Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Everyone should read this book. Especially maybe your mom.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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I consider myself fairly (very) liberal and open-minded which for me includes having a broad understanding of issues in America today, including the prevalence and pervasiveness of racism as it relates to being black in America. Obviously as a white woman my experience is one dimensional, and I know that I cannot really understand what it is to walk in the shoes of a black person in America. This book though, this book. Wow. If anything can really show white people what it is like, […]

The Bedding is Made From Our Bodies

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I listened to Ta-Nehisi Coates read Between The World and Me a couple of times before I felt comfortable writing a review. I have been told, and it makes sense to me, that if I want to be an ally against racism, I need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I am white. Or has Ta-Nehisi Coates might put it, I think I’m white. I am a beneficiary of white supremacy. If I want to help smash the white supremacist patriarchy (I do, I really do), […]

Yours, Mine & Ours: Confronting American Racism

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Reviewed with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me I started reading The Fire Next Time in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, reeling from the choice that my fellow Americans made and wondering where it all went wrong. Given my liberal/progressive bent, I was personally devastated and still am, and as the data came rolling in about Trump supporters, I was absolutely disgusted and enraged. Whites, including white women, went for Trump. Christians, including Catholics, went for Trump. And despite the initial assumption […]

I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.

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Between the World and Me has quickly become required reading for many people and I can see why, particularly in today’s troubling world. Under the advice of my sister I got a copy of the audiobook so I could fully live Coates’ words. Written as a letter to his fifteen year son, following the Michael Brown verdict, Between the World and Me is pure poetry. Short, passionate and beautiful. “My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you […]

“I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.”

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Let me cut to the chase-this book is a must read. Usually when you hear about a book hyped as much as Ta-Nehishi Coates’ Between the World and Me, you’re going to be disappointed. This is the rare exception. Before I even finished the 152 page book, I knew it was the type of work that will outlive all of us, a permanent fixture on bookstore shelves and college syllabi. This book-written in the aftermath of the Ferguson protests and published ahead of schedule after […]

“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.”

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Another book I have put off reviewing, but let’s dive in. As part of the Read Harder Challenge one of the tasks is reading a book by someone of the opposite sex. I have already read over 40 books written by men this year (which is surprisingly less than half, but I think my romance authors are what tips the scales) and I had kind of decided to wait to claim a book for this particular task until something stood out from the rest. This […]



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