dora_wen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
anyepagan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
yeller's review against another edition
4.0
Overall an excellent volume, though I wish more African nations were represented.
iainkelly_writing's review against another edition
4.0
It is always going to be difficult to cover everything and please everyone with a collection spanning so much history. This does a pretty good job, although there are some omissions - no Reagan demanding 'tear down this wall', nothing from Gorbachev, no JFK promising to land a man on the moon, no Churchill fighting them on the beaches. Still, it's a decent spread of people and topics, centred around the US and UK. With the updated edition finishing with Trump's first State of the Union speech, I also highlights how far and fast we have fallen in our public and political discourse.
aimlessmel's review against another edition
3.5
faves (5 stars): a conversation with my father by grace paley, the flowers by alice walker, story by lydia davis, the twenty-seventh man by nathan englander, st. lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves by karen russell, the paper menagerie by ken liu (this one made me sob <3)
honorable mentions (4.5 stars): the lesson by toni cade bambara, a temporary matter by jhumpa lahiri, the dune by stephen king, the great silence by ted chiang
honorable mentions (4.5 stars): the lesson by toni cade bambara, a temporary matter by jhumpa lahiri, the dune by stephen king, the great silence by ted chiang
jennavieve_prose's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.0
colechamberlain's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
pardonmywritings's review against another edition
5.0
“But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of The American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future.”
~
It’s crazy recalling the power of Obama’s words back in 2008 and reading them again in The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches. Despite his complex and deeply political leadership, Obama stood for a new generation of hope for the minorities and previously looked over.
~
It’s crazy recalling the power of Obama’s words back in 2008 and reading them again in The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches. Despite his complex and deeply political leadership, Obama stood for a new generation of hope for the minorities and previously looked over.