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editorbrenna's review against another edition
Too dense/academic for the timeframe I had to read it in.
edill09's review against another edition
Had to return to the library. Plan to pick it up again when the mood next strikes.
jarcher's review against another edition
4.0
It feels silly to miss someone you've never met, but I do miss Toni Morrison. In today's world, where truth sometimes appears soft and malleable and where the best path forward feels hazier than ever, it's a particularly painful blow to lose someone who's voice I could definitively trust. A lighthouse has dimmed, and now the waters feel a little more daunting.
Though I wish it were narrated by the author, as most of Morrison's other audiobooks are, it still makes grieving a little easier to listen to a collection of her most poignant speeches and essays. Plus Bahni Turpin is an excellent stand-in. If you've never read any Morrison, start with the Bluest Eye, take a few weeks to process, then move on to Beloved, Sula, Song of Solomon, and everything else. If you're familiar with her work, this collection might help you a little this year as it's helped me.
My one criticism is that some bits of text are repeated in several essays and speeches, making the overall collection somewhat repetitive. I wish this would have been adjusted for in the editing process.
Though I wish it were narrated by the author, as most of Morrison's other audiobooks are, it still makes grieving a little easier to listen to a collection of her most poignant speeches and essays. Plus Bahni Turpin is an excellent stand-in. If you've never read any Morrison, start with the Bluest Eye, take a few weeks to process, then move on to Beloved, Sula, Song of Solomon, and everything else. If you're familiar with her work, this collection might help you a little this year as it's helped me.
My one criticism is that some bits of text are repeated in several essays and speeches, making the overall collection somewhat repetitive. I wish this would have been adjusted for in the editing process.
milliecybu's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
Some good pieces but otherwise very pretentious
sara_shocks's review against another edition
5.0
Marvelous, dense collection of Morrison's nonfiction writings. I flagged a number of pages for further consideration & reconsideration.
willthesecond's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
shazel64's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
erboe501's review against another edition
3.0
I've only read two of Toni Morrison's books: Sula on audio and Home in a disability and literature class. This would have been a richer read if I'd read her other novels, because many of the essays go into deep analysis and commentary on her decisions in those novels, down to a sentence-by-sentence level. I really enjoyed how she broke down word choice and sentence structure.
Listening to all of these essays mostly back to back highlighted the passages that Morrison repeats across her work. There are sections she reuses relatively frequently. I don't know that I would recommend anyone else listen to this on audio. The ideas really deserve time for reflection and rereading.
Listening to all of these essays mostly back to back highlighted the passages that Morrison repeats across her work. There are sections she reuses relatively frequently. I don't know that I would recommend anyone else listen to this on audio. The ideas really deserve time for reflection and rereading.