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booksamongstfriends's reviews
750 reviews
Recitatif by Toni Morrison
5.0
This story will challenge your way of thinking! And what better author than Toni Morrison to do so. Starting from their time in foster care, reading their experiences into adulthood and motherhood, Morrison has you wondering which one is black, and which one is white. Twyla or Roberta. It’s up to us as the reader to decide which is which, never exposed to the truth. Is it the names, their actions, their responses, their mothers…. How do you identify a person?
I have been suggesting this book and boy has it sparked interesting conversation. My godmother and I have been coming back to this for the last few days. My godmother quickly looked at the differences in their mothers, but just as quickly questioned if that was really a telling point. At every page you realize that what is considered “black” or “white” for one person could be argued for southern in certain context. Or religious in another. Just as I knew Twyla was black…. by the end it was clear to me Roberta was instead. At every conversation my mind changed but one in particular stuck out. The Hendrix talk.
I have been suggesting this book and boy has it sparked interesting conversation. My godmother and I have been coming back to this for the last few days. My godmother quickly looked at the differences in their mothers, but just as quickly questioned if that was really a telling point. At every page you realize that what is considered “black” or “white” for one person could be argued for southern in certain context. Or religious in another. Just as I knew Twyla was black…. by the end it was clear to me Roberta was instead. At every conversation my mind changed but one in particular stuck out. The Hendrix talk.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
4.0
I love books that shine a light on topics most people don’t know about, and this book does exactly that.
This was the first book I read by this author, and I am so glad I chose it. The novel is not only a reckoning for all that happened at the real-life Dozier School for Boys but also a harrowing look into the very real-life pain that one does not escape from. The even sadder truth is how our version of justice often never comes, how freedom can be at the hands of violence, and how sometimes the only way to get to the truth is with patience.
When you read these pages, you will be boiling with rage, as I was, to find another part of history left to be buried and forgotten. Just boys. What’s so infuriating is the reality that many parts of today’s modern juvenile system echo the structures within this book. While Elwood and Turner are fictional characters, their experiences with arrest and within the Nickel Academy are very real, haunting, disgusting, and terrifying.
“Problem was, even if you avoided trouble, trouble might reach out and snatch you anyway. Another student might sniff out a weakness and start something, one of the staff dislikes your smile.”
Elwood’s adherence to the principles of Martin Luther King Jr. is so deliberate. He so badly wants to believe in these principles, being the straight-and-narrow kid who gets caught up in the system, and ultimately ends up being this guiding light for Turner. This constant reminder of being damned if you do, damned if you don’t, because there’s no structure to a violent system.
“Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world.”
Whitehead shows us pain, friendship, isolation, racism, abuse, survival, trauma, PTSD, and brotherhood. This book is a powerful, emotional journey that unearths the buried truths of a brutal history and reflects on its lingering impacts on the present.
“Perhaps Nickel was the very afterlife that awaited him, with a White House down the hill and an eternity of oatmeal and an infinite brotherhood broken boys”
This was the first book I read by this author, and I am so glad I chose it. The novel is not only a reckoning for all that happened at the real-life Dozier School for Boys but also a harrowing look into the very real-life pain that one does not escape from. The even sadder truth is how our version of justice often never comes, how freedom can be at the hands of violence, and how sometimes the only way to get to the truth is with patience.
When you read these pages, you will be boiling with rage, as I was, to find another part of history left to be buried and forgotten. Just boys. What’s so infuriating is the reality that many parts of today’s modern juvenile system echo the structures within this book. While Elwood and Turner are fictional characters, their experiences with arrest and within the Nickel Academy are very real, haunting, disgusting, and terrifying.
“Problem was, even if you avoided trouble, trouble might reach out and snatch you anyway. Another student might sniff out a weakness and start something, one of the staff dislikes your smile.”
Elwood’s adherence to the principles of Martin Luther King Jr. is so deliberate. He so badly wants to believe in these principles, being the straight-and-narrow kid who gets caught up in the system, and ultimately ends up being this guiding light for Turner. This constant reminder of being damned if you do, damned if you don’t, because there’s no structure to a violent system.
“Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world.”
Whitehead shows us pain, friendship, isolation, racism, abuse, survival, trauma, PTSD, and brotherhood. This book is a powerful, emotional journey that unearths the buried truths of a brutal history and reflects on its lingering impacts on the present.
“Perhaps Nickel was the very afterlife that awaited him, with a White House down the hill and an eternity of oatmeal and an infinite brotherhood broken boys”
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
2.0
I can’t say I’m surprised by the book. I’m more surprised by people's reaction to it.
JUST MY PIECE
JUST MY PIECE