Between the World and Me in The Roundtable

Jul 17, 2015 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-books, social-justice-read

When I was a junior in high school, I had a teacher who taught American History in an unusual way. He appealed to our emotions through folk music by singers like Buffy St. Marie and challenged us to think by assigning reading outside the realm of the common textbook like The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. I learned more about slavery from that reading experience and from his lectures than I could have learned in any other way in my practically all “thought we were white” ...more

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Jul 09, 2015 Lark Benobi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, nonfiction, male-identified-authors

Amazing, perfect first chapter that left me breathless, disturbed, and thoughtful. After that though the prose felt strained to me. I don't think the conceit Coates chose, to write this book to his son, is entirely successful. It constrains the book in odd ways and gives it a layer of sentimentality that lays like a gauze between me as a reader and the clarion call that this book wants to be. The anger dissipates into a weirdly elevated tone that makes Coates's warnings to his son sound somethin ...more

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Jun 12, 2017 Christopher rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 21st-century, non-fiction, national-book-award, american

This has the aura of a classic of African American literature; it will confuse high schoolers in years to come, alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and that's a good thing. This is a powerfully moving and bleak view of what it is to be black, and though it must be cliche at this point to say, it should be required reading for everyone.

There are a lot of terms used in this book that have shifted my way of thinking about things: "the body", to emphasiz ...more

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Dec 02, 2016 Nadine in California rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Should be required reading for everyone who lives in the US - starting with the President-Elect.

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Jul 30, 2015 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, essays, sociology, libraryebook, memoir

12/24/19: Audio

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Dec 10, 2015 Sera rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, library, biography-memoir, non-fiction

Very insightful read about the historical patterns of racism against blacks in the United States.

Many of Coates' observations broke my heart.

An important read for everyone. ...more

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Dec 20, 2016 Lauren rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio

This book was two things. As a first-hand account of the author's life experiences as a black man from Baltimore, it was moving and enlightening. The death (via undercover police officer) of a friend of his from Howard University, his experiences when he first traveled to Europe, these were described in a way that was impactful. I expect these scenes to stick with me. Five Stars.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book came off as a slightly rambling lecture. It perhaps did not help that I listened t ...more

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Jan 23, 2017 Julie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: civil-rights-slavery-racism, understanding-todays-usa, national-book-award-winner, pulitzer-prize, read-in-2017

One of the reasons I love to read is that I can put myself in the shoes of people different than me and gain some new insight into people. I thought this would be one of those books. It was not. I can't say I learned much of anything. The way this book was written did not work for me at all. I thought it was an unfocused, poorly explained, rambling mess. And rambling books put me to sleep. ...more

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