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Ordinary Light
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
19 posts | 12 read | 26 to read
From the dazzlingly original Pulitzer Prize-winning poet hailed for her extraordinary range and ambition (The New York Times Book Review): a quietly potent memoir that explores coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.The youngest of five children, Tracy K. Smith was raised with limitless affection and a firm belief in God by a stay-at-home mother and an engineer father. But just as Tracy is about to leave home for college, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, a condition she accepts as part of Gods plan. Ordinary Light is the story of a young woman struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America. In lucid, clear prose, Smith interrogates her childhood in suburban California, her first collision with independence at Harvard, and her Alabama-bornparentsrecollections oftheir own youth in theCivil Rights era. These dizzying juxtapositionsof her familys past, her own comfortable present, and the promise of her futurewill in due course compel Tracy to act on her passions for love and ecstatic possibility, and her desire to become a writer. Shot through with exquisite lyricism, wry humor, and an acute awareness of the beauty of everyday life, Ordinary Light is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of self and family, one that skillfully combines a childs and teenagers perceptions with adult retrospection. Here is a universal story of being and becoming, a classic portrait of the ways we find and lose ourselves amid the places we call home.This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide
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Lcsmcat
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Pickpick

My #bookspin for September was this beautifully written memoir by poet Tracy K. Smith. It‘s heartwarming and heartbreaking, and funny and sad, and very, very, real. Highly recommended.
(My copy is missing its dust jacket and thus very plain, so I found a picture of the author online.)
@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 1y
40 likes2 stack adds1 comment
quote
ImperfectCJ
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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"...the narrator was...claiming the power to name and state and face the events, even the most awful events, making up a life. This has happened to me, and because I can see it, can call it up and face it again for you, can stand my ground while I sift through it for nuance and meaning, I am stronger. Telling my story, standing here and telling it to you now, is both a prayer for power and the answer to that prayer."

Suet624 How lovely. 2y
44 likes1 comment
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ImperfectCJ
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Pickpick

The writing is smooth and the imagery clear in this memoir of the author's loss of her mother just as the author was coming into adulthood herself. It's interesting to read about a military family in California, as mine was for many years, and about parents who were still energetic and engaged in raising their fifth child when my own parents were pretty checked out by number three. #bookspin for January

Suet624 #3 here too. We were each born five years apart so by the time I was 8 they were pretty done with a sensitive child. 2y
ImperfectCJ @Suet624 I was actually the firstborn, so I got the best of them and watched them tire as the other two came along (third is 7 years younger than me). Similar thing happened with my in-laws (I married another eldest of three). It informed our decision to have only two children. 2y
Suet624 Very thoughtful planning. 2y
See All 6 Comments
ImperfectCJ @Suet624 I'm not sure...I wonder if I missed my chance to be an awesome parent to 7 or so children. (Not that I want to give birth to that many...) 2y
Suet624 I went for three kids but my third pregnancy was twins! A bit more than I expected. 😊 my kids were all 7 years apart and I have to say I made sure to have special time with all of them. Missed each one so fiercely when they went off to college. 2y
ImperfectCJ @Suet624 Ooh! My spouse wanted our first to be twins until he saw how huge I was with one baby (I'm 5'1" and he's 6'2"). My elder kid is a senior in high school now, and I'm already feeling the college transition. Just a few months away! ? 2y
42 likes6 comments
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GatheringBooks
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Pickpick

#NewYearNewYou Day 12: This poem with #Regrets was featured by Fats for Poetry Friday here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-fsG

Eggs Well done👏🏻🤗👏🏻 5y
55 likes1 comment
blurb
kspenmoll
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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#coffeeandbooks #booksandcoffee #BrewsterBookShop #TheSnowyOwlCoffeeHouse #LitsyWalkers
Yesterday when we walked to the local coffee shop, it was closed. Did about a mile 1/2 walk. We drove to a local bookshop & for a covered a wonderful coffee shop off the street right next to the book store. Coffee first,then books. Discovered The most delicious, melt in your moth, cinnamon pecan roll. Bought tagged book.

