You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
Near the end of African American history month, February, I took a look around my library and found many posters of great African Americans. The library did a great job and it inspired me to read a few books about the African American experience. At that time, there was a lot of buzz surrounding the narrative turned movie 12 Years a Slave. I decided it was time to finally read Frederick Douglass's narrative. While there was a second narrative in all the copies at the library, I didn't start the book expecting to read Harriet Jacobs's story. Yet, both of these narratives were so compelling, so shocking, that I knew I had to finish both.
Read more: http://knowledgeiscool.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-review-narrative-of-life-of.html
Read more: http://knowledgeiscool.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-review-narrative-of-life-of.html
dark
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
While it is hard to rate these narratives as I would works of fiction as the experience of reading them was not (and I believe was never meant to be) enjoyable, both of these narratives movingly illuminate the appalling reality of slavery and the difficult and painful lives of two people who escaped their enslavement. Reading them in their entirety this time (I've read Douglass's narrative and selections from Jacobs's more than once before), it was particularly significant to me how even in the "free" North, both people encountered continued inequality, cruelty, and racism.
challenging
informative
inspiring
sad
emotional
informative
sad
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
One may expect a book that that is this old and on such hard a subject to be difficult to read, but Douglass tells his harrowing narrative in a way that is easy to understand and connect to. Gripping, tragic, and emotional, this is far more than just a memoir.
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced