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Jazz
Jazz | Toni Morrison
In the afterglow of a clean triumph--her widely celebrated, Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, Beloved--Toni Morrison moves to even higher ground. This, her eagerly awaited new novel, Jazz, is spellbinding for the haunting passion of its profound love story, and for the bittersweet lyricism and refined sensuality of its powerful and elegant style. It is winter, barely three days into 1926, seven years after Armistice; we are in the scintillating City, around Lenox Avenue, "when all the wars are over and there will never be another one...At last, at last, everything's ahead...Here comes the new. Look out. There goes the sad stuff. The bad stuff. The things-nobody-could-help stuff." But amid the euphoric decisiveness, a tragedy ensues among people who had train-danced into the City, from points south and west, in search of promise. Joe Trace--in his fifties, door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, erstwhile devoted husband--shoots to death his lover of three months, impetuous, eighteen-year-old Dorcas ("Everything was like a picture show to her"). At the funeral, his determined, hard-working wife, Violet, herself a hairdresser--who is given to stumbling into dark mental cracks, and who talks mostly to birds--tries with a knife to disfigure the corpse. In a dazzling act of jazz-like improvisation, moving seamlessly in and out of past, present, and future, a mysterious voice--whose identity is a matter of each reader's imagination--weaves this brilliant fiction, at the same time showing how its blues are informed by the brutal exigencies of slavery. Richly combining history, legend, reminiscence, this voice captures as never before the ineffable mood, the complex humanity, of black urban life at a moment in our century we assumed we understood. Jazz is an unprecedented and astonishing invention, a landmark on the American literary landscape--a novel unforgettable and for all time.
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merelybookish
Jazz | Toni Morisson
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Pickpick

Book 5 by Toni Morrison that I've read with @HardcoverHearts Author Spotlight series. Set in NYC in 1926, the book opens with a 50 year-old married man shooting his young lover. That's the opening event but not the story. The book explores the stories & back stories of the constellation of people affected by this event. The City looms large as does the music that gives the book its title & its rhythm. There's a sense of play amidst the violence 👇

merelybookish Black lives are still brutal and haunted by slavery in 1926 but there is a shift. And it feels like Morrison had some fun playing with the style as she wrote. As always with her novels, I am left with questions and the feeling like it would probably benefit from a re-read. 3mo
Billypar I was scrolling through the Litsy reviews trying to remember when I read this, and I'm surprised it was 7 years ago (!) It must have been shortly after I joined. Seems like I was pretty wowed by it, and I think i had the same response to the other two in this trilogy. 3mo
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BkClubCare
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

This is Toni Morrison‘s favorite of all her works, tho - not her most well-known. She is AH-mazing!! Book club was great, I hope to read this again someday, what a treat. Looking forward to reading Paradise soon. (I only have a few weeks and then the TOB anticipated long list hits and then AAaCCKKkK!!!
(Pic from bookclub Hopping Gnome de Plume 🍺)

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BkClubCare
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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“At last, at last , everything‘s ahead. The smart ones say so and people listening to them and reading what they write down agree: Here comes the new. Look out.”

Thank you @Ruthiella 😁
It arrived this afternoon. 📚💌📬📦

BkClubCare @Ruthiella - want me to search and send you a particular book as my return-the-favor? 7mo
Ruthiella Wow! That was FAST! No need for a swap. It all balances out in the end. 😃 7mo
BkClubCare @Ruthiella - well, let me know 😉 7mo
33 likes3 comments
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BkClubCare
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Ruthiella Success?!?!?!? 👏👏👏👏 7mo
BkClubCare @Ruthiella - this is my library copy 😊 Due to your influence, I am writing ✍️ notes in my journal. 7mo
Ruthiella Just came across a used paperback for $1. Shall I send it to you? 7mo
See All 6 Comments
Ruthiella Perfect condition. 7mo
Ruthiella Just sent it media mail-should get there by Thursday. 7mo
BkClubCare @Ruthiella - yes!!! Thank you! 🙏😁 7mo
43 likes6 comments
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anushareflects
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Mehso-so

Jazz uses an experimental narrative technique which involves a fragmented insight into the thoughts and psyche of different characters in the novel. The premise is a man who shoots his lover and his “crazy” wife. But as much as that is the premise, this description is the entirety of the plot. Instead it is fluid and focuses on the inner lives of what it is to be black in America in the 1920s. Great concept but far too fragmented for my taste.

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JuliaTheBookNerd
Jazz | Toni Morisson
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#InternationalJazzDay 🎶🎷 #MayMontage 🥳💐♊️

#BookNerd 🤓💙📚

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Perfect 🤩 11mo
Eggs My choice too🙌🏻🙌🏻 11mo
JuliaTheBookNerd @Eggs Great minds 😊 11mo
Eggs @JuliaTheBookNerd Absolutely 💯 11mo
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ChelseaM6010
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#MayMontage
Day30. Int‘l Jazz Day
#Int‘lJazz

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 💜💛💜 11mo
Eggs My choice too 💜💞🧡 11mo
17 likes2 comments
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Eggs
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 💛💙💚 11mo
Eggs ❤️📚🥰 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks (edited) 11mo
55 likes2 comments
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GatheringBooks
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#MarchMagic Day 21: All these books are #SetIn1920s - thanks to @bookriot for this lovely round up: https://bookriot.com/books-set-in-the-1920s/amp/

Eggs So artful and colorful! 13mo
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IndoorDame
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Eggs Brilliant 💗💗 14mo
57 likes1 comment
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ChaoticMissAdventures
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#manicmonday @CBee @Librariana
I am not home to stare at my book/dvd cases so let's see what I can come up with

📚 Jazz (tagged)
✍️ Shirley Jackson
🍿 John Tucker Must Die
🎤 Elton John (of course! And I have tickets to see him next week!!)
🎶 Jammin (Bon Marley)

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Elton is fabulous 🎹 🎶 I‘m happy that I got to see him several years ago before he retired!! 2y
ChaoticMissAdventures @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks "retired" ? I was so made at myself for not going to see him on his first farewell tour, I am glad he is doing another! 2y
Librariana I'm glad you get to go see Sir Elton John soon! 😁😊 2y
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ChaoticMissAdventures
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#alphabetgame #letterj @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This is my Toni Morrison year. I am reading through her catalog and I am blown away by each and every book.

Graywacke Sounds like a really good year. Reading through her works was such a special experience for me. 2y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks ❤️📚❤️ 2y
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ChaoticMissAdventures
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

"Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it" ?

Gorgeous as always and with a thread of darkness. This is part of her Beloved series which I don't really understand as they don't share any characters. I read it is a series to bring attention to the different Black American experiences.
Jazz is a very smooth and deep read, the title is perfect for the atmosphere of the book.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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And Jazz gives me 3 Bingos for June.
#bookspinBingo
@thearomaofbooks

No Bookspin books read this month, they are stacking up....

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! Fabulous month!! 2y
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April
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

This book is full of rich, loaded language and striking images. A tricky but rewarding read, and one I plan to revisit—I feel that Jazz is meant to be read multiple times and carefully. I have read that Morrison felt Jazz was her best work. I like Beloved and Song of Solomon best but am still impressed with what she has accomplished here. As always is the case in reading Morrison, these characters will haunt me for a while.

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fictionaddictbooks
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Eggs 🧡💜🧡 2y
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TheSpineView
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Klou Perfect!! 2y
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GinaKButler
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Not the best placement for a sticker on a library book, but, up next, Jazz by Toni Morrison! I‘m using this one as my Book Set in the 1920s for The Decades Reading Challenge. 🎷 📚

CoverToCoverGirl What is this reading challenge all about? 3y
GinaKButler @CoverToCoverGirl She also has a Read Around The World Challenge that I‘m doing. For the Decades you read one set in each: 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and one set across multiple decades. 😊 3y
CoverToCoverGirl I think I‘m going to join in. 3y
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AlizaApp
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

The brutal aftermath of a brief affair, in which a girl ends up dead and a marriage in shambles. Set in 1920s Harlem, no one expects there to be real consequences outside their own community.

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hilded
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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I am in my final vacation week, and it‘s been really nice escaping work and the busy city life for a while. The weather has been great - even here this far north (North of Norway) - the midnight sun has been shining every night☀️

The book was a bit more on the darker side though, like every book I‘ve read by Morrison, and I found it a rather difficult, but good read. The character portraits were excellent. 3.5⭐️

#Reading1001
#1001books

Cathythoughts Stunning 4y
BarbaraBB That looks gorgeous 😍 4y
UwannaPublishme 😍👍🏻 4y
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TheBookHippie
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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https://bookshop.org/shop/ReggieReads

I‘ve been following Reggie a long time
It‘s helped me in my mentoring reading with teens and my personal reading 🤍

#integrateyourshelf

ChasingOm Thank you! I love finding new recommendation lists on Bookshop.com 😄 4y
AmyG Thanks. I just followed him on IG. And I just followed you as I am now RockyMtnReads (edited) 4y
GingerAntics He looks fun. I just went and checked out his IG page. 4y
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TheBookHippie @GingerAntics He is wonderful. 4y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics I am there too! 4y
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TheBookHippie
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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🖤💜

runswithscissors007 💓🖤💓 4y
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Jbakesmcgee3
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

This book had such amazing prose that it slowed me waaay down to make sure I didn‘t miss a sentence! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

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Petelord
Jazz | Toni Morrison
Mehso-so

I liked this book and I didn‘t love it. Some parts were so dense with wonderful description I struggled to understand what was going on. I‘ve heard so many great things about Toni Morrison, so I‘ll definitely give her another go

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Leftcoastzen
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#NewYearNewYou Sometimes it‘s good to give into
#temptation I was out on errands,decided I was too busy to stop at the thrift store.I went in anyway and was rewarded with this nice copy of a Toni Morrison book to replace my beat up paperback .

Branwen I love the colors! 😍 What a gorgeous cover! 4y
Eggs Great design! 4y
Leftcoastzen @Branwen @Eggs The original hardback cover .Classic Knopf style circa 1992 .I think it stood the test of time.😊 4y
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Emilymdxn
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

As usual, Toni Morrison‘s prose just glitters it‘s so amazing to read. I do wish this had been a bit longer, I would have loved more time to settle into this writing and these people‘s lives but if my only complaint about a book is that it‘s too short it must have been good! The female characters were fantastic, she won the Nobel prize for very good reason.

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Tanisha_A
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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‘She wrote about what was difficult and what was necessary and in doing so she unearthed for a generation of people a kind of redemption, a kind of relief.‘ - Chimamanda Adichie

Need to get to everything written by Morrison. Also, here's an interesting article - The Music of Toni Morrison‘s “Jazz” by Xi Chen https://link.medium.com/crxTOtbEj1

#music #movember
@Cinfhen

Cinfhen I want to recommend a Morrison book for bookclub which one would you suggest?? 4y
Centique This was my first Toni Morrison and I fell completely in love with this book. 😍 4y
Tanisha_A @Cinfhen I have read only one as of now, The Bluest Eye, and that should be read (strongly suggest it). But i have heard brilliant thoughts about Sula and Beloved. You could consider this one too (see above comment by @Centique). Is this for a Litsy bookclub read? I would love to buddy read Sula if so. 4y
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Cinfhen It‘s for my IRL bookclub but I‘d be happy to carry it over unto Litsy if my bookclub ladies agree to read Morrison. I‘ll keep you posted❤️ 4y
Tanisha_A @Centique Got to get to it yet. 🎈❤️ 4y
Tanisha_A @Cinfhen Thankee! 💙 4y
52 likes6 comments
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emtobiasz
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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“Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it.” -Jazz

Missing Toni Morrison already.

70 likes4 comments
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Tameeka
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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I went through a phase where all I wanted to read, could read, was Toni Morrison. I still can‘t put into words how her books, her characters made me feel but I am so glad we have her legacy.
#blacklitsy

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megnews
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Eggs Lovely! 5y
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MsLeah8417
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

The Queen does not disappoint!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

SharonAlger This does sound interesting! 5y
MsLeah8417 @SharonAlger Have you read any of Toni Morrison‘s books yet? 5y
SharonAlger @MsLeah8417 not yet, no 😊 5y
MsLeah8417 @SharonAlger I would suggest that you might want to start with her first book, The Bluest Eye. It is amazing. 5y
SharonAlger @MsLeah8417 thanks, I will do that ♥️ 5y
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MsLeah8417
Jazz | Toni Morrison

Blues man. Black and bluesman.

Blacktherefore blue man.

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MsLeah8417
Jazz | Toni Morrison

water came to you—not you to it

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Pedrocamacho
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

Aptly titled, this book is so smooth and lyrical. It is an enjoyable read.

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steffakish
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#currentlyreading
Thought this was an appropriate choice for black history month. I actually got this book at a book swap which is why the book is a little rough around the edges. I personally like knowing my book belonged to someone else. It has a different energy from newly bought books. Not sure what I‘m getting into but what books have you gotten at a book swap?

#happyreading #blackauthor #femalewriter
#blackhistorymonth

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MsLeah8417
Jazz | Toni Morrison

Whoa!! 14% in and I am love with the writing style. It is written like a song. Morrison is so good!!!

