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A review by okiecozyreader
Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me by Glory Edim
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I really loved this memoir by the Well Read Black GIrl, Glory Edim. She has such an interesting life story - from a mother from Nigeria who immigrates with a Nigerian man who lives in DC, to the demise of their marriage and his return to Nigeria. Her mother goes into a deep depression, leaving Glory to manage her mother and her brothers at a young age.
The book is told through the perspective of books that she read that helped transform the way she thought. She mentions one or two then describes how she interpreted them in her life and how her thoughts changed.
I really enjoyed listening to her narration and visiting with her in Zibby’s bookclub. If you want a shorter memoir to try, this one is about 8 hours at 100% speed and worth a listen.
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
—TONI MORRISON, Beloved
Epigraph
Davis, Giovanni, West, Brooks, Butler, Lorde, hooks, Adichie, Shange, Kincaid, Hurston, Naylor, Angelou, Bambara, Walker, Hansberry, Morrison, Smith, Sanchez.
“Books have been my ladder, my stepping-stones, my therapist, my teacher, my medicine, my parents, my religion, my lover, my fool, my instructional manual for life. Words, sentences, pages, and chapters have echoed my loneliness, reflected my joy, guided me to the shadowy corners of my heart and soul that needed to be coaxed into the light, given me strength, helped me grow and change.
Books taught me to bloom.
Books gave me my direction. My career. My community. My chosen family. My purpose.” Prologue
“In between her loving preparations of food, there was no room to understand the struggles her daughter might be going through.
No space to contemplate what it was to be a minority, to grow up Black in America. Instead, she fed and nurtured me the best way she knew how.” Ch 1
“I wasn’t searching out these books to see myself reflected because I was already surrounded by people who looked like me…. What I was truly interested in were stories of children who were in peril and somehow made it out. I needed to read to understand survival and… come out an in tact person. I was looking for practical advice.” Ch 2
“You think your pain, and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world. And then you read James Baldwin.” Ch 8
The book is told through the perspective of books that she read that helped transform the way she thought. She mentions one or two then describes how she interpreted them in her life and how her thoughts changed.
I really enjoyed listening to her narration and visiting with her in Zibby’s bookclub. If you want a shorter memoir to try, this one is about 8 hours at 100% speed and worth a listen.
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
—TONI MORRISON, Beloved
Epigraph
Davis, Giovanni, West, Brooks, Butler, Lorde, hooks, Adichie, Shange, Kincaid, Hurston, Naylor, Angelou, Bambara, Walker, Hansberry, Morrison, Smith, Sanchez.
“Books have been my ladder, my stepping-stones, my therapist, my teacher, my medicine, my parents, my religion, my lover, my fool, my instructional manual for life. Words, sentences, pages, and chapters have echoed my loneliness, reflected my joy, guided me to the shadowy corners of my heart and soul that needed to be coaxed into the light, given me strength, helped me grow and change.
Books taught me to bloom.
Books gave me my direction. My career. My community. My chosen family. My purpose.” Prologue
“In between her loving preparations of food, there was no room to understand the struggles her daughter might be going through.
No space to contemplate what it was to be a minority, to grow up Black in America. Instead, she fed and nurtured me the best way she knew how.” Ch 1
“I wasn’t searching out these books to see myself reflected because I was already surrounded by people who looked like me…. What I was truly interested in were stories of children who were in peril and somehow made it out. I needed to read to understand survival and… come out an in tact person. I was looking for practical advice.” Ch 2
“You think your pain, and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world. And then you read James Baldwin.” Ch 8
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Death of parent