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Gorilla, My Love
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
12 posts | 6 read | 11 to read
In these fifteen superb stories, written in a style at once ineffable and immediately recognizable, Toni Cade Bambara gives us compelling portraits of a wide range of unforgettable characters, from sassy children to cunning old men, (…more)
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review
merelybookish
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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Pickpick

A two book day! One print & one audio. Both ⭐⭐⭐
I liked them both but didn't love.
Gorilla, My Love - short stories by a trailblazing African American writer. Examplers of voice. Each one brings a specific character and their truth to life. Some are brilliant.
Bibliolepsy. Written in 1997 & first time in English. Would be better in print. Fascinating portrait of a reader who loves books so much she becomes obsessed with having sex with writers.

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merelybookish
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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Current mood. Province announced today we are going to code yellow which means single family bubbles and most things closed till Jan 31st. 😞 So I guess I'll be joining the #joyousjanuary #readathon. I'd like to knock off my #bookspin (tagged book) & #doublespin books and start to tackle the Canada Reads long list.
From today's walk to the nearby graveyard. It's very wintry here and more ❄️❄️❄️ ❄️ is on its way.
@Andrew65

Suet624 I wish people where i live would just stay home for a while and stop spreading this blasted virus. 3y
vivastory @Suet624 I'm back to pre vaccine safety measures 3y
Suet624 @vivastory I've been wearing a mask for 2 years now. In the past few months I've started to double-mask. Of course I'm vax'd and boosted. Vermont cases have exploded this winter. People don't even talk about essential workers anymore, but apparently I am one. Only five of us in a three story City Hall, helping customers obtain marriage licenses, birth certificates, vote in a current election, etc. I'm tired and grumpy.
(edited) 3y
See All 24 Comments
vivastory @Suet624 I hear you. Things have been pretty grim at my job. We've been wearing kn95 masks for over a year now, but since the holidays we had to either double mask or wear a n95. And we're all vaccinated and boosted in my department. 3y
merelybookish @vivastory @Suet624 As depressing as another near lockdown is I realize a complete absence of precautions is not good either. 3y
vivastory Another near lockdown would be really difficult & depressing.. 3y
Suet624 I hope you both stay safe. 😍 3y
rabbitprincess I hope the books are exactly what you‘re looking for to get through this, and that things get better soon. It is exhausting. 3y
readordierachel That's rough. Sending good thoughts to you 3y
TrishB Take care ♥️ it‘s all so exhausting! 3y
Andrew65 In this country unbelievably removed all controls and cases rampant. 😡 Good luck with the lockdown and the reading. 3y
LeahBergen I wish MY province would institute a few more restrictions. 😡 3y
batsy Oh gosh. I understand that tough place of wishing more people observed precautions and not wanting enforced lockdowns, either. It *is* exhausting, as @TrishB says. Hope there's some good books to cheer you up and that it's not too long this time 💜 3y
Hooked_on_books Stuff sucks right now, doesn‘t it? I was supposed to be visiting my mom next week, but we‘ve cancelled it because she‘s so afraid of all this (despite being vaxxed and boosted). It‘s been hard to see her so little these last two years. Hopefully we will all get to a new normal soon. 3y
merelybookish @Suet624 Thank you! And you too! 3y
merelybookish @rabbitprincess Thank you! I am okay really.and fortunate and all that. But yes, it is exhausting. 3y
merelybookish @readordierachel Thank you Rachel! 3y
merelybookish @TrishB Indeed. It's been a long few years and who knows when it will end. 3y
merelybookish @Andrew65 Thank you! And no restrictions is bonkers. 3y
merelybookish @LeahBergen Yes, Alberta does seem to like to go rogue. 3y
merelybookish @batsy Thank you! It's so hard to know what to want except for it all to be over. Between living ones life and being safe and thinking of others safety...it is exhausting 3y
merelybookish @Hooked_on_books I'm sorry you had to cancel your trip. We moved home to be closer to family in part because the pandemic made it so hard to be so far away. And now we still can't see them all the time. 3y
Andrew65 @merelybookish It‘s totally idiotic! 3y
Centique The photo is gorgeous! But I am so sorry you have another lockdown. It is such a weight on our shoulders these things - and yes like the others we all want to be careful and protect our community, but it‘s so hard and it‘s been so long. We have a high vaccination rate here but our hospital system is so underequipped for this so I‘m sure we will be back in restrictions again too. 😩 Fingers crossed the next variants become less dangerous 🤞🤞 3y
82 likes24 comments
blurb
merelybookish
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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My #bookspin and #doublespin. I'm happy with these!
@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
Billypar Nice outcome! I'll be interested to hear what your favorites are from GML. 3y
59 likes2 comments
review
Billypar
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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Pickpick

Dialogue is something that can make or break a story for me, and Bambara shines in this area. These stories are filled with memorable characters from New York or the American South, many of them strong-willed girls and teens. At the same time, they and the stories they inhabit are all very different. Bambara isn't content to revisit old terroritory: the styles, themes, and ideas shift in brilliant ways in each of these 15 perfect stories.

merelybookish Great review! More incentive to finally read it! 3y
Billypar @merelybookish Thanks! I think you'll enjoy it - I'll look it out for your review! 3y
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Billypar
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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I love the dark humor in this passage and 'dull sofas ' cracked me up 😆

merelybookish You started! I remember we discussed having this on our TBRs. 3y
Billypar @merelybookish That's right! You're in for a treat - I'm ten stories in, and I've enjoyed them all. I think the title story and Happy Birthday are favorites so far and maybe even the one this quote is taken from, The Survivor, but it's a head trip - way different than the rest. 3y
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review
elizabethlk
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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Pickpick

My apologies for the delays! You can now read my full #LiteReads review of The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, our final #BlackHistoryMonth selection for this year (link below). I personally enjoyed the story, even if it was outside my usual areas of preference. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this one.

https://wp.me/p9KSXu-Kj

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elizabethlk
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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Our new #LiteReads selection is The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara! Chosen with #BlackHistoryMonth in mind, this short story focuses on an educated woman taking a group of kids to a toy store as a lesson on social and economic inequality. You can find links to read it through the full intro post (link below). Be sure to let me know what your thoughts are once you've read it!

https://wp.me/p9KSXu-Kk

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Bertha_Mason
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara

"Monsters, you know, more than anybody else, need your pity cause they need beauty and love so bad."
-"Maggie of the Green Bottles"

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quote
Bertha_Mason
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara

""Zweep," I yelled, not giving a damn for intelligibility and decided that if ever I was to run away from home, I‘d take [my mother] with me. And with that in mind, and with Penelope splintering through the landscape and the pores secreting animal champagne, I bent my youth to the season‘s tempo and proceeded to lose my mind."
-"Sweet Town"

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Bertha_Mason
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara

""Dear Mother"—I wrote one day on her bathroom mirror with a candle sliver—"please forgive my absence and my decay and overlook the freckled dignity and pockmarked integrity plaguing me this season.""
-"Sweet Town"

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Bertha_Mason
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara

"It is hard to believe that there was only one spring and one summer apiece that year, my fifteenth year. It is hard to believe that I so quickly squandered my youth in the sweet town playground of the sunny city, that wild monkeybardom of my fourth-grade youthhood. However, it was so."
-"Sweet Town"

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TsahaiMakeda
Gorilla, My Love | Toni Cade Bambara
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#somethingborrowed. Both a library AND borrow from someone. My professor, Carolyn Ferrell, loaned it to me as a part of our process. 🤓📚💝#booktober

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