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revellee's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book. I admit to thinking the author too cheesy sounding right off the bat. I assumed this book would be like a lot of other memoir/inspirational books that are mostly just self-serving and narcissistic drivel. I was very wrong.
This book moved me more than any other book has in ... maybe ever? It's beautiful, tragic, poignant, hopeful, relatable, heartbreaking, joyful, and inspirational.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially to anyone else who's grown numb and depressed and detached due to *gestures at everything*
This is my favorite passage:
"We were dancing on election night. I felt energy in my body. I felt joy... Joy returns us to everything that is good and beautiful and worth fighting for. In joy, we see even darkness with new eyes. I was not alone. I was one in millions. I was part of a movement. One in a constellation. I had to shine my light in my specific slice of sky. I could do that.
I did not know then all the crises yet to come, the rise of white nationalists who held this presidency as their great awakening, mass detentions and deportations, Muslim bans, zero tolerance policies separating migrant children from their parents, attacks on the rights of queer and trans people, assaults on women, and women's rights, and new mass shootings and hate violence against Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, black people, Latinx people, indigenous people, and immigrants.
All I knew was that the future was dark. And that as it got darker and more violent people would get tired, go numb, and retreat into whatever privilege they might have. I wanted to help people stay in the fire. I wanted to help myself stay in the fire. I concluded that revolutionary love was the call of our times and started building the tools to practice it."
This book moved me more than any other book has in ... maybe ever? It's beautiful, tragic, poignant, hopeful, relatable, heartbreaking, joyful, and inspirational.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially to anyone else who's grown numb and depressed and detached due to *gestures at everything*
This is my favorite passage:
"We were dancing on election night. I felt energy in my body. I felt joy... Joy returns us to everything that is good and beautiful and worth fighting for. In joy, we see even darkness with new eyes. I was not alone. I was one in millions. I was part of a movement. One in a constellation. I had to shine my light in my specific slice of sky. I could do that.
I did not know then all the crises yet to come, the rise of white nationalists who held this presidency as their great awakening, mass detentions and deportations, Muslim bans, zero tolerance policies separating migrant children from their parents, attacks on the rights of queer and trans people, assaults on women, and women's rights, and new mass shootings and hate violence against Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, black people, Latinx people, indigenous people, and immigrants.
All I knew was that the future was dark. And that as it got darker and more violent people would get tired, go numb, and retreat into whatever privilege they might have. I wanted to help people stay in the fire. I wanted to help myself stay in the fire. I concluded that revolutionary love was the call of our times and started building the tools to practice it."
l0tus's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
stralins's review against another edition
5.0
Probably the best book I’ve read in a long time. Grateful for this work!
twhittie's review against another edition
5.0
Words we could all take time to listen to, and practices we could all do better at embracing. Amazing book.
mel_emzo's review against another edition
5.0
This book cuts deep into the heart of American politics, cultural influences, and the author's own life to bring truths into the sun.
Read it. Give it to your friends. The gifts inside of it keep coming
Read it. Give it to your friends. The gifts inside of it keep coming
gremkinz07's review against another edition
4.0
It is only through accessing her ferocity that divine rage can take form in the world. Perhaps our task as human beings is to find safe containers for our raw revolutionary rage — and then choose to harness that energy in a way that creates a new world for all of us. 133
I heard the suffering inside their hate: their sense of violation since 9/11, their anxiety about keeping their jobs, their terror as a nation where white people like them had economic and cultural control seemed to disappear. Their relief upon the rise of political figures who validated their hate…. Someone had to tend to their wound. 158 Pain that is not transformed is transferred. 159
Each night, I die a kind of death. Each morning, I wake to the gift of a new lifetime. In between, I labor in love. It is enough. 300
Has an intense description of giving birth.
My sister should read this
I heard the suffering inside their hate: their sense of violation since 9/11, their anxiety about keeping their jobs, their terror as a nation where white people like them had economic and cultural control seemed to disappear. Their relief upon the rise of political figures who validated their hate…. Someone had to tend to their wound. 158 Pain that is not transformed is transferred. 159
Each night, I die a kind of death. Each morning, I wake to the gift of a new lifetime. In between, I labor in love. It is enough. 300
Has an intense description of giving birth.
My sister should read this
jansyn_liberty's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely stunning. I want to read it again and again. Beautiful.