Welcome to Litsy!

My June so far…
Malcolm X ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Marley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nyxia ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Detransition, Baby ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Atonement ⭐️⭐️
His Hideous Heart ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Consumed ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stumptown V2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hilda and the Troll ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Everything I know about Malcolm X comes from Alex Haley and Spike Lee, so I learned plenty of new info here. (It would be an interesting project to read the Autobiography first, then this bio.) Although it is slow in places, almost too exhaustive, I found it interesting.

Morning reading

This book was good and dense. A VERY comprehensive book about literally everything that is known about Malcolm X. I was honestly reeeeeally ready to be finished this book. But it was still so good. It was hard not to make comparisons to today‘s social justice movements and the civil rights movement and police brutality. Malcolm X was unique and influential and I didn‘t realize how much of a knowledge gap I had and needed to fill

I‘m only 7 hours into this 22-hour audio but the library just yanked it! I‘m back on the wait list again. So far this biography is fantastic. It‘s a history book that needs to be assigned reading. Some of the details stopped me in my tracks. It‘s especially important to read now as we attend BLM protests ✊🏽 Malcolm‘s efforts and those who came before him need to be understood and remembered.

Marable has written a book of profound depth in “Malcolm X”. The upshot is the turmoil that existed in the struggle for civil rights and equality was reflected in the life of Malcolm X. It‘s a fascinating read.

Day 14: M

I love a thorough, engaging biography about a controversial figure, and this fit the bill. What a complicated, brilliant individual who reinvented himself constantly as a result of introspection and deep understanding of the Black American struggle. This was dense, to be sure, but excellent all the same. 💥

#BlackLitsy

I‘ve always been fascinated by oppressive governments‘ obsession with so-called seditious intellectuals and the author really captures this here. It‘s the old David vs. Goliath phenomenon.

This read like a textbook. That‘s not bad. But I didn‘t get a feel for Malcolm X‘s personality. It seemed flat. It isn‘t a fair comparison, but I kept thinking of the leap-off-the-page Malcolm in Alex Haley‘s book.

This biography is excellent. I devoured the Autobiography of Malcolm X, but this fills in so many of the holes, supplementing, clarifying, and sometimes outright contradicting Malcolm X‘s accounts. Using letters, interviews, and thoroughly researched history, Marable has beautifully contextualized X‘s amazing life.

#blackhistorymonth #readingblackout

"America is woven of many strands....Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description." -Ralph Ellison #blackhistory #riotgrams

While, meticulously researched, the best parts of the book were Marble's analysis of Malcolm X and his many transformations. If only it was more of a discussion by the author and less of a straight account of the subject's life.

Been meaning to read this for a few years. Only 50 pages in, and Malcolm is already a complex and fascinating figure.

I was researching the FBI files for Malcolm X for a class and I wanted to know more about him so I read this. I was enthralled. He was an amazing man. I feel like he truly found himself right before he died.

Thinking about Malcolm X today, on his birthday, I thought about my favorite account of his life. Backed by amazing research, when it was released it was heralded as Marable's life work, punctuated by his untimely death soon after its released.