From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Start date: October 15, 2021

Finish date: November 1, 2021

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Joan

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 1 post · 43 views

last updated Jun 20, 2025 08:37AM

In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart Spoilers/Discussion
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last updated Sep 26, 2025 08:04PM

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What Members Thought

Aug 28, 2015 Rashida rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Apparently, Toni Morrison called this "A must read." I fully cosign that statement. Coates stole my breath. It would have been a quick read, but it was painful, and I could only handle it in doses. But you don't get to avoid the pain. There is no way to avoid the pain of our existence, so why should we get to hide from it when it's presented to us on the page. I was reading this while waiting for clients to be brought for visits at the jail. One young man asked me what I was reading. I highly re ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2015 Yashoda Sampath rated it it was amazing

Shelves: readandproudofit, nonfiction

A primal scream of a book that's impossible to continue reading and impossible to put down. It's been a long time since I've wept publicly while reading a book, but it's a must-read. I'm not gonna say it's perfect (the women don't really come to life except as abstract moments driving his enlightenment), but it is deeply affecting, like all books should be. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2017 Ardita rated it really liked it

Shelves: borrowed

The way Coates wrote his views on being black put readers from outside that culture to understand race relations in America. The first half was pretty powerful and then it sort of ebbed towards the end.

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