One of these days I will find a way to successfully and reliably write reviews for books that mean a lot to me, but that is not this day. This day, I’m going to half-ass some things about this awesome book I read last month but have been avoiding reviewing.
A thing that I can say with confidence is that the audio version is great. Somehow I’ve never listened to a book narrated by Bahni Turpin before, but she was fantastic, and I hope she narrates something else I want to read in the near future. She has like, one thousand pages of audio credits on Audible (I’m exaggerating, but it’s a lot). Anyway, the audio was great, and reading it in that format enhanced the experience, for sure. I already felt like Ijeoma Oluo was giving me that same feeling I loved about being at university, where you could sit in a room with someone who not only Knows Their Shit, but who is talented at giving that knowledge to others in a way that’s impactful, and just absorb. The fact that I was listening to her words only enhanced that feeling.
Of all the antiracism books I’ve read in the past several years, I would say this would be the best place to start, if you’re not sure, or if you have a relative or friend who is looking for a place to start. She’s just so good at explaining things in clear, concise ways that are nonetheless emotionally moving, I feel like it would be very difficult to come away from this book not having gleaned anything from it. There were a handful of instances that made me stop and go, wow, okay, I’ve never thought about it like that.