A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel | 
pickThis book is amazing. It‘s one of those books where not much is happening in the plot but the characters are enough to keep you engaged. The writing is captivating and you find yourself finishing chapter after chapter. After I finished I definitely thought about my purpose in society and what I am contributing to my community.
“I try to create characters with character in order to improve my own character and maybe the character of the person who reads me.” - Ernest Gaines (1933-2019)🖤📚Rest in Manly, Southern, Literary Power and Esteem. #ernestgaines #americanwriters #southernwriters #blackwriters
#LetsTravelAugust #prison
Tagged book is among the suggested books for incoming freshmen‘s summer reading requirement st the HS where I teach.It never ages. The book is fiction, but it is based on the true story of a young black man, Willie Francis of Louisiana. He was sentenced to death in the electric chair.
pickJefferson grew up as a fairly typical #smalltownboy in the black community of Bayonne, Louisiana in the 30s and 40s: poor, little education, & hard labor on the farm. At 21, he is wrongly convicted of murder, and his godmother recruits her friend's teacher-nephew to teach him how to be a man before he faces death after a lifetime of injustice. What ensues is powerful and multi-layered: I think I'm still unpacking a lot of its implications.
Day 24 - #lessons #springintoreading
I own this book but have not read it yet.
From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and compassionate novel, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.
so-so2019 Book 13: Although the ending was gripping and difficult to read, I am just giving this book a so-so. The first 200 pages weren‘t able to hold my attention like some other books I‘ve read. I also didn‘t really like the main character until the end of the book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Adult book club pick for March. Spring break reading!
#CellBlockTango #MusicalNewYear
I read A Lesson Before Dying over 20 years ago and loved it so much I quickly read almost everything else by Ernest Gaines. I hate to admit I don‘t remember much other than the man on death row. It was so good I purchased a copy at a library book sale recently to re-read even though I don‘t usually re-read things.
Whew! I haven‘t read this one yet but based on #momreviews and Litsy reviews, I‘d better be ready for this one. @Momreviews
pickI thought about using a less abrasive quote but decided this was most fitting for such a moving book. I didn't like it because it really wasn't "enjoyable" material but it stuck with me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
#blackandbookedchallenge
#bookmail for the third day in a row!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻 I got my second BOTM box as well as the two books I won from the wonderful @BarbaraBB Thank you! ❤️❤️
pick😭😭😭 This one is worthy of a reread. A lot of hard truth on these pages.
😞 Powerful. (Though this paragraph started out with the failure of black men to protect & save black women, which I find uncomfortably sexist.)
This book is going to burn me up, and rightfully so. I‘ve been agitated several times already and this is only chapter 7.
pickI guess that I put that review in as a blurb thus I didn't give this book a "pick" rating. Sorry guys... it was early in the morning.
Do stack.
Do read.
It's worth the effort and very much recommended.
I remember reading this book as if it were yesterday.
How long will I think about this book? How long before I forget this story? Always and never. Because the lesson was not for the dying, for the losing of life, for the soon to be executed. The lesson was/is for the living, for the chosing of life, for anyone heroic enough to be more than what is expected. I hope to remember that.
Highly recommended!
"I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be."
pickWhat a great, sad novel. An innocent black man gets the death penalty. Another man visite him in death row. They learn a lot from each other. Read while sailing our little boat through the rural regionale north of Amsterdam.
Enjoying a beautiful day, working on this for my book club, while my little enjoys her sunshine. 💕💕
#Thriftbooks #bookmail came today! The tagged book is for the book club I'm in and I couldn't pass up getting a couple more!
Now that Litsy posts for grades are done, I wanted to post on some books I've read through out my years, and post on the books that have made an impact on my life and education. I will never forget reading "A Lesson Before Dying" sophomore year of HS, and what an incredible influence it had on my future reading endeavors. If you have not read this, you must. It's heart wrenching and a true insight to the injustices that went on not so long ago.
"I'm so sorry. And I wished they had somebody else we could turn to. But they ain't no body else."
#RiotGrams Black History Month "I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be."
Read 14 books this month. While I liked several of the #TOB17 books, none of them made my "favorite" list. These four I'll remember for a long time. #januaryreads
pickA moving, compassionate look at being human or inhuman as the case may be. "He was the bravest man in the room today..."
pickA Lesson Before Dying is a very moving book. It will pull at your heart strings. It will make you angry. It will make you question humanity. This book really pulls all of your emotions out. It is a book I recommend you read.
#slavery
pickI picked this book up from the library during "Banned Book Month". It was banned from a high school in Georgia in 1999 (for the one paragraph of sexual content) and from a college bookstore at Louisiana College by the college president in 2004 (the love scene clashed with the school's Christian values). It's an important and moving novel. I hope those students who didn't get a chance to read it then will seek the book out now.
Moving from Men We Reaped into this book. I'm not sure if I'm purposely trying to get depressed, but if I were this would be the perfect recipe. See you on the flip side.
pickNot my typical pick, but my husband gave it to me last Christmas on a referral from a friend. This book is very much like a big, chewy Cab... deep, heavy and moving. The last 40 pages were brutal. I was truly brought to tears. With all of that said, it is a beautiful literary journey.
Dupré library has always been a safe, comforting place for me. Whenever school or life in general got too overwhelming, it soothed me to visit it. I loved aimlessly strolling in the stacks and finding old books - especially when forgotten student paraphernalia would fall out: tickets, notes, sundry lists of all sorts from students long since gone. I still collect clips and snips of found paper that tells stories.
When in doubt, go to the library
pickThis was my last book for my library's Summer Reading Bingo challenge!! I loved it. It's probably not a book I would have picked out on my own, so I'm quite glad I did this challenge 😊
pickWow, flew through this book in a day! I don't recommend reading the ending in public though. (Dear Starbucks, sorry for my tears.)
Book Rec! "I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be." -Ernest J. Gaines