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ephemeralwaltz
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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It's always cheesecake o'clock on Sundays 😋

Kalalalatja Oh yes 🙌🙌 5y
Thousand-Lives Yum!! 😍 5y
BooknerdsLife Awww Yesss!!! 😍😍 5y
99 likes3 comments
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ephemeralwaltz
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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I'm upping my goal by a few books this year because in 2018 I ended up reading a whopping total of 75 books of my initial goal of 52! I've never read so much - very proud!
My main reading goal in 2019 is to finish Toni Morrison's published fiction.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, LITTENS!😍📚👏🥂

Christine11 Happy New Year and good luck! 💛 5y
BeansPage That is so fantastic! I know you can do it sweetie! ✨👍🏻📚 5y
See All 8 Comments
Clare-Dragonfly That‘s awesome! Go you! 5y
BarbaraBB Happy new year! 💕 5y
Kalalalatja You got this 🙌🙌 5y
Redwritinghood Happy New Year! 5y
Andrew65 Good luck! 5y
69 likes8 comments
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ephemeralwaltz
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Toni Morrison is ALWAYS such a delight to read. I just can't even anymore 😭

readordierachel Pure poetry ❤ 5y
Jee_HookedOnBookz Wow beautiful... 5y
Reggie Wow. 5y
See All 6 Comments
Kalalalatja 🙌🙌🙌 5y
Simona Off topic - I received your card, and you really touched my ♥️ Thank you 🙏 5y
ephemeralwaltz @Simona I'm so glad to hear that ❤️❤️🎄🎄 5y
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JennyM
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#WinterWonderland #AngelOfHarlem

I‘ve not read this, but it‘s on a list of must-read books about New York, and it‘s set in 1920s Harlem.

Cinfhen Nice choice! I haven‘t read either but so much #LitsyLove for Toni Morrison ❤️ 5y
Cathythoughts Great choice... I havnt read this one , but I love Toni Morrison‘s heart & soul writing 👍🏻♥️ 5y
TrishB Not read either! So many books..... 5y
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Centique This was my first Toni Morrison so will always have a special place in my heart! 5y
JennyM @Centique I can imagine just how good it is! At least I‘m in good company having not got to it...yet! @TrishB @Cathythoughts @Cinfhen 5y
Billypar It's really good: one of my favorites of hers! 5y
JennyM @Billypar lol...looks like I need to read this soon then. So many books, so little time! 😘 5y
ephemeralwaltz Just started this one! I love her ❤️❤️❤️❤️ 5y
JennyM @ephemeralwaltz enjoy, and let us know your thoughts. 5y
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EadieB
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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JazzFeathers Sometimes, there's no other way to do it 😉 5y
Oblomov26 Great quote and very true 5y
77 likes2 comments
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ephemeralwaltz
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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A few #orangebooks by women: 2 read (Station Eleven and Alias Grace), both great, and 2 TBR (Jazz and Men We Reaped), which I've heard nothing but good things about!

#31bookpics @howjessreads

Kalalalatja 😍 6y
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S3V3N
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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J-Jazz by Toni Morrison
O-On Beauty by Zaddie Smith
C-Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair
E-Elbow Room by James Allen McPherson
L-Liar's Game by Eric Jerome Dickey
Y-Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
N-Night Hawk by Beverly Jenkins
@LibrarianRyan

LibrarianRyan 👍🏻🤓⭐️ 6y
9 likes1 comment
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Nute
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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#Riotgrams - Spell June in book titles:

J - Jazz
U - Uprooted
N - Night Road
E - Eon

Toni Morrison is an all-time favorite. Eon consumed my time for a couple of days as stories with dragons, magic and girl-power will always do.

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Laura317 Well, that‘s a depressing thought! I guess we really never know how we are perceived as a race. 6y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Laura317 The benefit of being in the majority I‘m guessing sadly. Although it is set in the 20‘s if that helps any, and the man who taught the lesson spent his childhood still in slavery, so the thought might be somewhat dated....however it was written in the 1990‘s so probably not a lot. 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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Pickpick

The plot is twisted & Morrison is always a struggle for me to start reading until I sink into the prose & just let it flow over me. She writes of such dark things, but in a way it almost reads like poetry. Although I wouldn‘t give the surface plot high marks, where the story shines is the mini-backstories of its characters as they reveal the many facets & hardships of African American life from slavery through the 20‘s.

#Reading1001

Gezemice You finished it already! I do want to read more Morrison, she is amazing, but one needs to be mentally ready to accept the heavy load. I agree, it takes time to get into the flow but when you do, it is worth it. This is on my list! 6y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
Jazz | Toni Morrison
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