logo
Wrong email address or username
Wrong email address or username
Incorrect verification code
back to top
Search tags: tragedy
Load new posts () and activity
Like Reblog
text 2020-06-02 14:13
#BlackOutTuesday
Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
Beloved - Toni Morrison
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Michelle Alexander
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream - Barack Obama
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Wisehouse Classics Edition) - Frederick Douglass
African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850�1920 - Rosalyn Terborg-Penn
Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race - Margot Lee Shetterly
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Here are some books by African American authors you may want to read:

 

Kindred by Octavia Butler: The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given...

 

Beloved by Toni Morrison: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander: "Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole." 
As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status--much like their grandparents before them.

 

 

 
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama's call for a new kind of politics—a politics that builds upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans. Lucid in his vision of America's place in the world, refreshingly candid about his family life and his time in the Senate, Obama here sets out his political convictions and inspires us to trust in the dogged optimism that has long defined us and that is our best hope going forward.
 
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson: n this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
 
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin: In this honest and stunning novel, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice. Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin's story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.
 
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (The Autobiographies #1) by Frederick Douglass. Autobiography of Frederick Douglass. 
 
African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920
by Rosalyn Terborg-Penn: Drawing from original documents, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn constructs a comprehensive portrait of the African American women who fought for the right to vote. She analyzes the women's own stories of why they joined and how they participated in the U.S. women's suffrage movement. Not all African American women suffragists were from elite circles. Terborg-Penn finds working-class and professional women from across the nation participating in the movement. Some employed radical, others conservative means to gain the right to vote. But Black women were unified in working to use the ballot to improve both their own status and the lives of Black people in their communities.
 
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly: The #1 New York Times Bestseller. Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these ‘coloured computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and astronauts, into space. Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War and the women’s rights movement, ‘Hidden Figures’ interweaves a rich history of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world. 
 
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates: "We were eight years in power" was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. Now Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America's "first white president."
Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2020-05-07 22:54
The Attic Tragedy
The Attic Tragedy - J. Ashley-Smith

Sylvie is new to the school. Her old-school clothes and head in the clouds demeanor make her an easy target for boys like Tommy Payne and his gang. George knows what Tommy will do to a girl like Sylvie. When George intervenes on Tommy's attack of Sylvie the pair become fast friends. Sylvie accepts George with all her quirks and faults. George accepts Sylvie's strange gift of knowing the background of the antiques at her father's shop with a simple touch. As life moves on, Sylvie goes to University far away. George stays and works in the antique shop waiting to desperately rekindle the feelings that they shared in school.

The Attic Tragedy is a short story about friendship and how it changes us over time. The unique elements of Sylvie's gift brought me into the story, but isn't the main focus. I would love to have a gift like that, to know the history of objects with a touch. The stories Sylvie shared were amazing whether they were sweet, heartbreaking or silly. Since this is a short story, the timeline moves quickly and the characters are carved out along the way. I do wish there was more information about Sylive's gift and George's background. The real focus, however, is on the value of friendship and how it affects us, even if the friendship changes. Overall, a unique story with elements of the paranormal and acceptance.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2020-04-27 23:25
It's foggy and rainy and this made me sad
Amigos por el Viento - Liliana Bodoc

This collection was so sad and melancholy. There are some tales calling hope (though I have some issues with "Ancient hunts" that I have trouble verbalizing; I think I'd end up with an essay on subtle ways of racism, and race guilt, and so much soapy hot water), and "The lover and the other" is pretty positive, but it's difficult to offset the tragedy of "Fruit candies and grey eyes".

The writing is lyric as always with Bodoc; at some points it works and at others it read to me as a bit too plainly florid or forced, but I had this sense that I would have loved it as a tween.

There seems to be an underlying theme of duality, or duets, in all the things where you need two, be it struggle, friendship, love, family, support, example to follow. The afterword, talking about how a story written is a half of it that gets completed when it's read by the reader, seems to give credence to it.

The presentation and illustration in the volume gives it an extra bump up. Extra kudos for the editor for the whole arrangement, specially in the order of stories. "Bridge of sand" is the best of the lot and is a good way of closing the collection on a positive note.

In the whole, I'm pretty ambivalent, and damn depressed so, eh.

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2020-02-02 02:57
Glass Wings (manga anthology) by Misuzu Asaoka, translated by Emi Onishi
Glass Wings - Misuzu Asaoka

Glass Wings is an anthology containing three unrelated stories, the first of which is the longest.

"Glass Wings"

Hagane is trapped by his own tainted blood, called "death blood." Death blood kills any living thing it touches, which Hagane learned to his horror when he accidentally killed a random girl he met by getting some of his blood on her. Now he lives with Tsubaki, a woman who claims to love him but who keeps him trapped in her home. Tsubaki has another captive, Ruriha, who Hagane finds himself drawn to. Will it ever be possible for Hagane to find love and happiness, or will his tainted blood continue to bring nothing but pain to himself and those around him?

I disliked the whole volume, but of the three stories, this one was probably my least favorite. The artwork was terrible - difficult-to-follow action, badly utilized screentone, a less-than-solid grasp of anatomy, occasionally odd facial expressions, etc. A bit too amateurish for a published work.

The story itself was great big gobs of sadness and suffering that somehow left me feeling nothing for the characters. At best, I felt bad for the bunny (you'd think Ruriha would have known better than to keep a pet around). And I absolutely was not expecting all the incestuous stuff -

Tsubaki was Hagane and Ruriha's mother and was therefore in love with her own son, and Hagane was in love with his sister.

