Read Yes
Length 272
Quick Review Glory Edim is the amazing woman behind the Instagram @wellreadblackgirl. I have been obsessively following her since I started my blog. Her book is a testament to the importance of books.
Well-Read Black Girl is a book of essays about reading journeys by amazing black women from a variety of backgrounds compiled by Glory Edim, the creator of @wellreadblackgirl. It is beautiful. Literature is white-centric. As a girl, I read books and new they were about girls who looked like me. To be honest, I didn’t really read books with people who don’t look like me as the main characters until I was in high school. There aren’t that many of them. For a huge swath of the population, they don’t see themselves in the pages they read.
The authors of the essays talk about finding their reflection in the books they read within the pages of Well-Read Black Girl. The books they talk about are meant for the world, but have unique meanings to each woman. They searched for themselves in books like we all do. For them, it was harder because literature rarely tells their story. These are the essays about the books that changed them. We all have that book, I think.
I honestly don’t want to go into too much depth about the book because it’s so fabulous. You should take the time to read it. The essays aren’t long, so you can enjoy them with a busy schedule. I will be returning to the book often because it’s inspiring.
I truly loved reading this. There were names I knew and names I am not familiar with, but I’m going to try and broaden my horizons more. Several books and authors are mentioned in several essays. The fact this is so prevalent goes to show how few options there are for and about women of color. In fact, the books the essays discuss are the same books that touched me deeply.
My favorite thing in Well-Read Black Girl are the book recommendations. There are several lists of books for and about black women throughout. It also compiles all the books mentioned throughout the pages. There are so many good books mentioned and several I still need to read.
I can’t recommend this book enough!
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Memorable Quotes
“I suddenly understood that her story was part of the larger story of Black womanhood and survival.”
“We are not looking for anyone else to give us validation; because we have one another.”
“Mom raised us more like cactuses, rather than orchids.” Gabourey Sidibe
Title: Well-Read Black Girl; Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
Author: Glory Edim
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9770525619772
