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154 reviews for:
That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row
Jarvis Jay Masters
4.17 AVERAGE
154 reviews for:
That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row
Jarvis Jay Masters
4.17 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Reading too many books at once. Will come back to in the future
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Very eye opening book! He talks more about his childhood than being on death row. I enjoyed reading this!
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
wow. such a moving and heart-wrenching story. Jarvis was a boy that was failed by every single system he came in contact with ever since he was a child. and even in the darkest moments when he landed on death-row after a wrongful conviction, seemingly the most hopeless place, he still found hope. i want to talk so much about how inspiring this is, how beautiful this story is, but the truth is it’s gruesome and painful and so awful. we rarely think about the circumstances in someone’s life when we think about drug addiction or gang violence. this book made me yearn for more compassion, for more kindness, because it’s really the smallest things the smallest interactions the smallest acts that matter the most for people. it goes such a long a way. people need people and we need to be kinder.
i don’t know what else to say, i think this is a book everyone should read
i don’t know what else to say, i think this is a book everyone should read
Very good book that really makes your heart hurt for the way this man had to grow up.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
If you can think or every stereotype a young Black boy or man has heard and put it in a book, you must title it That Bird Has My Wings.
“Without anyone else having to know, I asked, how honest can I be with myself as I write all the scattered memories of my life? Can I do so without blame, with only a truth that has no place to go beyond these sheets of paper”?
There is often times when I wonder how much trauma can one endure and still find a way to heal. To get a slight glimpse into Jarvis life is completely saddening. You may not be a stranger to his upbringing and need to survive, no, but I was exhausted in the commonality of it all.
Jarvis upbringing is rough but there is love hanging on as his siblings and him are raised in a crackhouse by his mother, stepfather, and their addiction. 5 siblings ordered to not leave the house but instead, become accustomed to roaches and sleeping on pee’d stained mattresses in torn up, ragged clothing.
Although social services steps in and takes him and his siblings away, Jarvis childhood becomes a pattern of fear and safety until he just becomes immune to it all. His first encounter with safety was with his foster parents (The Prockses) who gave him a childhood until it was snatched away and his new foster parents abused him and others without reason. “It became a sport to see who had the biggest smile or the coolest walk after being hit or slapped by the Duponts. In short, we rated our own toughness according to the violence that we endured. The more we were abused the more we learned to tolerate the pain, and eventually we lost the cast of fear”.
His first seizure at 10 years old due to the death of Mamie’s (the foster mother who loved him), his first time running away at 10 years old
to ensure the harsh streets versus abuse, and his first time choosing where he would be place at 10 years old which is McLauren Hall which was viewed as a safe haven for children.
He started choosing places like Boys Town and the Vally Boys Academy over the potential danger of a foster family. He was hardened, trained to fight and lash out, to runaway, but you must understand that he is still a child and it gets worse. Reunited with his actually family and it gets worse. His mother remains an addict and yet her love is all he wants. The life of crime and hurt controls his teenage years until the system is no longer going to release him for petty crimes but instead, the man hunt for him sends him to prison.
“When I walked into San Quentin in 1981, I was nineteen years old”. In 1985, he found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder but the only inmate to sentenced to by lethal injection. In prison he become buddhists but it is not a solution but a journey that test patience and a sort of healing. The system failed Jarvis and continues to fail many more. How do we ask each other of so much but never see how broken we all are? I have only touched on this book and there is so much still but i’ll leave with this:
“Oh, affirmation to life, steady me: keep me balanced and poised. Cushion me. Lesson my load. Seat me upright in lotus posture, seeing only emptiness, not despair, I pray. Teach me your benefits, deep and simple. Benefit this injustice with a change of every heart. Affirm all reasons for being. Let every circumstance, in every—depth pain and joy both—bring to practice you, me, all beings. Let us affirm lifetimes to steady every breath, making peace—and peacemaking—the companion to every heart”. - Jarvis