Hanif Abdurraqib

“When they take away your vote, use your voice.” `~Julia Cimafiejeva

Motherfield: Poems & Belarusian Protest Diary by Julia Cimafiejeva

December 29, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

At first, I had a little trouble getting into Motherfield: Poems & Belarusian Protest Diary. I was reading via my phone from Edelweiss (my go to for online reading as it is the only one I can really get to work on my dinosaur of a phone) and that meant my screen was as small as the Helvetica font at level 9! (That is tiny by the way.) And then I was able to sneak at lunch time a few minutes on my work computer. […]

How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This

A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib

December 7, 2021 by esmemoria 6 Comments

I love poetry, and am hopeless at both understanding and explaining it. TS Eliot said “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” I love the words and rhythms and feeling, but I don’t always understand a poem in its entirety. So I apologize in advance for not being able to say anything sophisticated about Hanif Abdurraqib’s astonishing book of poetry, A Fortune for Your Disaster. Abdurraquib is a Black poet who writes with great fierceness and beauty about the Black experience, freedom, confinement, death, […]

Wrapping Up 2019 (More Books Read Than Reviewed)

American Like Me by America Ferrera

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

So Big by Edna Ferber

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill us by Hanif Abdurraqib

December 30, 2019 by Jenny S 3 Comments

So this has been a year when sitting down to write book reviews has not been my strong suit. According to Goodreads, I’ve read 47 books and that may actually be missing one or two; however, I don’t think I’m going to make it to a half Cannonball this year. So, here are some books that I read this fall that I thought were worth mentioning, even if I didn’t give them full reviews at the time. American Like Me-Reflections on Life Between Cultures: America […]

beereadsbooks
on Someone at the bookstore doesn’t want you to know anything about this book before reading it (I don’t know why)
I really appreciate the you drawing the connection to seeking out spoilers as a way to limit distraction. I do...
beereadsbooks
on An account of life
Thank you for sharing this. I hadn't heard of it before, but I'm interested in tracking down a copy.
vega-table
on OK Colonizer
Thank you for letting us know about this. It may not be for me, but it's exactly the type of...
beereadsbooks
on OK Colonizer
What a great review! I like the line you've drawn between "enjoying" the book and "appreciating" it.
esmemoria
on A little self-improvement
I relate to this so much! It’s really interesting to think how perfectionism can lead to inaction.

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“When they take away your vote, use your voice.” `~Julia Cimafiejeva

How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This

Wrapping Up 2019 (More Books Read Than Reviewed)

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