calamitywindpetal's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0


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ikilegna's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

I listened to this as an audiobook read by Trevor Noah himself and holy shit, what a life. I learned so much about life as a POC in South Africa and about Trevor Noah. I feel like the fact that Trevor read it himself added a lot to the experience, so if you have the choice, go for the audiobook!

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els4lp's review against another edition

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5.0

read the Finnish translation by Jaana Iso-Markku

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alisonannk's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0


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dragonmagic's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

4.5


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maddiearthur's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

5.0


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kiwichill's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This was one of the best memoirs I have ever read.  I have never seen Trevor Noah on TV, I'd never heard of him.  I just kept seeing this book come up in Facebook groups etc.  At times shocking and disturbing,  other times humorous,  it opened my eyes to what life is like in South Africa, both during apartheid and after.  Poverty, domestic violence, crime, racism and government laws that support these ideals are a way of life over there. Noah's mother must be commended for the strength of character and resilience she displays.  I recommend listening to the audiobook as it is excellent 

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tayrod4594's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This memoir is absolutely stunning. It's an unflinching, honest portrait of South Africa, of how the various influences might combine to create a man whose greatest quality is his empathy. He makes no bones about the harsh realities of poverty, racism, domestic abuse, and crime; however, he doesn't position himself or his loved ones as victims or martyrs. It's simply the reality, and humor and hope are an ever-present thread weaving together his history.

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gwenswoons's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Liked this a lot - lots of beautiful storytelling, tons of deep history about South African apartheid told in really personal ways, and an unusual balance of comedy and vivid, traumatic, clear information that Trevor Noah does so well. The structure, for me, wasn’t totally successful - I think the word “Stories” in the title is key, and it’s definitely built more like vignettes - to my reading, it was often not entirely successful from the extent of the non-sequitur - than like a traditional memoir (I’m not a major memoir reader anyway, so I was ok with this! But the timeline leaps and unrelated stories sometimes felt like they could have been built into a slightly more effective arc). I listened on audio, and can’t recommend it enough - he’s obviously such a great narrator, so funny, so inflected and beautiful (and, so amazing hearing him switch between different languages in different stories - I loved!!). Can’t imagine reading this NOT on audio! I’ll def read more of his books as he writes them 💜

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samanthaleeshea's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0


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