5 comments about When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories.

1. When Race Becomes Real is probably the best book to come across my desk in two years. Bernestine Singley and the other contributors have managed to take a tension-laden subject -- racism -- and approach it with the deepest honesty possible. The result is not a book that will send people reeling away in shame or disgust, but one that is accessible to anyone, regardless of skin tone or occupation.

   It is an odd thing to say about non-fiction, but this is a very tough book to put down once you start. If it were a novel, we'd call it a page-turner.




2. This book made me laugh, cry and everything in between. In the wake of the Trent Lott controversy, I would highly recommend this book to Blacks and Whites. Although there were a couple of stories that were long and uninteresting, I still gave this book 5 stars.



3. Bernestine Singley is to be congratulated for her thought-provoking, nitty gritty book. She has assembled a group of writers who aren't afraid to make it plain about race, including black folks who are sick of it, white folks who are finally getting it and everything in between.
   My favorite pieces are Derrick Bell's epilogue (I have been a big fan of his since Geneva Crenshaw), Julianne Malveaux's hilarious and rather poignant "Race, Rage and the Ace of Spades" (that woman needs to write a memoir or something), and Tim Wise's insightful piece.
   This is too searing to read in one setting, but it is the kind of book that begs for discussion. I am suggesting it for my book club and plan to use it at work to deal with some diversity related issues. Check it out!



4. "When Race Becomes Real" initiates a discussion long overdue in America where the subject of race is so sensitive that it has become virtually taboo. Some of the essays in this book touched me very deeply, some annoyed me, and others provided thoughtful new insights. All of them impressed me with their sincerity. After reading these writers' revelations about their own highly personal experiences and feelings in regards to race, one understands that there are many sides to the same truth, and that in order to approach any level of comfort in relations between the races, well meaning people need to be able to bare their souls without fear of censure or ridicule. This stimulating work can be used to open up frank discussions in the classroom or the living room and is highly recommended to anyone who is ready for an honest examination of the unavoidable everyday complexity of race relations in America.



5. Ms. Singley asked each contributor to share a REAL race experience of their own, not their opinion and not a retelling of someone else's experiences. The result is a book filled with excellent stories that force the reader to reflect on his or her own experiences with race. While reading, I realized that people of color experience most life events in the context of race - while most "white" people experience life without giving much thought to race. This book is not accusatory, but it is a wake up call. If some of us spend a little more time considering the effects of race in our society, perhaps others will be a little more free to think about it less. I sincerely hope this personal reflection will help me be a better friend and better member of our society.

1 comments about Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement.

1. I was able to sit in a lecture class of Dr. Farmer at MaryWashington College. Dr. Farmer was able to to convey to us thestruggle that he and other civil rights leaders went through. His powerful voice, coupled with his compassion for the subject made it the best class I have ever taken. Dr. Farmer is a tribute to all Americans.

No comments about The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (An African American Heritage Book).

No comments about Arrest The Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (African Expressive Cultures).

5 comments about Chaka! Through the Fire.

1. It begins kind of boring because she is talking about people we really don't care about (her relatives), but once she starts talking about her teen years, her black power years, her marriage, her sucess, it is very interesting!!! It is more like listening to her talk than it is "literary", but I'm glad to get info on Chaka anyway I can!!!



2. Recently checked out this book and thought it was not bad as celebrity memoirs go. Though the book is a collaborative effort, it is unmistakeably the voice of Chaka Khan. She frankly discusses both the successes, spoils and the pressures of an unexpectedly rapid rise to pop stardom. As the powerhouse tomboy of seventies soul music, Chaka Khan created a amazing body of work with the integrated pop/rock/soul band Rufus. On her own, she has been less successful but no less interesting. Indeed, she is now getting her well-deserved props for the white-hot trail she blazed in pop/R&B music. At the same time, she is also upfront about her legendary drug problems, romantic failings and her flaws as a parent. All told, this is a quick read, enjoyable and very down-to-earth.



3. This opening comment is directed to the writer who titled their review; "Chaka Uncut".
   
   Aretha gave birth to her first child when she was thirteen years of age. She most certainly could be Chaka's momma. As we used to say in the neighborhood a very looong time ago...."So talk what you know!"
   
   A good read. Boring if you are looking for lots of juicy details about intimate and private portions of the author's life.
   
   I believe this is an honest and forthright book that makes Chaka transparent before her fans and the world. Chaka's drug addiction and addled behavior was a well know industry secret.
   
   It's good to know she is clean and moving forward with her life. She purports to be a Christian these days. Lets all wish her the best.
   
   In Uncharacteristic Charity,
   
   Miss Ross



4. Too bad not enough people know about Chaka Khan in 2005.
   
   One great female vocalist.
   
   This is a great book.



5. I truly enjoyed this memoir written by Chaka Khan and Tonya Bolden and would recommend it to any Chaka Khan fan or anyone curious as to how this siren of song came to be and lived.
   
   I've been a Chaka fan since childhood. She is my favorite all-time vocalist. My father bought Rufus' first album but I didn't pay much attention until the second, "Rags to Rufus". Chaka's raw primal energy on the microphone had me hooked from the first guitar riff of "You Got the Love" and "Tell Me Something Good". The third album, "Rufusized", sealed my fate as a lifelong Rufus and Chaka Khan fan. I would sit, listen and ogle over the album covers for hours on end. In my naive young mind, Chaka Khan was the epitome of womanhood. I wanted to be her. All at once this woman was incredibly talented, beautiful, vivacious, tender... exuding tremendous confidence, power and an animal-like sensuality. I would shake my braids loose, dress up in my summer halter and bell-bottoms and dance about the family room doing that side-to-side-jerk-shimmy thing that was her trademark. The band's appearances on shows like Bandstand and Soul Train were moments that I lived for. My father even bought my first guitar to help appease my obsession. It was only much later that I discovered all that glitters is not gold... in regard to my idol and otherwise. My first live Chaka experience was at a mid-80's concert in the Chicago area. She was good... but clearly trashed and suffering. It broke my heart. My adulation remains however, and I'd always yearned to know her story.
   
   The thing that I enjoyed most about the book is the conveyance of her personality through the words. Her candid expression and frankness are qualities that I deeply appreciate. Her matter-of-fact sense of humor tends to come out of nowhere. From the first mention of her first-born you can sense the guilt that haunted her career, having left her child for long periods to pursue her career. Others have remarked on the brevity and lack of detail throughout some periods of her career (if not MOST of it). I would agree. Though personal and to the point, her recollections are fairly vague. I don't know if she was limited to a certain number of pages, by deadlines, or simply couldn't recall those times through the haze of substance abuse. I will say that I wished there were more... much more. (C'mon Chaka... girl if you're gonna write it... write it) Perhaps the intent was to focus on a few specific moments and what she pulled from those experiences. To the self-dubbed "in-the-moment gal", I gather everything else was irrelevant. I would like to know more about her rise with Rufus beyond the formative years, more detail on the inter-relationships (she could've devoted an entire chapter to her and Tony Maiden alone), inspiration for songs that she penned and adventures on the road. Most importantly, more on where that voice derived it's passion and fire. She seems to have completed this book for the purposes of exorcising demons, rather than putting focus on the beauty and legend that she created. In a way the book IS optimistic, in the sense that she feels that she has now gotten the upper hand on her demons. She continues to look forward, taking each day as it comes. I wish her the very best.

3 comments about Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970.

1. A lot of people consider this book a classic on social movements, but it provides no new research, offers no concepts original to McAdam, and sets up strawman opponents. Why is it still in print?



2. We first used this book in Dr. Skocpol's class in Chicago, & it has become an invaluable resource on how to study social movements. I often refer to it in class--along with other now-classic analyses--and a colleague is using it as required reading this coming Spring.



3. If one is interested in the dynamics of the civil rights movement, then this book is a must read. Also a must read for anyone doing research in the field of social movements and especially if interested in the processes of content coding using annual indices.

2 comments about King: A Comics Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (The Complete Edition).

1. Anderson's style is so impressionistic that you would have to know the basic facts of King's life and career to get much out of it. That being said, this book is not another hagiography of King as a non-threatening figure whose message was that we should all be polite to each other.
   
   Anderson's King gets angry, gets hungry, gets horny, has periods of crippling despair; in other words, he was a human being. But he also stubbornly held onto what he felt was right, often in the face of powerful opposition. And make no mistake about it: charlatans and dolts like Bush II may invoke his name now, but Anderson makes clear that when he was alive, not everyone was standing around applauding.
   
   The King we see here is almost as polarizing a figure as, well, Jesus. After reading it, I understand anew why M.L. King was a great, if not a perfect, man.



2. The starkness of Ho Che Andersen's artwork is fitting in that it serves to heighten the mythological feel of King's life, which contrasts with the intimate portrait we get of the man and his daily struggles. The mixture of photography montage, black and white sketch work and the occassional, startling splash of color is mezmerizing.
   
   I don't know enough to comment on the historical accuracy of Andersen's work; the first volume of King was released in 1993 and it took the author a decade more to finish. This is a labor of love foremost, and the author's passion manages to leap off the page at you. That Andersen has avoided the pettiness of humanizing King is no small miracle - the biography genre routinely suffers from trivializing those it portrays in an effort to make them seem more familiar.
   
   My only complaint is the paraphrasing of much of King's "mountaintop speech" given the night before his death in Memphis. The speech is too long to be included in its entirety, but having listened to the audio clips of that speech too many times to recall I found Andersen's version lacking. I suppose this is only to be expected, but nonetheless I would have loved to have seen a few more pages devoted to what I consider a rhetorical masterpiece, and easily one of the greatest speeches ever given in America. If you've never heard it before, do your best to download it or otherwise listen to King at the height of his power; it is a speech much informed by the gift of sight and of prescience, and is all the more moving and remarkable for the last stanzas.
   