catebutler This looks so lovely! I always love stumbling across a hidden location like this. 6y
kspenmoll @catebutler Yes! Gem of a find! 6y
Kaye 🌟 6y
Pricel101 That‘s what I call adventure! ☀️📚☕️ 6y
kspenmoll @Pricel101 So exhilarating! 6y
71 likes5 comments
blurb
kspenmoll
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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#indiebookstore #BrewsterBookStore
I treated myself today to 2 books at the Brewster Book Shop.Plenty of Indie bookstores all over the Cape.Did not know this U.S. Poet Laureate (2017)had a memoir out,so it was an exciting surprise.Love this initial quote:

But something deep and watchful in the child knows that
this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment some-
one will get up and turn on the light.
——James Baldwin, “Sonny‘s Blues”

Suet624 Oh yay. I‘m so happy for you. (edited) 6y
77 likes2 comments
blurb
merelybookish
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Hey poetry readers! Anyone else listening to The Slowdown? I just started, and mentioned it yesterday to @trishb. It's a podcast by US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. Everyday she gives a little set-up and then reads a poem. It lasts about five minutes. It's really good, and a great way to add more poetry to your day. (I just listened to a few while loading the dishwasher. One even made me cry. 😭)
It's available at www.apmpodcasts.org/slowdown

Cathythoughts Thankyou ... must give it a go 👍🏻 6y
merelybookish @Cathythoughts Yes, do! It's so simple but lovely. 6y
Redwritinghood Yes! I‘m really enjoying it. 6y
merelybookish @Redwritinghood Yay! It's such a treat! 6y
mklong I love it too! 6y
57 likes5 comments
blurb
SubwayBookReview
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Glory: "Tracy K. is the new US poet laureate. This is her memoir and a coming-of-age story. You really feel like you're getting a glimpse of her life and her relationship with her mom. As you grow up, you learn that your mother is a human who tries and hurts just as much as you do. My mom is a rambunctious Nigerian woman who can read you with one look. When I can capture that essence of my mother, I will be a true adult."

Notafraidofwords I love this book. Met the author and loved her even more. 7y
Suet624 I love that she describes her mom as rambunctious. 7y
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Carissa-Green-Reads
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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I've been looking forward to Tracy K. Smith's reading in my area for a long time. One week to the day before the event, she's named Poet Laureate. So that's the "cherry on top!"

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BookishMarginalia
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Notafraidofwords I love and her book. Beautiful. 7y
vivastory She is fantastic. One of her poems from "A Life on Mars" was being shared a lot online after Bowie's passing. 7y
readordierachel Thrilled to hear this. 7y
CaitlinElizabeth I was ecstatic when I read this! So happy for her 7y
154 likes5 stack adds4 comments
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razmanda
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Here's my current library #bookstack for today's #augustphotochallenge. Not pictured: Hamilton and Lafayette. #augustofpages

Notafraidofwords Oh oh ordinary light is amazing. I saw her speak once and she was kind and eloquent. 8y
26 likes1 comment
blurb
catieohjoy
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Here's my overly ambitious #AugustTBR, minus the two books I selected from BOTM, whatever I choose to spend my Audible credit on, and Megan Abbott's Dare Me (which will likely jump to the top of my pile when it arrives on Wednesday). 📚 #augustofpages #augustphotochallenge

Stacy84 Great choices! 8y
MrBook Love this and these and all of it. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 8y
Lacythebookworm White Teeth, Negroland, Citizen ❤️❤️❤️ 8y
Notafraidofwords Ordinary Light is absolutely amazing. 8y
QueenAnne Pretty light ❤️😍 8y
44 likes1 stack add5 comments
blurb
razmanda
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Book mail! Huzzah!

Notafraidofwords Omg I love Tracy Smith. She's amazing. I loved this book. I went to Brooklyn last year to see her. 8y
3 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
theboozybookworm
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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Pickpick

It's so difficult to describe this book as it's just such an incredible reflection on life. Every chapter felt profoundly meaningful to me, despite how different my life is from that of the author. This is a beautiful memoir about family, race, art, and the heartache of growing into adulthood.

MrBook Nice review! 😊👍🏻 8y
9 likes1 stack add1 comment
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theboozybookworm
Ordinary Light: A memoir | Tracy K. Smith
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I'm in week one of a community reads screening process, and it's so great for catching up on some paperback backlist. This memoir is incredible! It's so difficult to explain what it's about because it's just LIFE written in the most beautiful way. I can't get enough.