Welcome to Litsy!

4 stars

Incredible writing. Eloquent, acerbic and personal. Essays on everything from art (film and literature), journalism to religion to the relationship with his father, to the French justice system, through the lens of experience as a Black American man, at home and abroad, which necessarily means discussing the effect of systemic racism, white supremacy, and specific nationality on all aspects of life in the 1950s.

Essential read for humanity! This was the best book I read in 2021. It made it onto my tiny “bug-out” pile of books to grab in an emergency. The title essay is maybe the best piece of writing I‘ve read ever. Perfection! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Baldwin, is always so thought provoking in his writing. I didn't like the narrator for this audiobook, but found what Baldwin had to say spot on and applicable to today's United States.

Look what showed up! What nice handwriting you have @aroc

Here are my final results for #BookSpinBingo! I finished 5 books in August. I didn't get to my #BookSpin at all (maybe next month I will - I'm keeping it on my list!) and I met my goal with my #DoubleSpin (reading half of the tagged). I had two 5 star reads: A Psalm for the Wild-Built and You Are Your Best Thing, and I think the tagged will be 5 stars too! Good month. ❤ #AugustWrapUp @TheAromaOfBooks

#BookSpinBingo really said “Continue your James Baldwin kick that began with #AuthorAMonth, Katie!“ and I shall listen. Both my #BookSpin and my #DoubleSpin numbers are .5 of their respective books, because my brain is tired and I read Baldwin's essays very slowly. 😅 @TheAromaofBooks

Such a great collection of essays. If the first three don‘t grab you because he talks about other books & movies, stick with it. Even though I did not have all those reference points (I still haven‘t read Uncle Tom‘s Cabin) there is some great analysis on how Blacks were and are portrayed by society. The rest of the essays are brilliant, many still very timely. Not only did they shine more info on other stories of his I read this month, ⤵️

I thoroughly enjoyed this particular Baldwin book and his examination of the ways Blacks are presented in America (from film to literature) to his interactions with white Parisians. This is definitely a book I plan on buying a physical copy of in order to annotate as there were so many things he said that I want to ensure I make note of. #AuthorAMonth #BookspinBingo

Completely hypnotized by Baldwin's lyrical writing. Each #essay was gut-wrenching with his brutal honesty and truth. I understand Go Tell It On the Mountain a little bit more. Why believe in the Father if your own father acts the way he does? James Baldwin was brilliant.

#Nonfiction2021 @Riveted_Reader_Melissa something about reading. Baldwin mentions several books and minority written newspapers.

#Booked2021 #antiracism

#BBRC @LibrarianRyan

Look how young he is! Baldwin wrote this when he was only in his twenties. He was able to capture an eloquent view of black thought and black life, at the dawn of social upheaval and the long civil rights movement of late 1950s-early 60s.
#authoramonth2021 @Soubhiville
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

#bookspin one down! 2 to go because I missed my double last month.

Baldwin was such a force. I am moving and this was a great meditation for listening and painting. You cannot absorb any Baldwin all at once so I will need to read it again.

#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks #tbrpile

Pensive, shrewd, and still pertinent collection that belongs any list of the American canon.

Full review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3145311462

This afternoon's listen

Excellent collection of essays. It's easy to understand the fame of the title essay, in which Baldwin reflects on his recently deceased father's life and their relationship. He is equally good at presenting lengthy, well-reasoned arguments and in providing lyrical descriptions of past events from his life. A lot of essays seem to be better at one or the other, but it's rare to find both working so well together.

James Baldwin cementing my opinion that he‘s on of the greatest writers ever. Maybe I slightly prefer his fiction to his nonfiction but that‘s a tiny nitpick with a phenomenal book. He makes quite dry, specific topics deeply emotional and powerful. His writing about his relationship with his father and his experiences in Paris will stay with me forever. I want to read every word he‘s ever written.

After an unpleasant lunchtime doing increasingly frightening sums with my next month‘s budget, I‘m trying to focus on feeling calm and grateful for things that are going better than my bank balance situation, like getting a short walk in the sun in for my #bookfitnesschallenge and being able to eat my lunch in the sun with a book by one of my all time favourite authors. I might be starting a hard month but at least it‘s reading outdoors weather!

#audiobook

Having trouble putting thoughts together on this. His autobiographical essays are pretty powerful, especially the title essay about his 19th birthday spent dealing with his father‘s death, the birth of his youngest sister and the Harlem riots of 1943. However his non-autobiographical essays on racism made me uncomfortable because I didn‘t get them or like reading them and was left wondering what‘s wrong with me.

It‘s been a crappy reading month so far. Nothing is working, these essays have been tough. But this one, the title essay in the collection, is terrific. First time I felt like I could relax, trust the author to lead, and just read.

It seems it‘s never easy with Baldwin. He fights simplicity, showering the reader with startling unexpected lines and apparent contradictions that are resolved by, and only by, thinking it through a bit more. I‘m reading this now. The opening autobiographical essay required me to put the book down and just think a while. The second essay, quoted above, on Uncle Tom‘s cabin demanded my attention. Trying to get my footing.

I need to read more of this man‘s work...

“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.” #jamesbaldwin #blackhistorymonth

I‘m starting the month off with, ‘Notes of a Native Son‘ by James Baldwin. What books or authors do you recommend for Black History Month? #blackhistorymonth #essays #classic #currentread

Really powerful book. A great collection of essays, though the last one, Stranger in the Village, really stood out to me. Baldwin is an incredible writer and I wish I would have started reading him sooner.

5/5

Next up. Finally getting around to this one, it‘s been on my TBR forever.

This was my first Baldwin. Don‘t ask how or why, it just is. With that being said I enjoyed these essays which are in many ways still relevant. Baldwin has a very poignant writing style that is descriptive and detailed and captivating. I liked this but I had to get used to Baldwin and his rhetoric.

I‘m looking for the lie... I don‘t see it.

Not on the “must read” list but I was very much ready to read Baldwin so I checked it out from the library. Ready to dive in.

I haven't read his collection of essays yet, but I've been meaning to ever since seeing the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which is based on an incomplete manuscript for a book Baldwin had started working on.

And it looks like now may be the time to pick this up - the e-book is currently on sale for $1.99! #ebookdeal

It must be remembered that the oppressed and the oppressor are bound together within the same society; they accept the same criteria, they share the same beliefs, they both alike depend on the same reality.

You can not describe anything without betraying your point of view, your aspirations, your fears, your hopes. Everything.

Finished this on the way home tonight. While the original was published over 60 years ago so much of it still rings true.

This collection of essays covers a lot of ground. Baldwin writes critiques and analyses of creative works of the day that include African Americans. He writes about his family, especially his strained relationship with his father. He writes about being a Black man in Europe during the 1940s.

Baldwin's writing is so intense that I wish I'd read this in print rather than listened to the audiobook. He is a master.

Waiting and listening. I'm finding these essays very interesting and eye opening. Being white I would never have thought the same way about the literature or movies. Eye opening.

This is such an odd combination of books to be reading together. Don't you agree? 😜

#litsyatoz #letterN

timely.

Had a hard time staying focused. Maybe reading it would have been better than listening. I borrowed The Fire Next Time from the library but now I'm debating if I should read it or not.

Notes of a Native Son is only $1.95 today on Audible! I reread essays from this book regularly. An absolutely essential read!

We must fight the hatred and build a stronger, resilient, healthy, and morally & ethically just future for our country and world. #love #lovetrumpshate #lovewillprevail #resilient #strength #overthis

So glad this shadow box frame arrived to frame the quote my landlady, roommate, and friend provided me with! ❤️😊

"But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one's own life, accept these injustices as commonplace, but must fight them with all one's strength."

^this is part of a bigger quote that my landlady, roommate, and friend provided to me and it hits home - especially involving members of the student body I was otherwise convinced was respectful, against hatred, and kind. #overthis

Over sixty years ago, James Baldwin summed up my thoughts about this election and the state of our country in general. #election2016 #blacklivesmatter

Oops. I fell down a Kindle rabbit hole and ended up with a bunch of new books. 👀 At least most of them qualify for the #diverseathon. Maybe one of them will be my next read. 🤓