Between the World and Me

I want to save the memory of these words especially, and the gut punch plus tears plus pride I felt when I read them: “They made us into a race. We made ourselves into a people.”

An important message, beautifully told.

*Between the World and Me*, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is my first book by him. It’s a letter to his son about being black in America. Coates shares his experiences and advice. The book is similar to James Baldwin’s, “The Fire Next Time”. I enjoyed it immensely. I started reading the synopsis and ended up finishing it in one sitting. Coates describes growing up in Baltimore and realizing his powerlessness within a caste system. He learned to protect himself. This resonated with me. Growing up in Chicago, I felt like prey. My primary goal was survival. To protect my body from police, gangs, drugs, and the government. This brilliant book offers valuable insights. I plan to reread it. While I wish it weren’t necessary, I’m glad it exists. It’s beautifully written.

i read this book for the first class i ever had in college. no being 5 years removed from that and having lived in the US for the better part of the last 5 years, having read it again made this book so much more powerful, especially considering the current political climate. Coates knocked it out of the fucking park. truly incredible.

So sad, beautifully written, poetic, devastating, and heavy.

Well, I just was not in mood for this kind of rasicm stuff.

don't feel like giving this one a rating bc of the content inside but I definitely liked it, especially the second chapter/part (?)

My husband asked me what this book was about and I burst into tears. I cannot believe it took me this long to read this book. It took me a day- one because it's short and two because it is enthralling. He's a brilliant writer with a devastating and insightful store of life experience and intellect. This book is a blood letting. His fear for his young son, to whom he writes this, is palpable. His wisdom and rage both feel like living things. What a triumph.

I don't know how I feel about this book and I'm honestly not sure it is my place to have a feeling on it. Maybe I'll rate it later or maybe I won't.

It's just as the liner notes say; this is required reading.

Some parts of this book are heartbreaking and extremely clear and lucid, some others are a bit hard to follow because they seem more like a stream of consciousness and are less focused. I guess it's the author's style.
At the end of this book anyone can learn something: it can be eye-opening or just one more point of view to discover and listen to. One way or another I think it's an enriching reading experience.

Everyone should read this.

Jeg tror aldri før jeg i så stor grad har vært i nærheten av å forstå hva det vil si å vokse opp som svart - uansett hvor det er - som mens jeg har lest denne krevende men usigelig vakre og smertefulle boken, et brev fra far til sønn.

Beautifully written.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I would definitely recommend it to people who don't understand the fear, frustration, resignation, the complexity of emotions that can erupt out of Black people in the US. I've experienced some of the things Coates explain so effortlessly or begrudgingly at times. There's a lot of history, social trends, and deeply personal issues in this book. It's not something you see often. I finished it in a weekend, so I think this will be a book I come back to often.

His words flow like fine poetry.

Really damn powerful. The prose is calm and melodic, yet impassioned; the sentiment is powerful and disheartening and hopeful; and overall, the message is clear that the capital d “Dream” is a narrative that does not apply to black people in our country. Reading this felt like a dream, though; not just because of the beauty of the language, but because the struggles of the author and countless others are not my struggles. It feels like a world away, and while I'll never understand, reading this piece is certainly an exercise in trying. Absolutely recommend it, and I know I'll be reading more Ta-Nahisi Coates.

One of the best ever

Having started this a few times over the years, today I finally finished it. It just does not resonate with me: it feels preachy; his continuous identification of himself with his body is jarring, his talk of “loss of body” or “destruction of body” feels so weird - but maybe that's just me. It doesn't matter.I wasn't even going to post this review, but minutes after finishing the book a friend reminded me of Yaa Gyasi's sublime [b:Homegoing 27071490 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448108591l/27071490.SY75.jpg 47113792]. The memories and emotions and tears came flooding back to me, my breath caught, and I'm hijacking this review to say: if you, like me, have struggled to read Coates, try [b:Homegoing 27071490 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448108591l/27071490.SY75.jpg 47113792].(No rating. My rating is not important nor worthwhile.)

This was a hard and eye-opening read. I borrowed this from the library, but I think I'm going to need to buy a copy to keep.

I've known about the author for quite a while now and have listened to his interviews and speeches, always leaving very impressed by what he had to say. When his first fiction novel The Water Dancer released recently, I decided I wanted to read his award winning prolific nonfiction works first, to truly experience his voice. And what a revelation this book is.

Falling just around 150 pages, this book in the form of letters to his son may feel small but the words it contains are profound, unapologetic, visceral, and give us a window into a world that we'll never truly understand because we have not been born Black and grown up in a country where our existence revolves around fear and survival right from our birth. As a reader with an outside perspective, this book is at times uncomfortable to read, but if one is open to listening to experiences that one has never had, then anyone reading this book will realize the inherent brutal truth behind the author's words. It is the truth of America's violent history and it's present, the truth that is the daily life of a whole community terrorized by the system that is supposed to protect its citizens, even when all of us with privilege can never fathom the toll of living like that.

The main audience for this book maybe the Black community, but I think it's far more important for everyone else to read it. We may never understand the fears of every Black parent who have to teach their sons how to survive from an unimaginably young age, but we all have the responsibility to learn about it and acknowledge our privilege and be an ally in whatever way possible. I say this as a brown woman who grew up with privilege in my own country, and while I do get terrified at a traffic stop in the US, I also understand that the so-called “model minority” myth might accord me some safety. This is a powerful book and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read more about the inescapable systems of oppression in the country.

WOW! There is tons to unpack in this book. I urge you to read it, especially if you are white. Please do yourself a favor and get through the first 50 pages - keep going. Finish it. Read it.

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said here. It's a fantastic book, written by a fantastic man, about circumstances that shouldn't exist. I'm not the key demographic this book is aimed at, but I still walked away with something, even if that something is a vague sadness at how we ended up here at this point.

A first-hand account of what it means to be an African-American. Profound, penetrating, moving yet tranquil in tone.

As a white man that grew up in a safe middle class family, this is a very hard book to read. And of course this is exactly the type of book that I need to read more often, to become a more aware and grounded person. There is an immense sadness in me because of a terrible past that cannot be changed and because in my lifetime I will not see a world without racism and we true equality. Also, while in the past I could convince myself that the world was going in the right direction, I feel that we are moving two step forwards and one step back, and part of it is due to short memory and a revisionism that teaches only a mild version of world history, celebrating the great achievements without emphasizing the human capital violently spent.
Stepping down from a soap box I don't deserve and focusing just on the quality of the book, I found this book to be very sophisticated, the language is clean and flows without any bumps and the style and rhythm are exquisite. It is not a hero's journey but a cohesive picture of how the author saw the world during his life and a clear explanation of why his world view has been like that since he was a kid. Overall this book is very strong and the author is a master story-teller that marries strong content with perfect aesthetics and style.