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What Members Thought

I honestly don't know how to review this book, other than to say that it is amazing and everyone needs to read or listen to it. Since the author reads the book himself, I felt like it gave it an extra level of meaning to listen to it. You can hear even more clearly the combination of poetry and logic and philosophy at work in Coates hard-won view of the world. This work is sad and beautiful, tender about those he loves, stern about the issues that haunt them, and him, and everyone else this nati
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Though short, this book packs a punch to the gut. We're only a couple of weeks into 2016, and I can already tell that this book will be one I recommend over and over again throughout the year.
It's not an easy book to read. It's challenging not only in the style of writing and the diction, but also in the message. It's the type of book you will probably see paired with Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X in future college classes.
"What I wanted for you was to grow into consciousness."
"' ...more
It's not an easy book to read. It's challenging not only in the style of writing and the diction, but also in the message. It's the type of book you will probably see paired with Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X in future college classes.
"What I wanted for you was to grow into consciousness."
"' ...more

I ended up reading a lot of this book out loud, to myself. And I repeated a lot of passages to myself, for emphasis.
Everyone should read it.
"Perhaps that was, is, the hope of the movement: to awaken the Dreamers, to rouse them to the facts of what their need to be white, to talk like they are white, to think that they are white, which is to think that they are beyond the design flaws of humanity, has done to the world." ...more
Everyone should read it.
"Perhaps that was, is, the hope of the movement: to awaken the Dreamers, to rouse them to the facts of what their need to be white, to talk like they are white, to think that they are white, which is to think that they are beyond the design flaws of humanity, has done to the world." ...more

This is one of the most powerful books I've ever read.
(More detailed review to come.) ...more
(More detailed review to come.) ...more

A quick read, but not an easy one by any stretch. I'd say it was scathing, but in truth there is no language that is harsh enough for the system of capitalist oppression that has driven global development. Instead, let's use damning, because this is the most honest and comprehensive analysis of the systematic dehumanization of others and the claiming of privilege for one's self. Reading this made me so immeasurably sad, and yet I appreciate Coates' claim on joy, because in the absence of the un-
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Aug 08, 2015
Camille
marked it as to-read

Aug 10, 2015
Jess
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Aug 12, 2015
Denise Cormaney
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Oct 19, 2015
Joseph
is currently reading it


Jan 11, 2016
Deanna M
marked it as to-read

Jul 11, 2016
Martha
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