From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Between the World and Me
by
Start date
July 11, 2017
Finish date
July 14, 2017
Discussion
2017 Read Harder Challenge

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Group Discussions About This Book

This topic has been closed to new comments. * Complete 2017 RHC Task List
By Book Riot · 1 post · 6015 views
last updated Dec 15, 2016 05:50AM
This topic has been closed to new comments. * 2017 Read Harder Challenge
By Book Riot · 1 post · 3503 views
last updated Dec 15, 2016 05:44AM

What Members Thought

CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph
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 ...more
Jess
Jan 09, 2016 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: 2016
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
Julie
Feb 05, 2017 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
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
April
This is one of the most powerful books I've ever read.
(More detailed review to come.)
...more
Alissa
Sep 24, 2015 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
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- ...more
Amanda
Aug 06, 2015 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Camille
Aug 08, 2015 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Jess
Aug 10, 2015 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Emilie
Aug 23, 2015 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Laura
Sep 16, 2015 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: owned
Lisa
Oct 03, 2015 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Joseph
Oct 19, 2015 is currently reading it  ·  review of another edition
Emilie
Dec 02, 2015 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Nichole
Jan 05, 2016 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Jocelyn
Jan 08, 2016 rated it it was amazing
Deanna M
Jan 11, 2016 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Erica Freeman
Jan 31, 2016 is currently reading it  ·  review of another edition
Tiffany
Feb 15, 2016 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Adjrun
Mar 02, 2016 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Sarah
Jul 01, 2016 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Kate
Sep 14, 2016 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition