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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
I should state that I am a basketball fan. I played it; I watch it. I understand fandom. Much of the commentary about basketball was solid and informative. Some of it was touching. Other times, it was tedious. Between the poetic meanderings and some dry basketball facts, this book truly dragged. It did not need to be over 300 pages. I marked several beautiful, memorable passage--descriptions of basketball player's reactions and moments when the author was with his dad--but after page 250, I just wanted this book to end. The poetical language often became too abstract and pointless.
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year is part love letter to basketball, part memoir, part poetry. Abdurraqib relates the importance of the sport to the Black community with many topics. A few include: found family, legacy through sports, believing in wins while in poverty, the hypercritical view of successful Black men, and more. Abdurraqib shares raw personal accounts such as experiencing homelessness in a beautifully open writing style. Abdurraqib speaks to the betterment of a community through a shared love of sport.
My initial instinct was to say something like, “only Hanif Abdurraqib could make me care about sports,” and that’s sort of true but also sort of flippant in a way this book doesn’t deserve and maybe Abdurraqib’s generosity and vulnerability and unabashed love is rubbing off on me.
I do not like sports. Like many, I have standard nerdy-fat-gay kid trauma about sports in general and I think it’s easy for people who have been typically excluded from the joyful side of athletics to dismiss them out of hand. I don’t know whether that’s self-preservation or pseudo-intellectual elitism or maybe a mix of both, but it doesn’t really matter. This book was harder for me to follow than Abdurraqib’s others, but I still found myself crying at the end of the fourth quarter. It was a gift to be granted understanding and love for something I hadn’t even realized I’d misunderstood to begin with.
I do not like sports. Like many, I have standard nerdy-fat-gay kid trauma about sports in general and I think it’s easy for people who have been typically excluded from the joyful side of athletics to dismiss them out of hand. I don’t know whether that’s self-preservation or pseudo-intellectual elitism or maybe a mix of both, but it doesn’t really matter. This book was harder for me to follow than Abdurraqib’s others, but I still found myself crying at the end of the fourth quarter. It was a gift to be granted understanding and love for something I hadn’t even realized I’d misunderstood to begin with.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
50 stars, no, one million shining sparkling stars!!
This is my third book by Abdurraqib this year, the first two I listened to and this one I wanted to savour a bit more and read though I did at times miss the power and rhythm of him reading it out to me, this way certainly did allow me to be immersed in the rich and flowing and powerful prose of the book. I truly don’t think I have ever encountered a better writer in my life and I genuinely think I could be enraptured by Abdurraqib’s writing even if it was describing a board meeting or a traffic jam or any other rather dull or seemingly uninspired topic. Because I certainly am no big fan of basketball nor have I ever watched a basketball movie nor basketball game on tv (though I did spend a few years watching all of my best friend’s university ball home games but that was with more attention to her and my care and support for her than any particular notice or focus on the actual game), and YET I found this book all about basketball and love and nostalgia and return and violence to be an absolute no-notes perfect book that I would recommend to anyone.
No wait, I know, this book is a…. Slam dunk :)
In all categories, in all ways, forever. Long live Hanif Abdurraqib!!!! My poet!!! My king!!!
This is my third book by Abdurraqib this year, the first two I listened to and this one I wanted to savour a bit more and read though I did at times miss the power and rhythm of him reading it out to me, this way certainly did allow me to be immersed in the rich and flowing and powerful prose of the book. I truly don’t think I have ever encountered a better writer in my life and I genuinely think I could be enraptured by Abdurraqib’s writing even if it was describing a board meeting or a traffic jam or any other rather dull or seemingly uninspired topic. Because I certainly am no big fan of basketball nor have I ever watched a basketball movie nor basketball game on tv (though I did spend a few years watching all of my best friend’s university ball home games but that was with more attention to her and my care and support for her than any particular notice or focus on the actual game), and YET I found this book all about basketball and love and nostalgia and return and violence to be an absolute no-notes perfect book that I would recommend to anyone.
No wait, I know, this book is a…. Slam dunk :)
In all categories, in all ways, forever. Long live Hanif Abdurraqib!!!! My poet!!! My king!!!
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Loving a non-fiction book about basketball was not on my bingo card but here I am. This book is amazing. The author has woven personal story, commentary on racial politics, the ardour of loving a game, violence, legacy and much, much more into a beautiful book. It is poetic, powerful and passionate. The writing is deeply evocative, tender and plays with form in ways that, even if you're not into ball, you can still be swept up inside.
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced