Hanif Abdurraqib – Cannonball Read 17

“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 […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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