Welcome to Litsy!

Kiese Laymon‘s book of essays examines his reality of navigating life as a black man in America. Like his memoir Heavy, it is raw, searing, honest, and painful. His voice is one of those vital ones we need to hear if we are ever to reckon with our past and present. For such a slim book, this really packs a punch.

This book was ok. I really loved his memoir Heavy. This just seemed like a more scattered, less cohesive version of it with overlapping stories. His themes and stories about race, education, and family were fine, but would definitely recommend Heavy instead

This should be required reading.

Reading this revised and updated collection was even more powerful than when I read the original. His essay on the pandemic in Mississippi laid bare many of the problems faced by Black southerners during Covid-19. His essay about selling his first books and the dishonesty of his editor was equally brutal. These essays capture the same painful beauty as his memoir. Highly recommend!

Sadly, given everything that's going on in the world at this time, I do not have the physical energy to read with my eyes at the end of the day. I just crash. So, I have to return this book to the library before I'm done. 😥 I fully expect to finish reading it in the future. I already have a tag on around every seventh page.

[started reading 2020-12-21; put a pin in it 2021-01-09 at p 49 (34%)]

Those who we seek to humiliate, we eventually seek to destroy.

A book of essays by the author bid the rave reviews Heavy can‘t wait to read.Thanks @ScribnerBooks

Always, Kiese

This is a whirling, gripping, vulnerable, and powerful collection of essays (of which some felt more like short stories).
There‘s a broad range of writing from a openly feeling human, talking about his pain and owning the pain he caused others.
Kiese Laymon‘s reading is engaging and his work is moving and amazing. I‘m grateful for this and looking forward to reading more of his work.
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

#bookspin & #doublespin bingo
@TheAromaofBooks thank you for organizing this! As a mood reader, I‘m excited to see where this leads me

This is an amazing collection of essays, full of powerful words from a powerful voice. I highly recommend it!

Powerful, powerful words from Kiese Laymon. #BlackLivesMatter

Some parts were very good, while others were hard to slog through. Didn‘t hate it, but didn‘t like it either. Almost didn‘t finish. Crack, poverty, black manhood, racism...but hey, the women in his life were there for him. Found myself irritated more than anything. On the plus side, it was short.

#unpopularopinion

I most enjoy writers who are creative and vulnerable and Kiese Laymon, is that kind of writer. Wow, just wow. If he is so open and honest and in this memoir, I can only imagine the brilliance of Heavy. I so look forward to reading more of his work.

Sign me up for the Kiese Laymon fan club. While these essays don‘t have the gravity and drama of Heavy, they still really broadened my view of what it is to be black in America. And these aren‘t your standard academic essays, they‘re vibrant and told in many different ways, including an epistolary one (squee)! 4⭐️

#24in48 #readathon hit the 8 hour mark! Yay caffeine! ☕️🥤

I didn‘t get very far in #24b4monday today, but I completed my first grant. 😁🎉

Going for my fourth 24 hours in #24in48 with a reset clock, a strong cup of coffee, and some cheesecake! Let‘s do it!

Look what‘s on #hoopla peeps!! Thanks to the Collections Specialist at my library for emailing me about it!! 🎉🎉🎉

Nicole looked at me like she wanted to say everything was going to be okay. I wanted her to say that we were the collateral damage of a nation going through growing pains. Part of me wanted us to hug and agree each other to death that we were better people than we actually were. But most of me was tired of lying to myself and really tired of talking to white folks.

This is one of those books full of painful truths we must keep our eyes open to seeing and internalizing. I wanted to scream often.

One essay recounts a time an undercover (white) police officer taunted him & a friend in a fast food parking lot by calling them "n***** lovers" and driving away. The friends pursued & threw obscene hand gestures- the cop slowed, turned on his lights, pulled them over, directing a shotgun at the author's chest.

Hey Litsy! This book is God damn incredible. An absolute must read. Why it hasn't gotten more buzz is beyond me. An excellent companion reader to Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching.

these are all the books that I'm currently in the middle of right now, I'm really enjoying them all but have also been trying to prioritize library books these last few weeks which is why I haven't yet gotten around to finishing a few of these even though I bought them the day they came out (I'm looking at Letters & Here We Are when I say this)
#riotgrams #currentreads #currentlyreading

Sharp and funny and distinctive essays, largely about black Southern life. Family, politics, hip hop, prejudice, self reflection. Highly recommended.

This book took me on a journey that broke my heart and opened my eyes. Laymon does not claim to be perfect, and this book is far from perfect. But it is important. He veers at the end with what felt like a very personal need to pay homage to several artists and get revenge on his editor, which completely took me out. I wish there had been more personal experience of his later years, but what he does share of his youth is wide-eyed and beaming.

Post-Thanksgiving trek from Orlando back to Sitka. Almost there. #readharder #collectionofessays

Early morning reading. I try to read anything written by graduates of nearby Oberlin College. I've enjoyed the Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier and everything by James McBride. This is an excellent collection of essays. Adding his first novel, Long Division, to my TBR list as well.
#diversebooks

Though the winters were colder, the vowels shorter, the buildings taller, and the yards a lot smaller, the Chicago I visited as a child always felt like an orange piece of Mississippi that had broken off and floated away...with one major exception.

I love to read essays, memoirs, and all kinds of weird nonfiction. Here are some of my nonfiction shelves (plus a few overflow novels). @Liberty

I'm almost done with Kiese Laymon's incredible collection of essays and am looking forward to the rest of this week's book haul!