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4.61 AVERAGE
4.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
reflective
absolutely incredible book, amazing writing & important topics. really loved the entire thing. scarily relevant to today even though it was written in 2016/2017
“I think of how foolish I was, to once pray for a country's mercy, and how thankful I am that those prayers were not answered. How, through this resistance, we might find a freedom where no mercy is required. We might find a humanity that is not asking to be seen, but demanding instead.”
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Recently I posted a stack of books that made me feel glad to be alive. I had just finished They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us and already knew that it would effortlessly fit in that stack alongside Abdurraqib's other collection A Little Devil in America. Abdurraqib writes with an unmatched clarity and beauty about what it means to be human. Running through it all is the personal; Abdurraqib's unique perspective as a poet, as a music critic, as a Black man, as someone who grew up Muslim. Ultimately, though, these essays seem to speak to universal truths. The high highs, the low lows, and the art - especially the music - that carries us and keeps us connected. That's what living is about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Suicide, Grief
I am surrounded by books at work and in my life - this is a choice, and it makes my life immeasurably better. I read good books and crap books, and every so often I read a book that changes the hours.
I thought this book would be about Fall Out Boy and Nina Simone and race in America and it is about those things, but it is so much more than the sum of them.
This book will make you hope that not a single other person will ever read it because then they will know the insides of your mind and body like the writer seems to and they will know your shame and your weakness and your grief and it is painful to be seen.
Hanif Abdurraqib stuck a hand through these pages into my chest and wrapped it around my heart. Sometimes he gripped it and sometimes he patted it and sometimes he just nudged it to let me know that feelings might be ugly but they are universal and I am not alone. I do not know how to repay him for this kindness.
Please just go read this.
I thought this book would be about Fall Out Boy and Nina Simone and race in America and it is about those things, but it is so much more than the sum of them.
This book will make you hope that not a single other person will ever read it because then they will know the insides of your mind and body like the writer seems to and they will know your shame and your weakness and your grief and it is painful to be seen.
Hanif Abdurraqib stuck a hand through these pages into my chest and wrapped it around my heart. Sometimes he gripped it and sometimes he patted it and sometimes he just nudged it to let me know that feelings might be ugly but they are universal and I am not alone. I do not know how to repay him for this kindness.
Please just go read this.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced