streberkatze's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Hands down my favorite non-fiction book of the year so far. (And that means something because I’ve read a ton of non-fiction this year. Santi Elijah Holly’s does such a great job balancing the exploration of the individual life stories and the larger context of the Black Liberation movement over the decades. I knew about the deadly damage COINTELPRO did to the movement. I knew about Assata Shakur and Tupac. But I knew very little about the legal and political work and legacy of Tupac’s mother, Afeni, the involvement of many other members of the Shakur family, and the connection between the experiences of the earlier generation and Tupac’s life, work, and murder. This book weaves all of these elements and many more together into a compelling narrative. Bonus points for Adam Lazarre-White, the narrator of the audiobook, who brings the story to life without ever sounding theatrical!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Addiction, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Racism
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Slavery and Suicidal thoughts
hopebroidery's review
5.0
I can't remember the last time I read a nonfiction book this quickly and felt like I actually retained the information by the end. I learned so much! And I think this might be a great place for a lot of people to start. By that I mean, this book touches on so many important pieces of our history -- the Black Panthers, COINTELPRO, organizing work as it's morphed across decades, pop culture as it intertwines with that work, etc. etc. It's great, I loved it.
melanie_reads's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Excellent read and a reminder that there's still so much history to learn.
This is more of an editorial comment, but this book definitely needed a visual timeline and a list of main people referenced. There was a lot of jumping back and forth, that had me going back to previous chapters to refresh my memory.
This is more of an editorial comment, but this book definitely needed a visual timeline and a list of main people referenced. There was a lot of jumping back and forth, that had me going back to previous chapters to refresh my memory.
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