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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 19: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. by Samantha Irby
Publisher Synopsis: Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., “bitches gotta eat” blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making “adult” budgets,…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 17: Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Publisher Synopsis: In Heavy, (Kiese) Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 16: The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Publisher Synopsis: The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post-independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 15: Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Publisher Synopsis: On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 14: all about love: new visions by bell hooks
Publisher Synopsis: “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet … we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 13: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Publisher Synopsis: Things Fall Apart tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first story traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives. It provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 12: How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
Publisher Synopsis: N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories, Jemisin equally challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption. Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 11: An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones
Publisher Synopsis: Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 10: Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Publisher Synopsis: Go back to bed, baby, please, baby, please. Not on your HEAD, baby baby baby, please!… From moments fussy to fond, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, present a behind-the-scenes look at the chills, spills, and unequivocal thrills of bringing up baby! Vivid illustrations from celebrated artist…
