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axmed's reviews
808 reviews
In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
5.0
“Names mean so little to me,” she said.
“Come now!” I chided. “A lover such as that must have had a name you whispered in the dark.”
I was poking fun at her, but she did not pick up the jest.
“Names can be bought,” she said somberly, “and changed. Stolen too, mind you. Which is perhaps why you ask—perhaps why you still do not believe, yes? I am that woman in Chiron’s text. How did he say? A Negro woman, and free?”
She paused to smile at me, and then her eyes drifted around the prison walls, and she snorted as if to laugh at the irony that the passage of time had imbued in those words.
“But you ask of a real name,” she went on. “His was a changed name already, true. And we took new names in that village. Long names, full of meaning. But when I met him, his name was John. And that, simple and empty as it was, was always good enough. He filled it with his spirit.”
“Come now!” I chided. “A lover such as that must have had a name you whispered in the dark.”
I was poking fun at her, but she did not pick up the jest.
“Names can be bought,” she said somberly, “and changed. Stolen too, mind you. Which is perhaps why you ask—perhaps why you still do not believe, yes? I am that woman in Chiron’s text. How did he say? A Negro woman, and free?”
She paused to smile at me, and then her eyes drifted around the prison walls, and she snorted as if to laugh at the irony that the passage of time had imbued in those words.
“But you ask of a real name,” she went on. “His was a changed name already, true. And we took new names in that village. Long names, full of meaning. But when I met him, his name was John. And that, simple and empty as it was, was always good enough. He filled it with his spirit.”
Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions by Stephanie Andrea Allen
Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.
too much
Liquid Snakes by Stephen Kearse
i need to re-listen to this but as a buddy read....and i have the feeling it will be a 5* after the second listen.
Gone Like Yesterday by Janelle M. Williams
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
god, there was so much i loved about this book, from the deep and beautiful relationships between different characters, to the ancestral work, to the Blackity Black lives in the book. and was it not for the wildly unnecessary story line between Sammie and the white kid, i would have given this book 5*. the storyline was not only unnecessary, but i found it harmful as well, because instead of depicting a young white teenager in the way that young Black teenagers reading this book know them, the author went out of her way to push the 'of course there are good white ppl' narrative so much, that the character is so unrealistic. it is especially wild to push this shit in a book that is otherwise so Black in so many ways. did the publisher force this on the author? lmao