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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
"When you're fifteen, pain skips over reason, aims right for marrow... When you're fifteen, the world collapses in a moment... When you're fifteen, you can't make promises of a return to the before place. Your aging eyes tell a different, truer story."
A moving and evocative coming of age story about a young girl in Brooklyn who navigates maternal loss, friendship, betrayal, and the inevitability of adulthood.
This is the second Woodson I have read and she is now not only a must-read author but one of my favorites. Another Brooklyn is everything I look for in a novel: complete immersion into the lives of characters whose realities I have not lived.
This is a beautiful telling of the push and pull on a young girl's heart as she navigates the experiences adolescence puts upon her and emerges, fully grown, into the world. I am stunned by Woodson's ability to convey such rich characters and deep encounters in such a short narrative. I can only assume she has personal experience with mothers who are not present or involved because, once again, she nailed that dynamic with depth and sensitivity.
The end brought me to tears. I was on vacation and found myself stumbling around trying to get myself ready for the day, not at all in Atlanta but completely entrenched in the burgeoning experience of 1970s Brooklyn, proclaiming to everyone whose path I crossed that they need to read this book!
My only criticism is although she told a complete story, I could have used a little more insight into what happened to a few of the side characters. But ultimately I was quite satisfied with the journey she took me on.
A moving and evocative coming of age story about a young girl in Brooklyn who navigates maternal loss, friendship, betrayal, and the inevitability of adulthood.
This is the second Woodson I have read and she is now not only a must-read author but one of my favorites. Another Brooklyn is everything I look for in a novel: complete immersion into the lives of characters whose realities I have not lived.
This is a beautiful telling of the push and pull on a young girl's heart as she navigates the experiences adolescence puts upon her and emerges, fully grown, into the world. I am stunned by Woodson's ability to convey such rich characters and deep encounters in such a short narrative. I can only assume she has personal experience with mothers who are not present or involved because, once again, she nailed that dynamic with depth and sensitivity.
The end brought me to tears. I was on vacation and found myself stumbling around trying to get myself ready for the day, not at all in Atlanta but completely entrenched in the burgeoning experience of 1970s Brooklyn, proclaiming to everyone whose path I crossed that they need to read this book!
My only criticism is although she told a complete story, I could have used a little more insight into what happened to a few of the side characters. But ultimately I was quite satisfied with the journey she took me on.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I listened to this on my drive. I didn't realize it was fiction, but overall by end I liked it. It reminded me of the House on Mango Street, but more mature and reflective. There was something really simple about this story telling, but also something very real about growing up and reflecting on memories. It fills like you sat in on an afternoon of August reflecting on how things used to be.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
74: Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson.
Man, you just cannot go wrong with Woodson! She is for sure one of the most dependable authors writing right now AND especially talented as she is just as good at prose as she is at poetry...prompting me to read her fiction every bit as the poetry that it, too, is. And in some ways Woodson blends, in Another Brooklyn a sparseness to her prose that reads, at times, more like her poetry, depending on the reader to fill in blanks and make sense of that not directly stated.
Another Brooklyn gets at the heart of what it is to be included in a foursome of friendship--finally--and how to take that friendship and its idiosyncracies and individual needs and conflicts, arm oneself with it really, through the torment of the teenaged girl reality, using it more as a shield and sword in ways than as a pillow or comfort. (I'm not very good at poetry or even figures like Woodson...but reading her always empowers me to at least give it a shot!)
The four girls in this book--August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi--have lots of their own stuff to process; they each face at least a couple of individual challenges that make their lives rough, their friendship and its unity, its support critical. Interestingly enough, a neglectful parent is one kind of challenge, and a spoiling and helicopter-ish one is also neglectful in just as devastating of ways, in not hearing or knowing the child and helping her...the her that she is any better or more.
I have met so many complex and interesting people in Woodson's books, including but not limited to Woodson herself. Keep on keeping on, smart and talented woman. Your stories and their people are in my heart.
Man, you just cannot go wrong with Woodson! She is for sure one of the most dependable authors writing right now AND especially talented as she is just as good at prose as she is at poetry...prompting me to read her fiction every bit as the poetry that it, too, is. And in some ways Woodson blends, in Another Brooklyn a sparseness to her prose that reads, at times, more like her poetry, depending on the reader to fill in blanks and make sense of that not directly stated.
Another Brooklyn gets at the heart of what it is to be included in a foursome of friendship--finally--and how to take that friendship and its idiosyncracies and individual needs and conflicts, arm oneself with it really, through the torment of the teenaged girl reality, using it more as a shield and sword in ways than as a pillow or comfort. (I'm not very good at poetry or even figures like Woodson...but reading her always empowers me to at least give it a shot!)
The four girls in this book--August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi--have lots of their own stuff to process; they each face at least a couple of individual challenges that make their lives rough, their friendship and its unity, its support critical. Interestingly enough, a neglectful parent is one kind of challenge, and a spoiling and helicopter-ish one is also neglectful in just as devastating of ways, in not hearing or knowing the child and helping her...the her that she is any better or more.
I have met so many complex and interesting people in Woodson's books, including but not limited to Woodson herself. Keep on keeping on, smart and talented woman. Your stories and their people are in my heart.
Audio book - DNF @ ~ 50%
I think I need less narration, more interaction. I am having trouble finding out what we were doing in this one.
I think I need less narration, more interaction. I am having trouble finding out what we were doing in this one.
medium-paced
I like the premise, and the characters, but it felt too short. More like a treatment for a trilogy. Like sketches.
I’m a big fan of Jacqueline Woodson’s powerful writing, and this book did not disappoint. Her unique writing style captures the emotions and tribulations of coming of age in Brooklyn. I was able to both relate to the main characters and imagine what it must have been like to grow up a brown girl during this turbulent time. An excellent book to read during Black History Month!