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504 reviews for:
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
4.56 AVERAGE
504 reviews for:
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
4.56 AVERAGE
Overall: impactful essays & stories. Tarana Burke and Brené Brown are a good combo! These essays and stories by black writers were moving, personal, courageous, and compelling. They call attention to the often unspoken rules and messages of a broken society. If you have a reading list for books to help you become anti-racist, I recommend adding this one! If you’re black (or non-white), I hope that reading this book may be affirming and validating for you as the editors hoped.
“You are your best thing.” - Toni Morrison, Beloved
You know what else is the best thing… this book!! Tarana Burke and Brené Brown created a brilliant anthology of essays by some of the greatest Black authors, artists and cultural figures of our time (Jason Reynolds, Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Austin Channing Brown and Kaia Naadira, just to name a few).
I have yet to read a book that encompasses so much of what can weigh on the hearts and minds of a Black person that is just not talked about. These honest stories delve into the guilt of showing emotion, feeling a lack of deservedness, “crazy” thoughts, vulnerability, stolen joy and the shame of being a stereotype.
"These pages are breathing room for our humanity." - Tarana Burke
This book is just a glimpse into the diversity and complexity of the Black experience and the basic, human right to feel seen.
You know what else is the best thing… this book!! Tarana Burke and Brené Brown created a brilliant anthology of essays by some of the greatest Black authors, artists and cultural figures of our time (Jason Reynolds, Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Austin Channing Brown and Kaia Naadira, just to name a few).
I have yet to read a book that encompasses so much of what can weigh on the hearts and minds of a Black person that is just not talked about. These honest stories delve into the guilt of showing emotion, feeling a lack of deservedness, “crazy” thoughts, vulnerability, stolen joy and the shame of being a stereotype.
"These pages are breathing room for our humanity." - Tarana Burke
This book is just a glimpse into the diversity and complexity of the Black experience and the basic, human right to feel seen.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Listened to the audible version- most of the writers narrated their own pieces and I loved it.
2021: A fabulous collection of stories that take Brené Brown's work and provide context for how it impacts the Black experience.
A lot of these essays were sad and overwhelming and full of people working through their trauma. This book does not offer many ways for improvement, nor many solutions to the problems presented. Rather, it is a group of shared experiences, for other Black folks to read and see their own stories reflected. It's also a great resource for Black stories to be shared in the hopes of non-Black folks understanding the part that intergenerational trauma plays in
Tarana Burke leads the way in this essay collection, both as co-editor and anchoring-essay-author. She does not hesitate diving in to the ways in which white supremacy impacts her day to day life, as well providing a harrowing account of the terrible medical issues she experiences as a result of her trauma.
I was thrilled to see so many people included who I now know and recognize after a lot of my own work over the past year especially (Tanya Denise Fields! Aiko D. Bethea! Luvvie Ajayi Jones!) But the biggest negative for me here was due to the wide variety of Black thinkers and authors included, the essays were left feeling quite disparate and disconnected overall.
Also, big plus for another audiobook read (in part!) by Bahni Turpin!!
A lot of these essays were sad and overwhelming and full of people working through their trauma. This book does not offer many ways for improvement, nor many solutions to the problems presented. Rather, it is a group of shared experiences, for other Black folks to read and see their own stories reflected. It's also a great resource for Black stories to be shared in the hopes of non-Black folks understanding the part that intergenerational trauma plays in
Tarana Burke leads the way in this essay collection, both as co-editor and anchoring-essay-author. She does not hesitate diving in to the ways in which white supremacy impacts her day to day life, as well providing a harrowing account of the terrible medical issues she experiences as a result of her trauma.
I was thrilled to see so many people included who I now know and recognize after a lot of my own work over the past year especially (Tanya Denise Fields! Aiko D. Bethea! Luvvie Ajayi Jones!) But the biggest negative for me here was due to the wide variety of Black thinkers and authors included, the essays were left feeling quite disparate and disconnected overall.
Also, big plus for another audiobook read (in part!) by Bahni Turpin!!
I’m not a huge fan of anthologies but this one really helped bring shame and vulnerability in a new light. I’m not entirely sure how to put into words everything I got from this book. There is so much hurt in this world, so much is out of our control. But shame, as powerful as it is, is something that, if we could eliminate using shame against others, would heal so much of the world. And then to markedly tie the writers’ stories of Black embodiment within a white supremacist culture to shame, truly drove home how much shame is used to maintain white supremacy.
It was eye opening to hear stories from queer people, story about black church, and unlearning shame stood out to me. Some stories left me confused but overall inspirational read. I was confused about last picture on back cover because as I read each chapter matches pictures on back in order but I didn’t see essay for that person