Tag: Black authors

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How We Fight For Our Lives

Title: How We Fight For Our Lives

Author: Saeed Jones

Genre: memoir

I’ve been following Jones on Twitter for quite some time. He’s quite entertaining, but I just now starting reading his writing. I read his book of poetry, Prelude to Bruise, and it’s just gorgeous. I’m not a big poetry reader, so I didn’t review it. I’m not sure how to even comment on it. But his words are very powerful. I definitely recommend it. After reading that book, I knew I wanted to delve into his memoir. And I was not disappointed. His style of writing is moving. I was captivated.

From Goodreads: Haunted and haunting, Jones’s memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one of a kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.

Being gay in America is challenging. Being Black in America is extraordinarily challenging. Being a Black gay man, well, every single card is stacked against you. Jones grew up just north of Dallas, an area I’m abundantly familiar with, and his recollection of the prejudice isn’t at all shocking. The child of a single mother, he struggled on every front. A lot of this book deals with his struggles with being gay, but not just that. He deals with loss, power, abuse, and struggle. The language is just gorgeous. Jones was a born writer. I read this in one sitting. It’s really a must-read for anyone. I absolutely loved it.

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books and reading

Transcendent Kingdom

Title: Transcendent Kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Genre: Black and African-American Literature

I read Homegoing earlier this year and just loved it. The story was so interesting, and the book was just beautifully written. I was just blown away at how captivating it was. And, although I didn’t love this one as much, it was still just such an excellent book. I had no trouble relating to Gifty and her struggles, even though I haven’t experienced them myself. Such is the talent of Gyasi, that even though I’m white, have parents who are still together, born in America, no family members with substance abuse issues, literally Gifty’s polar opposite, I could still get into her psyche because that’s what talented authors do. They create characters that anyone can inhabit, just for a few days. And Gifty will stick with me.

From Goodreads: Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.

What was most fascinating to me was Gifty’s struggle with her faith. I’m not religious at all and never have been. So seeing Gifty in a tug-of-war with her beliefs was interesting. Her soul is laid bare in this book, and at an early age, she’s forced to grow up. I flew through this book, but not necessarily to see how the plot unfolds, like with most books. But, I just wanted to keep spending time with Gifty and seeing her evolve. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Gyasi’s next book. Count me as a fan.

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books and reading

Between the World and Me

Title: Between the World and Me

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Genre: Black and African-American biographies

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book on a Black Lives Matter reading list

Of course, I know who Mr. Coates is. I’ve read several of his essays, I’ve heard him speak on videos, and I’ve followed his career via the news. However, I’ve yet to read one of his books. He’s an author that I always meant to get to but just never did. But when I saw the BLM prompt, I knew just what to read. I already owned this book, and without even knowing what it was about, I dove in.

From Goodreads: In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
 
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward. 

This book is only 150 or so pages, which makes it really easy to digest. The message is clear: Black people do not own their own bodies. They are constantly fighting for their bodies and their places in the world. Coates discusses his own youth, illuminating his path of realization and discovery. The book is a letter to his son, which makes it even more powerful. He isn’t just speaking to the masses, but to one person he loves. This book really should be required reading. Having young Black people see themselves, their history, their struggles in print is critical. Enough with the dead white people books. Give kids the chance to read about themselves and their peers. The more educating we do, the more this generation will empathize.