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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
Honestly I just felt too stupid for this book and it felt like a lot of it went over my head. I guess you can't listen to such complexity while driving, cooking, etc. Still, I learned a few things and Coates had some interesting points. I just wish I got more from this.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Will not be finishing the audiobook but will try and pick up a print edition next year to annotate.
May times while listening I would want to write something down or make some notes, which is what I normally do with nonfiction.
Well written but not my cup of tea in just audio format.
May times while listening I would want to write something down or make some notes, which is what I normally do with nonfiction.
Well written but not my cup of tea in just audio format.
I am not in the mood for this type of book right now.
Well written but I won't be finishing the audiobook. I may pick up the print book next year.
Well written but I won't be finishing the audiobook. I may pick up the print book next year.
I pretty much highlighted the entire book.
We Were Eight Years in Power is a collection of essays/articles that Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote during the Obama administration years, reflecting on the tentacles of white supremacy and how voting a black president into the office was far from evidence that America had finally reached anti-racist ideals across the nation. The part that especially got me was his description how Obama showed that if a black man is ready to put in twice the work that white people, he may make it all the way to presidency, whereas Trump showed that by putting in just half the work and experience than a black candidate he could become a president, "and more."
Besides Coates's penmanship in distilling information into punchy, yet beautiful sentences, I appreciated how he prefaced each essay with a rear-view analysis of what he would have written differently, what he may have failed at expressing or even when he may have been in the wrong, but also where he triumphed in writing the particular piece. The collection is important information to everyone, but also a dialogue between the past and present Coates.
We Were Eight Years in Power is a collection of essays/articles that Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote during the Obama administration years, reflecting on the tentacles of white supremacy and how voting a black president into the office was far from evidence that America had finally reached anti-racist ideals across the nation. The part that especially got me was his description how Obama showed that if a black man is ready to put in twice the work that white people, he may make it all the way to presidency, whereas Trump showed that by putting in just half the work and experience than a black candidate he could become a president, "and more."
Besides Coates's penmanship in distilling information into punchy, yet beautiful sentences, I appreciated how he prefaced each essay with a rear-view analysis of what he would have written differently, what he may have failed at expressing or even when he may have been in the wrong, but also where he triumphed in writing the particular piece. The collection is important information to everyone, but also a dialogue between the past and present Coates.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a beautiful, honest, incisive writer. His essay about mass incarceration in America is particularly devastating, as are the themes that weave all of his essays together, among them “that what ultimately awaits those who retreat into fairy tales, who seek refuge in the mad pursuit to be made great again, in the image of greatness that never was, is tragedy.” I had read most of these essays before in the pages of the Atlantic, but never all at once. Seeing the evolution of Coates’ philosophy unfold page to page, the development of his form, the arguments he comes to believe were flawed and the ones he continues to make, almost unchanged, eight years later added even more depth to an already complex, heartbreaking and provocative collection. This should become the history textbook that future generations read when we try to explain to them how all of this happened.
The narration was excellent. The content was though provoking. I highly recommend this book.
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced