logantea's review against another edition
3.0
In this book Kareem Abdul Jabbar flexes his extensive knowledge, thoughtfulness, and personal experience on matters of race, religion, gender, income inequality, and other issues. There's a lot I like about this book. His thoughts are well reasoned and articulated and backed up by facts and statistics. Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that he doesn't merely rant about problems, he diagnoses them and provides thoughtful solutions to them. This solutions wouldn't fix all of America's ills, but they'd make great progress.
However, as great as the thoughts he expresses in this book are I found the experience of actually reading it exhausting. There are many sections of the book that read like a paper written for a college course -- exhausting levels of restatements, statistics, anecdotes, and metaphors to make sure a point is hammered home (and perhaps pad page count in the case of a college paper). I feel like 30% of this book could have been left on the cutting room floor and it would have been just as effective.
He also relies overwhelmingly on metaphors, similes, and pop culture references to make his points. This makes his writing very approachable and it all feels genuine (not pandering to those in on the reference) but I grew very tired of it about 30-40% of the way in.
There's a lot of great stuff in here, but it's probably worth more of a skim than a close read (that's certainly what I found myself doing towards the end).
However, as great as the thoughts he expresses in this book are I found the experience of actually reading it exhausting. There are many sections of the book that read like a paper written for a college course -- exhausting levels of restatements, statistics, anecdotes, and metaphors to make sure a point is hammered home (and perhaps pad page count in the case of a college paper). I feel like 30% of this book could have been left on the cutting room floor and it would have been just as effective.
He also relies overwhelmingly on metaphors, similes, and pop culture references to make his points. This makes his writing very approachable and it all feels genuine (not pandering to those in on the reference) but I grew very tired of it about 30-40% of the way in.
There's a lot of great stuff in here, but it's probably worth more of a skim than a close read (that's certainly what I found myself doing towards the end).
wadesworld's review against another edition
5.0
I don't like sports, but this book offers fresh perspective on social issues with a lot of discussion about the 2016 election. Very interesting!
relf's review against another edition
3.0
A plea for rationality in public life. Abdul-Jabbar offers his take on a variety of subjects--feminism, religion, the media, sports, combining analysis based on research and statistics with examples taken from a wide range of literature and pop culture and with suggestions for how to start fixing some of the nation's problems. The book is pretty clearly cobbled together from his columns for Time magazine and other publications but is very readable. The author says that if he hadn't become a professional athlete, he would have been a history teacher, and the tone is very much that of a really good high school teacher. Kalamazoo's Reading Together selection for 2017.
swt's review against another edition
3.0
Very interesting and thoughtful book. Statistics well-used to illustrate his points.
ejdecoster's review against another edition
4.0
A somewhat dense, but very readable, collection. There is a flow to the sections, but I think this book could be dipped into/out of as well. Abdul-Jabbar leans heavily on pop culture quotations but is overall fairly deft in integrating anecdotes and personal stories. Some of his proposed "solutions" seem frankly unachievable, and the sports discussion didn't quite fit in with the rest of the book, but overall a thoughtful and straightforward read.
missnicelady's review against another edition
3.0
Got an ARC through work. I've been pecking my way through this one during my commute -- it's an interesting take on a lot of issues (the chapters on class, race, and feminism were particularly insightful and well-supported with stats that were not your typical political blogger sort of stats). But Abdul-Jabbar's perspective tends to be above the fray -- he definitely has his opinions about the way the world should be, but he's not a polemicist. I kept thinking I would get bored and set this book aside, but then I kept going back to it, perhaps because it's not a barn-burner and I can't handle "hot takes" anymore this election season. This feels like the perfect book to give to that family member you don't see eye-to-eye with, but you want to explain something like Black Lives Matter to them and still be civil to each other at Thanksgiving, and you think they'll probably read it because everyone likes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, you know?
kmpatel13's review against another edition
5.0
Very powerful read. I enjoyed a lot of the book and his thoughts/opinions/facts he stated throughout on a variety of topics.
unaestheticbooks's review against another edition
4.0
This year, I’ve been getting more and more into non fiction. Now, some non fiction novels I pick up read like an extremely boring report written by a college student who’s barely passing their English class. But this book?
This book did wonders.
The writing was phenomenal. It was sophisticated, clean, and didn’t drag on. There weren’t too many numbers thrown around. Everything the author said served a purpose.
There was also a lot to learn. I learned a lot about the education system, and how people were treated, why they were being treated that way, etc.
Overall, I’ve never been so invested in a book. However, as it goes on, the book becomes more dense. Definitely worth a read though. It’s encouraged me to challenge my beliefs, especially political.
This book did wonders.
The writing was phenomenal. It was sophisticated, clean, and didn’t drag on. There weren’t too many numbers thrown around. Everything the author said served a purpose.
There was also a lot to learn. I learned a lot about the education system, and how people were treated, why they were being treated that way, etc.
Overall, I’ve never been so invested in a book. However, as it goes on, the book becomes more dense. Definitely worth a read though. It’s encouraged me to challenge my beliefs, especially political.
heatherr's review
4.0
This is the first book by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that I have read. I didn't even know that he was an author until last year at BEA when he was there. I didn't try to get a ticket to his signing but I was working my way through a crowd at one point and ended up standing right beside him. The crowd was actually his line. I now know that I'm the same height as Kareem when he is sitting in a chair.
"One thing all that history has taught me is the dangers of the uninformed, quickly formed and ill-informed opinion. Passionate defense of bad logic is the main cause of most of the world's misery."
That is the main theme of this book. Don't be lazy. Learn about issues. Look at all the sides before coming to a conclusion. Be willing to change your mind as you learn more.
Politics
"When I was a child, I remember adults complaining that voting often came down to selecting the lesser of two evils. I still hear that today. But while it feels cathartic to blame elected officials and demonize them for their many failings, the sad truth is that we voters are the real villains in this story. Our profound laziness and unyielding arrogance as voters have allowed our system to become polluted by hucksters, egomaniacs, dimwits and mack-daddy pimps willing to rent out their stable of votes."
I started out wanting to underline everything in this book. Kareem has a strong point of view on many issues. He explains them well, often using pop culture references to get his point across. I think the broad scope of the book wore me down by the end. It started to feel like, "And another thing I'm mad about is..." I think this book would be better read by dipping in and out of chapters over a longer period of time instead of reading it straight through in order to get it back to the library. That being said, I think this is a book that is very worth reading. He ties in his own life experience as a person who has lived most of his life in the public eye, including during his conversion to Islam. I will look into some of his other books also after reading this one.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
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