Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories by Gabrielle Union

10 reviews

casira's review

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility

Moderate: Sexual assault, Body shaming, Rape, Transphobia, Medical content, Gun violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, Bullying, and Miscarriage

Minor: Miscarriage and Suicidal thoughts

vedpears's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Infertility, Xenophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cursing, Racial slurs, Infidelity, and Hate crime

kelly_e's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Title: You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories
Author: Gabrielle Union
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: September 14, 2021

T H R E E • W O R D S

Vulnerable • Empowering • Witty

📖 S Y N O P S I S

A lot has changed in the four years since Gabrielle Union published her first book We're Going to Need More Wine, so she's back with all new stories to inspire, encourage, empower, and to offer hope to those who struggle. She shares about her journey with surrogacy and on becoming a mom, and delves into tackling racist institutions and practices in the entertainment industry.

💭 T H O U G H T S

After reading We're Going to Need More Wine, I knew I needed to pick up Gabrielle Union's second book You Got Anything Stronger? to see what else she had to say. These new stories and conversations go even deeper touching on suicidal thoughts, becoming a mom via surrogacy, being a working mom, raising a LGBTQIA+ child, aging as a Black woman, racism within the industry, among other things.

I commend Union for digging deep and exposing the most vulnerable aspects of her life with the hope of making others experiencing similar things feel less alone. Knowing you are not alone can be one of the most healing ways to move through life's most difficult moments. Written with both humour and sincerity, this book isn't all heavy. She mixes in some lighthearted stories to create a nice balance. It's great on audio, read by the author herself which makes the experience that more genuine.

Again with this one, I struggled with the normalization of drinking culture and the references of turning to alcohol when things get hard. I do think the titles of both her books were chosen with distaste. And yet, these books open up some much needed dialogue on important topics, so I had to look past the titles.

Both books are worth reading, but I would definitely recommend reading her earlier publication first simply for context as some topics are a continuation while others are completely new. There's a little something for everyone in each, although I think I gravitated towards this one a tad more. For me, it just hit harder.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who want to be empowered
• Gabrielle Union fans

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The right thing to do is, as usual, the hard thing to do."

"I let her tell me who she was. I listened to her, even before she had words."

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual assault, Cursing, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Rape, Medical content, Alcohol, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Transphobia

madisonfrank's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Infertility, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Cursing, Medical content, Mental illness, and Blood

megbodz's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

babeinlibrary's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Racism, Pregnancy, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

zoes_human's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Yet again, I find myself blown away by the introspection and wisdom of this woman.  In this more than worthy successor to <u>We're Going to Need More Wine</u>, Gabrielle this time shares her experiences with miscarriage, surrogacy, rape trauma recovery, white supremacy, perimenopause, loving and supporting the women in her life, finding her place as a stepmom, a dance battle with Bruno Mars, and a Thanksgiving dinner wrecked by Lemoncello. 

There are triggers in here, but there is also joy and wisdom and a celebration of life and learning. Her vulnerability is a gift to us all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility

Moderate: Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Deadnaming, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

jackelz's review against another edition

challenging reflective fast-paced

I didn’t realize this was her second book until I started reading this. I don’t think you need to read the first one to appreciate this one, but I’ll be going back and reading ‘We’re Going to Need More Wine’ because I enjoyed this one so much. 

Gabrielle tells us stories of her infertility struggles and her daughters birth via surrogacy, her rape as a teenager, her step daughters coming out as transgender, her suicide ideation, and racism in this country and abroad. There are also moments of joy in between. 

This book makes me look at Bring It On differently. Gabrielle takes a look back on her role as Isis and how the Clovers were treated differently than the Toros. Things I definitely didn’t think about then. 

And the last story titled ‘Standards and Practices: A Tragedy in Three Acts’ is 🔥. She’s so vulnerable and honest with all of her stories, and she tells them so well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

zeenatpatel01's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

Just like her debut novel....I devoured this. Thank you Gabrielle Union-Wade.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

leslie_overbookedsocialworker's review

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Racism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, Police brutality, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts