Welcome to Litsy!

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This collection of essays and reflections is more than just a look back at the Obama presidency. Combining personal memoir and historical context, Ta-Nehisi Coates brings more light to the significance of the country's first Black president and the challenges facing our country during that time (and today). Also analyzed is Trump's victory in 2016 and the circumstances that made it possible.

I recommend a physical copy instead of audio!

Took advantage of an audiobook sale this week and bought a few books from my TBR. But I find myself wishing I had the physical book for this title so I could easily mark certain passages and quotes! Pausing and replaying sections in order to take notes gets a bit tiring. ✍️

I had not read any of these essays previously so this collection was new to me. They all gel well together. ta-nehesi does write well.

I had already read most of these essays, but it was interesting to (re)read now during BLM and the dregs of the Trump admin. Coates is a brilliant and insightful writer. I highly recommend.

I had previously read this article in The Atlantic when it first came out, but it feels different and even more important re-reading it now.

4.5/5

We Were Eight Years in Power is a collection of eight essays Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote while Obama was president, interspersed with shorter essays putting it all into context. It's a really interested read the covers a wide variety of topics related to race in America that Coates has written about and puts our current political situation into perspective.

#ReadBlackAuthors

I really enjoyed this book. The format was fun- eight essays he wrote throughout the Obama presidency, with notes before each one- autobiographical at times, time-stamp notes, or just general explanations and backgrounds.
This book really made me fall in love with his writing. Hes informative but easy to read.

I stand in full solidarity with protests happening right now in the US #BlackLivesMatter.
As a white women, I see it as my task to educate myself on my white privilege and the racism my country profits from. These three books talk about their experiences as POC living in America, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

#TaNehesiCoates #MayaAngelou #BetweenTheWorldandMe #WewereEightYearsinPower

Reading this book three years into Trump‘s presidency made this book even heavier than when each of the essays and the book itself was published.

His epilogue, his essay, “The First White President,” feels more apt today under Covid-19 than when it was written in 2017.

“But in the collective sense, what this country really fears is black respectability.” I LOVED Between the World and Me. It was a hard book to read but it was amazing. Only good thoughts going into this one.

“Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others. Black America ever lives under that skeptical eye. Hence the old admonishments to be “twice as good.” Hence the need for a special “talk” administered to black boys about how to be extra careful when relating to the police.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates

My 100th time trying to finish this. It‘s so good. Can‘t wait to get to the end. Ta-Nehisi‘s writing...swoooooon

1. Couldn‘t think of a civil rights book, but the tagged covered a lot of history & was eye-opening for me.
2. desire for power
3. Tomorrow, I‘m taking a long drive to my friend‘s favorite brewery (it‘s much closer to her house)for her birthday party. She got some yummy looking cupcakes. Hoping the brewery now has wine because I don‘t like beer. Sunday, youth group, reading.
4. Don‘t think so #friyayintro @4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads

What an incredible collection of articles with thoughtful introspection added to each one. Coates is such a smart man and it just shines through his writing. It makes you want to be smarter to understand everything he lays out. It challenged me in a way I haven't been challenged since my high school AP classes. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My current audiobook loans from Libby 🥰. I just hit 50 books read for 2019, and I couldn‘t have done it without audiobooks, since I‘ve been doing so much driving. My current commute is about 50 minutes each way, but I‘ve come to think of it as valuable me time with the help of audiobooks, podcasts, and Taylor Swift CDs 🤣

Airport reading! This is for my #bookbingo "a book written by a journalist." Ta-Nehisi Coates We Were Eight Years In Power is such a smart read so far. #halfbloodbingo #amreadingnonfiction #pocauthors #amreading

This book is why I read.
To learn.
To grow.
To challenge my worldview.
To think hard thoughts.
To reveal what has been hidden.
To start anew.

So enjoyed listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates discuss his book the other night! #authorevents

Book #3 complete for #24b4monday! And my kitchen is cleaned up! “An American Tragedy” is definitely a proper subtitle for this book. Race in America has such a long, horrible history that it feels impossible that we can ever make real progress and the Trump presidency is a big glaring indicator of this. Certainly not a hopeful book, but an honest one. Coates is an amazing writer. As I mentioned in an earlier post bad narrator for this audiobook.

So i forgot to start my stopwatch for my audiobook drive into work, so I really have about 30 minutes more than this for day 1 of #24b4monday. goals for tomorrow are to finish this audiobook and Ellie and The Harpmaker #netgalley Arc. I also have “we should all be feminists” next up on Audio which is short so maybe I can finish 3 books tomorrow!

I‘m about halfway through this audiobook and it is so interesting.. race in America is so much more complex than we can even scratch the surface of, but Coates attempts to.. but the point of this post is OMG the narrator is killlling me. Why do Michelle Obama, Bill Cosby and a racist southern white guy all have the same voice/accent? Just read it straight if you‘re going to do that.

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an amazing look into the deeply rooted problems of American society. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. It's a scalpel cutting precisely to dissect society and humanity to see the reality our country faces. As I was reading Coates‘ words, I wondered if he ever reads his writing and thinks ‘damn, I am a magician with words.'
https://onthebl.org/2019/03/31/we-were-eight-years-in-power/

“All my life I had watched women support the dreams of men, hand over their own dreams to men, only to wonder, in later years, whether it was all worth it.”

“White people are, in some profound way, trapped; it took generations to make them white, and it will take more to unmake them.”

"America had a biography, and in that biography, the shackling of black people - slaves and free - feature prominently." Such a good quote.

...& I will be there! 🤘📚🎉

Should be required reading for white people.

Sorry to get political around the holidays but I can‘t wait to listen to this while doing the puzzles I bought today with my mom. I also got 3 other audio books, just in case this raises our blood pressure too much. I‘m kind of afraid to post this. The rest is my Family Dollar haul with my credit card ( with a limit conveniently raised for the holidays) including origami, and kids coloring books, because like @Trashcanman said, the intricate 👇🏽

So glad I read it, but it‘s also a reminder that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Some great, though depressing, history, and a look at the ebb and flow of race relations and politics in America.

I read SO many excellent books in September! #septemberwrapup. I starred my favorites, but many of these are worth a recommendation.

#currentread
#riotgrams

When a book makes you think and think and you realize it will keep you thinking about our society and how even when things change there are so many people afraid of that change that too much stays the same. #audiobook

1. Yes - all my #audiobooks are nonfiction
2. Probably 20% nonfiction
3. Social issues, science, history, true crime, memoirs - a bit of everything
4. I loved Killers of the Flower Moon
5. The tagged book is my current nonfiction and it‘s so good so far!
#hellothursday

I listened to this one on audio. Initially I was disappointed that the author wasn‘t narrating (Between the world and me is amaaazimg narrated by him) but I quickly got over that, the content is so thought provoking and challenging. I learn a ton from these books and this especially gave me new insights into Obama‘s presidency, though that wasn‘t the point of the book overall. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The history breaks the myth. And so the history is ignored, and fictions are weaved into our art and politics that dress villainy in martyrdom and transform banditry into chivalry, and so strong are these fictions that their emblem, the stars and bars, darkens front porches and state capitols across the land to this day

An important look backwards and forwards through Obama‘s presidency. From the hopeful beginnings through all the hard middle years and into Trump‘s win through Ta-Nehisi Coates contemporaneous writings. Occasionally a little repetitive, but each repetition was valuable within the confines of each essay.

A friend from the start of today‘s #audiowalk

Welcome to hour 15, readers!! We're going strong at HQ, but need to shake off the mid-afternoon sleepies with some snacks and a check-in. Let us know how it's going for you (we'll be over here noshing on some Cheezits and checking in on participants!) #24in48
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[Photo description: A person's lap reading in bed with the book WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER and an iPad. Text overlay reads, "Hour 15: check-in.]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A lot I didn't know sprinkled throughout this book. Probably not the most uplifting book I needed to listen to at this time. This is a must-read though. My only complaint is that in some parts of this audiobook it sounded like the narrator went back to reread some lines and it made it sound totally different. I'm going to go find a cheesy, stupid funny, audiobook now.

What do you mean, you haven't read Coates yet?! Read this book, NOW!!

I thought of an idea for #eightdaysaweek ! But it was much harder than I imagined to find corresponding books! So... here‘s a hodgepodge for #heyjune!

Reading: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Drinking: Rosé
Magazine: for when I want to cry or scream and need a breather

I love reading Vulture's feature on the top ten desert island book choices of celebrities& what the books mean to them. Of course it's bad for my #TBR pile. 📚📚📚😬📚📚

Below is the link to today's list from Leslie Odem Jr'. He originated the role of Aaron Burr in Hamilton & won the Tony for Best Actor.)

http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/leslie-odom-jr-s-10-favorite-books.html

Between half-marathon training and golf lessons and WASC writing and resuming my teaching duties after having a student teacher for two months, my reading has been lagging recently. I‘m trying to finish this one before the library Kindle gods snatch it away. Good stuff so far! #dogsoflitsy

An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.

A painful book to read but learnt a lot from the context and structure. Need a mojito to go with the reading.

Another masterpiece by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The facts would blow your mind, it is not only an account of Obama's years as president, but as well how important was his election and the work that's still to be done. Completelly necessary read for these times. #Recommendsday #Review #Obama #Nonfiction