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Where To Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World by Cleo Wade
lachellerising's review against another edition
1.0
Not sure who her target audience is but it definitely doesn’t resonate with me as a Black woman. I started this audiobook in hopes of hearing some prose and poetry that would inspire me to keep going after feeling spiritually depleted— what Wade offers is dull and unimaginative. Her use of language is colorless and some of her suggestions seem to cater to people who come from privileged backgrounds (re: white)
“The world will ask you to heal racism, start with doing it in your own family”. There are also suggestions in here that are so surface level and myopic that they aren’t even worth mentioning (“the world will ask you to save the environment, start by saying I don’t want a plastic bag or pick up a small piece of trash, recycle” there are more steps we can take as individuals to impede the looming climate crisis, not to mention people have been doing this for decades and it hasn’t made much of a difference).
This is not a book for someone who has endured hardship and feels discouraged from constantly giving, fighting and trying to overcome their own oppression. This is 100% a book for someone who has yet to show up and do the work— hence the title “where to begin”. I thought it would at least be uplifting, inspiring or offer a fresh perspective but it does none of that for me. Some of us constantly begin again in order to remain hopeful, but we are not who she is lifting up or speaking to.
“The world will ask you to heal racism, start with doing it in your own family”. There are also suggestions in here that are so surface level and myopic that they aren’t even worth mentioning (“the world will ask you to save the environment, start by saying I don’t want a plastic bag or pick up a small piece of trash, recycle” there are more steps we can take as individuals to impede the looming climate crisis, not to mention people have been doing this for decades and it hasn’t made much of a difference).
This is not a book for someone who has endured hardship and feels discouraged from constantly giving, fighting and trying to overcome their own oppression. This is 100% a book for someone who has yet to show up and do the work— hence the title “where to begin”. I thought it would at least be uplifting, inspiring or offer a fresh perspective but it does none of that for me. Some of us constantly begin again in order to remain hopeful, but we are not who she is lifting up or speaking to.
alisonchannita's review against another edition
4.0
Cleo Wade’s words always bring inspiration, hope, and healing.
audreysova's review against another edition
5.0
Another gem from Cleo Wade! She makes me feel so seen with each turn of the page. What a special soul.
bcarpentier's review against another edition
5.0
I borrowed this from the library and will absolutely be going to buy a copy as I'll be coming back to this book for years. It's a short, beautiful piece of artwork full of inspiration.
lanaadrianne's review against another edition
5.0
This is a super quick read but it’s a book you will come back to read sections again. In this crazy world we live in her words really spoke to me.
kamagates4's review against another edition
4.0
Cute little book of poems about the power an individual holds in making changes to the world. My favorite quote was "No one nominated Harriet Tubman to her purpose, to her courage, to her mission. She did not say 'I am not a congressperson or the president, so how could I possibly participate in the fight to abolish a system as big as slavery?' She instead spent ten years making nineteen trips freeing 300 people. One person at a time." So many are caught in a way of thinking, myself included, that the world is too big to change but in fact it starts with us. In the words of Van Gough "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." I picked up this book as a splurge in a book store and although it was completely different from what I thought it was, I really enjoyed it! 4 stars, paperback.
kristinhoffman's review against another edition
5.0
While this book was published in 2019, we need this one more than ever in 2020. Please invest in this book! Stay encouraged and hopeful. “We earn our optimism. We earn our hope. We do this by caring for ourselves mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically so that when we show up in the world, we are able to show up with the best of what is within us.” Thank you, Ms. Cleo Wade, for this beautiful book!