when it comes to cursing. However, being a non-curser, it still jars me somewhat when all of a sudden it is in my face. That said, I waited until now to write a review to see what still resonated with me after a few weeks. First of all, it is an easy read. I read HTBB in eight to nine hours on a road trip More...

I found out about this on blogging heads (http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/9483). I heard this while reading the end of the New Jim Crow, and I had just started to read Battle Cry for Freedom as a result because themes of the civil war seem to be at play now, so this seemed like a nice book to sandwich in between.

Pretty funny book. Overall I like it quite a bit. It's very funny, and Thurston uses sarcasm from the very subtle to the very over the top. Some of the laughs are a little forced. My main More...

I got this book from the Public Library, but am going to purchase a copy (I hear there is an audiobook version read by the author that includes some "extras" from his panel of experts). "How to Be Black" forced me to do some self-exploration, both from reading the content of the book, and from the looks of people who either saw me reading it, or saw me post that I was reading it on this site or on Facebook. The content is not all humorous, and certainly underscores the value of education (kudos More...

I think the racial tension of the late-60s somehow got into my DNA along with a bunch of my mom's diet pills, so please forgive me if I pass out from anxiety in the middle of reviewing this book.

Baratunde Thurston did a great interview on Fresh Air, so I was very interested to read this book. Several Goodreads friends also liked it, which also pushed it up on my queue a few books.

When I finally found it at the local bookstore, I was dismayed to find it in the humor section, filed amongst the nov More...

Baratunde Thurston comes across as completely earnest in How to Be Black, and this may be the strength of his book. Thurston's stories and the way he relates them to larger social issues are thoughtful, humorous, and touching. Where this book starts to go pear-shaped is in Thurston's advice either to other Black people or to non-Black (white) people. Thurston calls on some stereotypes (for example, the collective and homogeneous nature of all Black people, when he suggests that a Black person mu More...

How can this book deserve the coveted 5 star award, you say? Simply this: it made me laugh a whole lot, it's hopeful and wonderfully good-natured, and it inspired me with the energizing realization that the world is changing right this very moment in crazy, unforseen, wonderful ways that mean we all are stretching and changing the definitions of Blackness, Whiteness, Femaleness, Chineseness, Fatness, or whatever else we are -- to whomever we honestly are and whomever we intend to become! I just More...

"How to be black" is, as Thurston admits, a huge topic that one book can never really hope to tackle in its entirety. But Thurston admits as much, and his best effort is certainly worth reading. As a white woman, of course I never have been and never will be black, but I think that this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand race and racism in the United States. Much of the book is deeply personal and the book is really a strange chimera of memoir and satire. But it works More...

This book is affirming and inspiring. I am awed that Baratunde Thurston can talk about race and yet maintain a sense of humor, hope and forgiveness. And it's not like he sweeps history under the rug, either. From this book you can get a real sense of how exhausting it is to be black in White America. This book is the real deal!

It can get lonely sometimes being a person of color in elite academic/professional settings, and I really think Thurston gets that. So for me personally, I really connecte More...

This was a book that met my expectations after catching a bit of an interview with Baratunde Thurston on NPR a few months back. The cover alone drew a lot of attention and a couple of people expressed genuine concern, my own mother and a Hispanic co-worker, that I was reading such a book. I was really curious what they when they read the title. I alleviated their fears with the simple explanation, 'it's satire'. The book made me laugh and think over the panel questions and the advice. I felt a p More...

satirical discussion of race couched as a manual giving tips on how to be the Black Friend ("a cultural Swiss Army knife...."), Black employee (you will be expected to serve on the diverse Diversity committee......), etc. Solicits input from several friends (the Black Panel) incl. one white guy who started the Stuff White People Like site.

individual stories and perspectives were interesting. Might have reached out to a more diverse (in terms of opinions) panel -- they're all liberal, all suppor More...

I have recently become very interested in feminist thought. One of my main life goals is to increase the power of women, economically, politically, and professionally. In my opinion, this requires also understanding the struggles of other under-privileged groups, such as African Americans. As a possible opressor (an upper-class, cis, straight, white person), doing so helps me become aware my own biases and privileges, so I can try to correct them. As a member of an under privileged group (a woma More...

I just finished reading this and I feel like my mind expanded an inch. If you want to know the extent to which mainstream media control your mind, read this book. It's not like I had any negative associations in my head for America's black before I bought 'How To Be Black', but reading it made me realize just how one-dimensional my perception of this community (and others I don't necessarily interact with regularly) is.

It's a mixture of history, sociology, economics, politics and psychology - al More...

The book “How to Be Black” was hilarious at times I found myself laughing out loud. The best part of the book is Mr. Thurston’s ability to emulate the educated satire of Ishmael Reed. I learned a lot about myself and about others through an educated man. I recommend this book and “Stuff White People Like” by Christian Lander placed on the shelf of any person that appreciates cultural differences and can laugh at the way we all play around the edges of society’s stereotypes.
For those who read th More...

I got this book because it looked like it was funny. I also was hoping it would teach me how to dance and elevate my freestyle skills. Unfortunately, it was made clear early on in the book that this book will not teach non-blacks how to be black. I almost returned to book and demanded my money back, but it was pretty funny up to that point so I kept reading.


Baratunde is a funny guy. I have a feeling we would get along and crack up at bad jokes all night if we ran into each other at a bar. The b More...

Too dry for me. I like subversive humor and this was mildly entertaining at best. It's also clear that Thurston LOVES Thurston and I (sometimes) found him arrogant. My favorite part was when he joked about the two black employees talking about stealing all the white people's shit in the break room, before the white employee walked in, laughing conspiratorially. I also felt sympathy for the black employee who doesn't want to be in the middle of the dance circle at every company party, since I mad More...

Successfully pulled off a quasi-memoir, quasi-sociological quest, wittily satirical sort of project. That's quite a feat, and I love it when books blur lines like that. It was enjoyable and funny and analytical, a nice snapshot of the fucked-up-ness (and unintentional hilarity) of racial relations in the U.S. today, and the final chapter, "The Future of Blackness" was five-star awesomeness incarnate.

Overall, though, it was a three-star read, and not higher, for me. There wasn't much new territo More...

OK, so I didn't know what to expect from the book, but I have been following this guy on Twitter for a while. I didn't know also that he was the "Jack Turner" behind the "Jack & Jill Politics" blog that I followed. (I don't pay attention to all that much, I guess.)

But this guy's name kept popping up on my Twitter feeds--another guy I follow kept posting about him and recommending him, and then his book kept appearing as well, so I picked it up.

First off, the book cover is fairly aggressive. More...