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laila4343's review against another edition
4.0
Lyrical memoir about growing up in West Baltimore in the 1980s and 90s, and Coates’s complex but loving and attentive father.
eelsmac's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.5
sarabz's review against another edition
4.0
It was great to read a memoir from the generation that was born from actors in the freedom struggles of the 60's and 70's. I think the in between stories, as opposed to the in the heat of the struggle at its height stories, are so important in finding hope and a path forward. Coates tells his story of coming up with consciousness during the violence of the 80's and coming to terms with his family's legacy. His father was a panther, ran an afro-centric press, and struggled to find ways to bring the awareness he gained in the black liberation struggle into his life with his family, even after the panthers were destroyed and his community was being torn apart - crack and guns and prisons were hitting urban black communities hard.
The story is about boys and men, which made me a little less interested in picking it up. And its true, his mom is the only woman that's really present in the story. But he's a great writer and story teller; there's some rhetorical gems in there that hit me hard. Its an excellent addition to the catalog of personal musings on struggle and finding ones place in it.
The story is about boys and men, which made me a little less interested in picking it up. And its true, his mom is the only woman that's really present in the story. But he's a great writer and story teller; there's some rhetorical gems in there that hit me hard. Its an excellent addition to the catalog of personal musings on struggle and finding ones place in it.
anxiouslybooked's review against another edition
3.0
I was gifted this digital advanced readers copy though NetGalley for my full, honest opinion.
This book took me a while to get through. And honestly I WANTED to love it. However, it just didn’t do it for me. As it is marketed for young adults, I found this VERY difficult to read. I was constantly looking up words and becoming more and more frustrated with the vocabulary used. I think that the memoir itself is very powerful, but in looking at it through the lens of being YA, I just don’t see it as being very accessible to most young adults.
This book took me a while to get through. And honestly I WANTED to love it. However, it just didn’t do it for me. As it is marketed for young adults, I found this VERY difficult to read. I was constantly looking up words and becoming more and more frustrated with the vocabulary used. I think that the memoir itself is very powerful, but in looking at it through the lens of being YA, I just don’t see it as being very accessible to most young adults.
foofers1622's review against another edition
5.0
I just love the way Ta-Nehisi writes. It seems so effortless and it's so poetic at times. I really wish he would try fiction.
lindseylanham's review against another edition
this is the second time I tried this book and couldn’t get into it. I looooove Coates’ writing but …… think I’m just gonna call it a permanent DNF
megryanreally's review against another edition
4.0
Coates uses language, writing in an almost languid poetic prose, to retell his history as simultaneously a detached, grown, yet present participant. He figures his reader in the context of the era of crack where he was raised by his black panther father and failed over and over in schools where standardized testing didn't support his proclivity as a creative. His story ends at the entrance to the Mecca (Howard) and hints at his incompletion in the acknowledgements. Despite his incompletion and failing, in spite of his not wanting to fail but being caught in a spiral of despair and loss of hope of success, Coates is incredibly successful. Helps me remind myself to reframe my mind around the reasons my students may be failing and of course how they don't want to be.