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megancrayne's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
d3monology's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.75
best essays:
writing from the darkness
dancing with words
writing to confess
writing from the darkness
dancing with words
writing to confess
as_a_tre3's review
5.0
bell hooks never misses! She accurately pointed out that writing is a dedication that requires discipline—this part helps me to unlearn and deconstruct the meaning of labor which was ruined by our today’s capitalism.
glendaleereads's review
5.0
If you are a writer, you need to read this.
If you are not a writer-you need to read this.
If you are not reading bell hooks-
you're doing reading wrong,
and you're not reading good books.
If you are not a writer-you need to read this.
If you are not reading bell hooks-
you're doing reading wrong,
and you're not reading good books.
jraley_writes's review
4.0
Like with all of hooks' books, I took my time with it but thought about it constantly. I really wanted to soak up what she was saying, contemplate how I can be active in many of the areas she writes about. Often I find that in some areas of womanhood I am still very naive! I took pause with several of her passages to let them sink in because many of them spoke SO strongly to me. While I am not a black woman writer, I am a woman and hope to one day be a writer. She offers interesting insight, wonderful critique, and brilliant advice for writers young and old, black/white/green/blue.
caelinsullivan's review
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, and Incest
Minor: Sexual assault
abellebooks's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
With grace and insight, celebrated writer bell hooks untangles the complex personae of women writers. Born and raised in the rural South, hooks learned early the power of the written word and the importance of speaking her mind. Her passion for words is the heartbeat of this collection of essays. Remembered Rapture celebrates literacy, the joys of reading and writing, and the lasting power of the book. Once again, these essays reveal bell hooks's wide-ranging intellectual scope; she is a universal writer addressing readers and writers everywhere.
axmed's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Such an important book! And the way bell hooks gives several Black women writers such as Ann Petry, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, Lorraine Hansberry, their flowers at the end is so very beautiful. I need to re-vist books such as The Street, The Bluest Eye and more, after finishing this book.
Must read / listen!
"Critical writing counts for very little when critics speak about ending domination, eradicating racism, sexism (which includes the structure of heterosexism), class elitism in our work without changing individual habits of being, without allowing those ideas to work in our lives and on our souls in a manner that transforms."
[..]
One of the first black writers to publish in openly gay magazines, Hansberry linked feminism and gay rights long before it was popular to do so. Yet in typical eclectic fashion she also critiqued the sexism of gay males.
[...]
Toni Bambara was different. She loved blackness. She loved black people. She did not stand at a distance and write about the black masses. She lived among poor black people, in the segregated world of the South. Her love of regular everyday black folks was not sentimental. She was not a tourist. Her love was nurtured and sustained by keen political insights, an understanding of the importance of decolonization.
[...]
Long before feminist theorists began to think in terms of race, gender, and class, black women writers had created work that spoke from this previously unarticulated standpoint. Describing in their fictions the ways sex, race, and class work as interlocking systems of domination, Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen were among those exceptional visionaries providing ways to understand black female experience that could not be found in print anywhere else. Among this work, Ann Petry’s novel The Street was groundbreaking.
[..]
Toni Morrison’s work is uniquely her own. She is an exceptional writer by any standard. She is not the only gifted black woman writer. Knowing this, she has adamantly resisted tokenization that is demeaning and patronizing.
Must read / listen!
"Critical writing counts for very little when critics speak about ending domination, eradicating racism, sexism (which includes the structure of heterosexism), class elitism in our work without changing individual habits of being, without allowing those ideas to work in our lives and on our souls in a manner that transforms."
[..]
One of the first black writers to publish in openly gay magazines, Hansberry linked feminism and gay rights long before it was popular to do so. Yet in typical eclectic fashion she also critiqued the sexism of gay males.
[...]
Toni Bambara was different. She loved blackness. She loved black people. She did not stand at a distance and write about the black masses. She lived among poor black people, in the segregated world of the South. Her love of regular everyday black folks was not sentimental. She was not a tourist. Her love was nurtured and sustained by keen political insights, an understanding of the importance of decolonization.
[...]
Long before feminist theorists began to think in terms of race, gender, and class, black women writers had created work that spoke from this previously unarticulated standpoint. Describing in their fictions the ways sex, race, and class work as interlocking systems of domination, Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen were among those exceptional visionaries providing ways to understand black female experience that could not be found in print anywhere else. Among this work, Ann Petry’s novel The Street was groundbreaking.
[..]
Toni Morrison’s work is uniquely her own. She is an exceptional writer by any standard. She is not the only gifted black woman writer. Knowing this, she has adamantly resisted tokenization that is demeaning and patronizing.
aunnalea's review
I usually love bell hooks but this one was a little slow. I LOVED the chapter where she talked about her own spiritual journey. I didn't finish the chapters of literary criticism at the end. They weren't my cup of tea.