Between the World and Me in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 30, 2020 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: us-no-amer, bios-memoirs, audiobooks, education-teaching, anti-racist, self-help, non-fic, chicago-and-illinois, 2020

This relatively short bio was unputdownable. I listened to it on audio, read by the author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, a Black man raised in Baltimore. His life was full of all the tragedy of growing up poor and Black. It includes schools that under appreciated him, with circumstances all along that marginalized him and his family before and after him.

This is his open letter to his young son, and it is direct and draws you into his hopes and his pain. It is so compelling, eye-opening, and we along for ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Patrick rated it liked it

Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in a rough part of Baltimore and has been searching for a way to escape, explain, or possibly never forget that world. He writes this book to his son, who I believe is 14 at the time of the writing. It's a beautifully written story of a somber message of an inescapable past of an oppressed race. I'm not allowed to disagree with anything in this book because clearly he sees me as a dreamer, but I find it far too narrow-minded and predetermined. Having grown up in and arou ...more

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Jun 24, 2017 Kay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biogr-memoir, nonfiction, available-mcpl, book-clubs, current_affairs, audiobooks

Read for "Potluck and Prose" book club meeting of April 2017, which I couldn't attend but wanted to. Decided to read along -- or, rather, listen along to the audiobook read by the author. Thought provoking, but, I felt, at times rather repetitive and with a tendency to over-dramatize or stretch the point. ...more

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Jan 17, 2016 Julie rated it it was amazing

Wow. This book was compelling, thought provoking, heart breaking. Honest and open, I wish every American would read this book. I will be thinking about it for a long time.

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Jan 02, 2017 Deedee marked it as to-read

Shelves: best-books-of-decade, b-karen-michele-burns, books-to-read-snow-is-falling, epistolary-novel, color-black-white-gray, pulitzer-prize-non-fiction, year-2015, social-justice, src-african-american, african-american

Dewey 305.8009

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Jul 09, 2017 Ra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, scribd, non-fiction

I listened to the Audio version of this book read by the author. It is a short book with a profound message that cannot be taken lightly. I listened and re-listened to some passages to get as much as possible of the references.

The book is a letter from the author to his Samari, it details the singularity of the black experience in America and emphasizes the struggle to protect the "black body" from plunder. It is an important piece of writing that should be read by anyone who needs to know why ...more

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