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Things I Should Have Told My Daughter
Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons & Love Affairs | Pearl Cleage
8 posts | 4 read | 15 to read
In this inspiring memoir, the award-winning playwright and bestselling author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day reminisces on the art of juggling marriage, motherhood, and politics while working to become a successful writer. In addition to being one of the most popular living playwrights in America, Pearl Cleage is a bestselling author with an Oprah Book Club pick and multiple awards to her credit, but there was a time when such stellar success seemed like a dream. In this revelatory and deeply personal work, Cleage takes readers back to the 1970s and 80s, retracing her struggles to hone her craft amid personal and professional tumult. Though born and raised in Detroit, it was in Atlanta that Cleage encountered the forces that would most shape her experience. At the time, married to Michael Lomax, now head of the United Negro College Fund, she worked with Maynard Jackson, Atlantas first African-American mayor. Things I Should Have Told My Daughter charts not only the political fights but also the pull she began to feel on her own passionsa pull that led her away from Lomax as she grappled with ideas of feminism and self-fulfillment. This fascinating memoir follows her journey from a columnist for a local weekly to a playwright and Hollywood scriptwriter whose circle came to include luminaries Richard Pryor, Avery Brooks, Phylicia Rashad, Shirley Franklin, and Jesse Jackson. In the tradition of giants such as Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, and Maya Angelou, Cleages self-portrait raises womens confessional writing to the level of fine literature.
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YaYa_Reads
Pickpick

Now this is brave! I wish my mother was more transparent with her past life. I‘m positive it would have helped me, over the years, to empathize with her as a woman and not expect perfection from her or myself.

Reggie I agree with this. My father picked onions with his family during the summers when he was a kid. If they got a certain number of bags before noon they were given a quarter. And he said you wanted that quarter because then you could buy a coke. I didn‘t hear that story till I was almost 30. I wished he had told me it earlier. 5y
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Well-ReadNeck
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There are so many astute observations in this book of diary entries. From the toxic masculinity at a Peter Frampton concert to the need for legal abortion.

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Lcsmcat
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Pickpick

Cleage has a wonderful way with words, and I liked the shift from prose to poetry, and the inclusion of letters. I feel like I learned a bit of what it is/was like to be black in America, and her feminism was for the most part on point. But I did get tired of her whining about her lovers not being there for her when she kept dating married men. I kind of wanted to get up in her face and say “What did you expect? Find someone single!”

Cinfhen Ha! Great review and I appreciate your side note 😂😊👊🏼 7y
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Lcsmcat
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“It‘s a Walkman,” he said. “They‘re going to be big.” “Yeah,” I said. “Especially if they give you a big ol‘ joint when you buy one.” 😂

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Lcsmcat
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Cleage is funny! There‘s serious stuff in here too, but leavened with observations like this one.

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blurb
silentrequiem
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Free books from Atria Books this week to celebrate the Women's March. Visit atriawomensmarch.com to redeem.

ETA: You only get one so choose wisely.

ValerieAndBooks Thanks for the heads up! I chose Britt-Marie was Here. 8y
9 likes1 comment
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rubyslippersreads
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Atria Books is giving away seven free ebooks through tomorrow to celebrate the Women's March. I haven't tried this yet, so I'm not sure if it requires a specific app, but it might be worth checking out.

https://glose.com/o/we-march/

SharonGoforth Thanks for this!! 8y
TheNextBook That is amazing! 8y
Cinfhen Thanks for sharing❤️ 8y
See All 8 Comments
8little_paws For the record it does require a specific app 8y
readinginthedark Nice! It does require a specific app, and you can only choose one book, but that's still cool! 8y
Smangela I've gotten a couple free books for the Glose app though (Luckiest Girl Alive and Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes) so it's worth it perhaps :) 8y
monkeygirlsmama I got the Pearl Cleage one. Bummed we couldn't get them all, but hey I'm down with whatever freebie I can get. Haha Happy Reading! 8y
ptkpepe98 Thanks for sharing this freebie. 8y
84 likes8 comments