Between the World and Me
Book description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT
Hailed…
Why read it?
4 authors picked Between the World and Me as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Without having read Between The World And Me, I would have never written my own book. I taught Ta-Nehisi Coates’s son, Samori, in middle school, which made reading this book even more impactful. Between The World And Me is just as much about challenging systemic racism and being the change one wishes to see, as it is about the profound love that exists between parent and child. Becoming a parent is one of the most transformative experiences one can have and in Between The World And Me, Coates’s love for his son, and his desire for his son to…
From Naomi's list on the complexity of identity and to challenge racism.
Coates’ memoir, written in the form of a letter to his 14-year-old son, was his response to the 2000 death of his former Howard University classmate, killed by an undercover police officer in a case of mistaken identity. Coates grounds this story in deep research that explores the presumption of Black criminality woven through our history – in laws against aiding fugitive slaves, in slave codes that made it a crime to learn to read, in white terrorism that disenfranchised black people. I’ve admired Coates since I discovered his 2014 Atlantic article, “The Case for Reparations.” His message is devastating.…
From Pam's list on that explain America’s systemic racism.
This autobiographical award-winning book makes clear that a constitutional end to segregation does not mean it ends in practice. This is an angry, fatalistic view of race relations in 2015 America. The book is presented as a cautionary letter of advice to the author’s son on how to attain and keep self-esteem in a dangerous world where ultimate authority is determined by “white” identity. Coates uses “body” as meaning person or self. He draws a line in African American history from the tobacco fields of seventeenth-century Virginia to the lethal ghetto streets of today and to the police violence against…
From Eric's list on African slavery in the Americas.
Not since James Baldwin, then Toni Morrison does anyone write more intelligently about the struggles of Black families in America. In this letter to his son, Coates explores the painful truth about becoming a Black man in America. “They made us into a race. We made ourselves into a people.”
From Vivian's list on Black family life in America.
Want books like Between the World and Me?
Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Between the World and Me.
Browse books like Between the World and Me
5 book lists we think you will like!
Interested in racism and discrimination, African Americans, and attitude?
10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about racism and discrimination, African Americans, and attitude.