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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
This book should be required reading in schools.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I'm not normally one for essay collections, but these essays are very realistic and honest making them and the collection harder and more powerful to digest. I look forward to continuing to experience his writing in the future.
Read it. Or, listen. Right now.
Especially the essay on reparations.
Especially the essay on reparations.
Meh.
A collection of old political essays from the US - pre and during the Obama era - alongside more recent authorial commentary (preceding, rather than following the essays).
A collection of old political essays from the US - pre and during the Obama era - alongside more recent authorial commentary (preceding, rather than following the essays).
Started it as an audiobook with husband on a road trips few years ago, but needed something more lively for that drive because we were tired, so we didn’t finish it and have never picked it back up.
Essential reading. Full stop.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an astounding writer. Setting the main subject of this book aside for a second I need to dwell on the incredible skill that Coates wields as a weaver of words. He is absolutely a master. If I could write with the passion and power and deftness of anyone writing today, I would wish to write like him. One of the things I really loved about We Were Eight Years in Power is Coates' reflection on his own craft and the road traveled to become one of the most prominent social critics writing in the United States right now.
The bulk of the book, of course, is a collection of essays focusing on black lives in America from slavery to the present. If you are going to read one book that comments upon race in America make it this one. I found the essay on the argument for reparation particularly compelling, especially since many of its proposals and ideas were so applicable to First Nations issues in Canada.
Many of these essays shook me up, forced me to see in new ways and deepened or transformed my understanding of things I thought I already grasped. Put this one on your reading list.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an astounding writer. Setting the main subject of this book aside for a second I need to dwell on the incredible skill that Coates wields as a weaver of words. He is absolutely a master. If I could write with the passion and power and deftness of anyone writing today, I would wish to write like him. One of the things I really loved about We Were Eight Years in Power is Coates' reflection on his own craft and the road traveled to become one of the most prominent social critics writing in the United States right now.
The bulk of the book, of course, is a collection of essays focusing on black lives in America from slavery to the present. If you are going to read one book that comments upon race in America make it this one. I found the essay on the argument for reparation particularly compelling, especially since many of its proposals and ideas were so applicable to First Nations issues in Canada.
Many of these essays shook me up, forced me to see in new ways and deepened or transformed my understanding of things I thought I already grasped. Put this one on your reading list.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I don’t particularly like compilations like this one, where Coates mixes previous articles in The Atlantic with a new background, sharing his headspace during each and how he grew. The writing is still great, though it doesn’t, for me, pack the same raw, visceral punch as “Between the World and Me.” It was just a really high bar. The other thing this book achieved was contextualizing the Obama administration from a Black man’s vantage point. During the Obama years I was pretty politically apathetic, so it was refreshing to share in a new angle. Overall quite good, just not his best for me.