   If you are as fascinated with Martin Luther King as I am, I cannot recommend this work enough. Go out and buy it, and marvel, and remember one of the most pivotal figures of the twentieth century whose message should be heeded no matter the era.

No comments about Richard Pryor: The Life and Legacy of a "Crazy" Black Man.

5 comments about Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story.

1. A book that finally reveals the true genius of Walter Jacobs and those who emulate him. As a decade long band mate of Joe Lee Bush who learned directly from Walter as noted in this book, I can say with authority that this book really provides a deep view into the man and his incredible talent. All the bands I've ever been a part of, Southside Jukes,The Superstitions,Them Junko King Hats, Magic Blues Band, Spike Driver, Blue Comets and some others have done Walters songs with huge respect and awe!
   
   This book is an authentic look into the blues master of the harmonica Walter Marion Jacobs. You just must read it to understand the man and the music fully. Cudos to these three authors, what a collabration! John A. Williamson



2. Remarkable job by a trio of authors who really did their homework. I read it when it was first published and have gone back to it many, many times since for reference. I'm actually in the middle of reading it again in its entirety, something I very rarely do with any other book. If you're looking for insights and the scoop on the great Walter Jacobs, look no further. Buy this book now, blues people.



3. Since Little Walter died in 68 it might have been an enormous amount of work to put together all the information offered in this book, which succeeds in revealing who was the man who was behind the legend.
   
   The book is fascinating at least for somebody, who like me is very into the blues and is an amateur harpist.
   
   Too questions for the writers (because not enough clarified in the book): why Chess asqued Little Walter to play acoustically in the 60?.Is there more information about the lung troubles that Little Walter had at the end of his life, and made it difficult to blow his harp the way he used it, for more than 2-3 songs, as quoted in the book?



4. On a par with "Bird" the movie by Clint Eastwood.
   Need I Say More!



5. I have been a Little Walter fan for many years. It's apparent that Tony Glover and his co-authors are, too. They have done a wonderful job of researching Walter's life and telling his story. I also learned a lot about Walter's contemporaries, like Jimmy Rogers and Muddy Waters (to name but a few). And, I have new respect for Leonard Chess, who helped create the Chicago blues sound, and who nurtured those who played it. The discography at the end of the book was very useful to me.
   
   What would make the book better? It would be an accompanying boxed set of CDs with most of the tracks listed in the discography. I have put together my own set of about 50 of them.
   
   Congratulations to the authors.

3 comments about Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar.

1. This book is definitely well written and worth the purchase for not only parents, or even those of us who are fans of Mr. Kanye West, but also for all who would one day like to become a parent, as well as for anyone who is surrounded constantly by the appearence of the existence of persistent social and economic resistance (even on a daily basis).
   
   "Raising Kanye" is about love, motherhood, proper parenting, education, romantic relationships, family, music, traveling, politics, and so much more. I personally have learned much from the parenting and life lessons of God through Ms. Donda West; and even though I've never met my spiritual mother Ms. Donda West, or my spiritual brother Mr. Kanye West, I did learn that we attended the same church in Chicago, Christ Universal Temple; (realizing that) the world is indeed a small place in comparison and relation with the eternal being of God being One Love (as well as the betterment of the better of tomorrow and its' beautifully boundless beyond).
   
   Breathe...
   
   ... and a little longer.
   
   Now, believe... knowing that your mother's love is faithfully unfolding for you forever, however, in God's grace... STRONGER!



2. I think that this is a very good book. Ms. Donda West was inspiring to a mother raising a son in this period in history. She was practical, encouraging and frank. I feel that Donda's parenting techniques adds a dose of reality in today's society. She recognized the differences, yet affirmed her basic beliefs and standards for life.
   Congratulations Donda West, you pressure developed a jewel.



3. Donda West, English college professor, and unlikely mother of rap superstar Kanye West had some interesting points to make about parenting. She says she made sure that she raised Kanye to be respectful but also to be truthful -- hence his famous rant that George Bush doesn't care about black people. On the other hand, when Kanye fell asleep at the wheel in a car accident, the insurance company broker advised him to say he had been trying to avoid another car in order to get paid out. He refused to do that either. Growing up, she pretty much gave Kanye anything he wanted, in return for doing his chores and whatever else was expected. (I was surprised when she gave him $1,000 to buy recording equipment at age 13!) My biggest problem was that she had changed her opinion of the N-word and found it acceptable speech because words shouldn't have that much weight. Could that have ANYTHING at all to do with the fact that her son uses it alot in his music and she is involved in managing him? Hmmm. All in all, a fast entertainng read.