Welcome to Litsy!

I take the information in this book with a grain of salt, but as a therapist who sees several Islamic women struggling with their identity, this novel is eye opening. I am on the side of empowerment and self-confidence, and that‘s what this book is about. This is a movingly powerful book about American-Islamic women who are trying to find their place in the world.

A friend suggested I read Between the World and Me, but it wasn't available, so I thought I'd get the next best thing.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, It was thought-provoking and I found it very interesting, even learning a thing or two.
The second half I found a bit boring and laborers to get though. I'm not denying the importance of the subject matter, it was just that I didn't really feel a connection to it.

“Oppressive power is preserved in the smoke and fog and sometimes it is smuggled in the unexamined shadows of the language of the oppressed themselves.” Ta-Nehisi Coates The Message If books weren‘t political they wouldn‘t be trying so hard to ban them. Especially books that challenge the norm & the “correct” narrative.

I always learn so much when I read or listen to a Coates book. I listened to this one, mostly because I love his voice. This one is about his first trip to Senegal, a visit to South Carolina to defend his book from being banned, & his experience in Palestine & Israel. The last one was the longest, & I feel I learned the most from that one. I think Coates is a wise person who is always trying to grow & learn more.

“And through words I understood that my Baltimore was not damned, that what I saw in the eyes of the boys there, what I heard in the music, was in fact something old, something ineffable, which marked all of humanity, stretching from Stratford upon Avon to the Streets.”

“Apparently some quirk of human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes, provided only that they occur far enough away to pose no personal threat.“

It was true in the Japanese massacre of Nanking, it was true in the Jewish Holocaust, in the genocides in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, in #Palestine, and so many others unnamed. Why are we like this?

I don‘t think I can add anything to what has already been said about this collection of brief essays on writing, racism, reparations, and apartheid. It is short and powerful. I knew some of the history, but not all of it. I appreciated the push to read books by oppressed people, not their allies or their oppressors. I loved that he was honest about his perspective and opinion changes in the face of new/more information.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has such a beautiful way with words. Getting lost in his view of the world opens my mind and my heart and gives me hope, which is something that is hard to find in our current world.

I will definitely be purchasing myself a copy of this one so that I can revisit it.

New #bookmail! I needed children‘s books for a couple of reading challenges and these will work perfectly. 🥰

And here's the book haul! I feel like only 9 books across 5 different book stores demonstrates an impressive level of self-control 🤷‍♀️. I'm excited to dive into these - even as my tbr shelves are currently giving me the side eye 😂 😒