(spoiler show)


I'm not sure Asaoka really thought this "death blood" thing through. If a person with death blood gets injured and falls into a body of water (which happens in this volume), you'd think absolutely everything in the water would die considering how potent the blood is. 

"Firefly"

Yuinne needs to eat raw dead flesh in order to survive. After a traumatic incident, he vowed to only eat the flesh of beings that died of natural causes. He escapes the group of corpse eaters he was living with and tries to abide by his own rules but finds himself drawn to Mia, a kind human girl.

I suspect that this story was created after the first one, because the artwork was a bit better. Even so, it was still terrible. Once again, the main character was cursed/tainted in a way that hurt anyone who got close to him. Unlike Hagane, Yuinne didn't have even a single person he could get near without them eventually ending up dead.

The writing was awful. My favorite worst line: "My suffering is exploding pain!" (128)

"Jion Princess"

Soyogi is an orphan who is turned into Yura's yorimashi, a physical double who is supposed to take on all of that person's bad luck and sickness. Yura treats Soyogi terribly, but since Yura is also the only person who acknowledges that Soyogi is a human, Soyogi doesn't really mind. In fact, she cares deeply for Yura, even though Yura refuses to believe it.  Unfortunately, the delicate balance of the two girls' lives shifts when Yura is forced to leave Soyogi's side for a while.

This was probably the best story of the bunch, although the character relationships were deeply messed up. Yura behaved abominably towards Soyogi, and Soyogi's devotion to her was entirely based on the fact that Yura behaved somewhat better towards her than everyone else did. It was abusive, and I disliked that Asaoka tried to twist it into something like romance by the end.

I'm still not sure whether Soyogi's existence actually improved Yura's health in any way, or if it was all a lie on the magical doctor's part. After all, it wasn't like Yura was 100% healthy, even with Soyogi around.

All in all, this volume wasn't very good, and it somehow left me feeling nothing despite its massive amounts of tragedy. On the plus side, at least each story was a slight improvement over the ones that came before it.

Extras:

A postscript by the author. Asaoka wrote briefly about putting more effort into Hagane and Ruriha's bodies than their faces (which explained some things) and about Tsubaki's background info and shipping her with Hagane (seriously? she was abusive, horrible, and also

Hagane's mother

(spoiler show)

).

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Like Reblog Comment
review 2020-02-01 16:35
Clover (manga, vols. 1-4) by CLAMP, translation by Ray Yoshimoto
Clover Omnibus - CLAMP

Kazuhiko, a former government agent, is roped into doing one last job for General Ko, one of the heads of the government. She tells him he must deliver a package, which he soon learns is actually a young girl named Sue. In the first two volumes of Clover, Kazuhiko does his best to take Sue to her destination despite opposition from multiple sources. He gradually learns who Sue is, why people don't want her going free, and how she's connected to him. The third volume of Clover is a flashback to the time when Sue and a beautiful singer named Ora first met, the beginnings of Sue's desire to leave her cage. The fourth volume of Clover is yet another flashback, even further back in time, to the days when Ran escaped his own cage and met Gingetsu, a friend of Kazuhiko's.

Clover's biggest strength was that it was very beautiful. It came across like an art experiment on CLAMP's part - lots of negative space, interesting things done with panel placement and usage, etc. And since this is one of those tragic CLAMP series, there are lots of beautiful people looking sad. A few of them get to be happy for a little bit, but it fades into bittersweetness at best.

Unfortunately, this series is style over clarity. Scenes felt disjointed and didn't always transition in ways I could easily follow. The first couple volumes technically had quite a bit of action in them, but it didn't always feel like action because of the way CLAMP drew things. It was weird, and I struggled to follow everything that was going on. The end of the amusement park portion was especially confusing, and instead of giving me more of that story, volumes 3 and 4 turned out to be flashbacks. The story never returned to its present.

One thing I didn't know until after I started reading was that this series was originally intended to be longer. I don't know why it was halted, but it was, which explains why, after two volumes of flashbacks, the story just...stopped. It was immensely frustrating.

The story had song lyrics repeated frequently throughout, at least two or three different songs. I did my best to pay attention to any lyrics the first time they showed up, but I generally found them difficult to read (in a fancy font, often white text on black backgrounds). Also, song lyrics are just disjointed text to me - I can't even vaguely imagine them put to music unless I've actually heard that music before. After a while, I just skimmed any lyrics that came up, which was probably not what CLAMP was aiming for.

I was left with so many questions. On the one hand, the government acted like Clover power was a simple matter of math (a two-leaf plus a three-leaf would equal five and therefore be too powerful to oppose). On the other hand, it was clear that some Clovers' powers wouldn't be a problem not matter how many of them got together, so it really wasn't just a matter of adding up the total number of leaves. And did people like General Ko technically count as Clovers? The world-building didn't make much sense to me.

All in all, this is one of those series that I'd probably only recommend to CLAMP completists or comics creators. As much as I liked the visuals, the story itself was more difficult to follow than it needed to be and didn't have a proper ending.

Additional Comments:

Supposedly each of the different levels of Clovers got a different tattoo, but the one character who was a one-leaf Clover had a four-leaf tattoo. Was that a mistake on CLAMP's part? It confused me.

Extras:

A few pages of full-color images at the beginning of each volume in the omnibus, as well as a full-color bonus gallery.

 

Rating Note:

 

I struggled with rating this. The story is probably more 1.5 stars - it's unfinished, will likely never be finished, and is structured oddly for something that stops at the point it does. The artwork, however, is lovely, more in the 4-star range (the clarity issues make me reluctant to rate it higher).

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

More posts
Your Dashboard view:
Need help?