The front cover of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates displays this quote at the bottom:
“This is required reading.” – Toni Morrison
That pretty much sums it up. It’s the most powerful book I’ve read in a long time. I wish that everyone would read it.
It’s been very well received in general, but there have also been some extremely critical reviews. Most of those have said Ta-Nehisi Coates’s outlook is too negative. (I’d counter that given the prevalence of police brutality, a cold-blooded killing spree, the burning of black churches, and Confederate flag support it’s not a particularly optimistic time in America for the black community.) It’s a book that challenges the reader, while sharing the world view of what it’s like to be black in America. Some of it might make you uncomfortable. You may or may not agree with some of his views. But if we want to finally start to address the issues created by racism in our country (read Bryan Stevenson’s brilliant piece about this need), we need to read more books like this. We need to have conversations. We need to recognize that we can be better.
I don’t have much else to say about this book because Ta-Nehisi Coates’s voice is the one that I want you to hear. So instead, I’ll share some recent interviews with Ta-Nehisi Coates, and then share some of his powerful words with you, so you can hear from him directly.
His Democracy Now interview:
His Daily Show interview:
//
So here we go with a few quotes – I even made them into little images so they are bigger and in Futura font and easier on the eyes and sharable, if you’re so inclined.
//
Now off with you … read it! Here’s an Amazon link. And an IndieBound one. And here’s the Audiobook. Add it on GoodReads. Go go, go go, go!
LOVE all the quotes. I underlined so much in this book and my book club chose it for this month, so I’m already looking forward to that re-read.
Likewise! I’ve heard the audiobook is great too, and I might get it sometime to re-read it, but I was glad to have a print copy – I needed to circle and underline so much. I’m sure it will make an awesome book club discussion.
This one is in my stack. I was excited to get to it for a review, but then the pub date was moved up and I had no hope of getting to it in time. I’ve been on a reading tear with books on the subject of race – Citizen, Ghettoside, The New Jim Crow, and each is horrific and superb in its own way. I look forward to adding this to that educational mix, thanks for highlighting it and for all the great quotes. Love how you formatted this review, Emily.
I was just looking back through my blog home page and saw that this post had an odd number of comments – meaning I probably forgot to reply to one of them. And low and behold – I did! “Horrific and superb” is such a good description of these books. They are so good – so powerful, but also horrifying that they are necessary. I just picked up The New Jim Crow at a used bookstore on Thursday, so that will likely be my next racial justice read.
I want to give this book to about 70% of my Facebook friends. It’s that willful ignorance he speaks about that breaks my heart.
Me too. I’d personally buy it for people that I know if I thought they had even a 1% chance of actually reading it.
So, so wonderful—thanks for taking the time to make those beautiful quotations! It is on my shelf, and it WILL happen soon. Perhaps Bout of Books is the perfect time.
You’re welcome – glad you enjoyed the quotes! :D