Welcome to Litsy!

I read this book in 2016, and it is sadly, horrifyingly more relevant today. The book‘s premise is that seven children die from guns on average every day in the United States. I imagine our average is even higher now. I wish books could give us all the answers to finally solve this crisis that is unique to America.

This book about gun violence in America. Written by a British journalist, it is not a book about the gun debate. Rather, it is a look at the impact and causes of gun violence.

Day 12 of #adventrecommends

23 November 2013: That‘s the day journalist Gary Younge randomly selected for this book, after which he spent 18 months unearthing the stories that lay behind the victims and their premature deaths.
Ten young lives: 10 deaths from guns. This is not a book about gun control: it‘s a book about what has happened in a country where there is no gun control.

“To defend this reality by way of the Second Amendment...is to effectively abdicate your responsibility to understand the present by offloading it onto those who are now dead. It denies not only the possibility of new interpretations and solutions but the necessity for them.”
Ch 9 packed a punch with statistics. Author chose 1 24 hr period, found 10 children killed by guns, & analyzes each. Little slow in the middle but important read.

Book 127

Heart breaking and gut wrenching but important. This is not a book about gun control but a look at the human cost of guns in America by looking at the 10 young people (all men) who died on one day in November 2016. Through their stories you see how each death - whatever the circumstances- leaves a hole in a family and how the ripples spread out around it. Devastating.

Serious reading for a Friday night. I think this may be important though.

Eye opening, powerful, very readable. Highly recommend.

Between a pick/so-so for me. Learning about these stories was heartbreaking yet engrossing. Where it fell short (for me) was including a bit more about the investigation after the crime. I needed a bit more resolution in these cases. But then again, maybe that's the point? So much violence, so many cases, yet such little progress in prevention or justice. #nonfiction #socialissues #currentevents

SUPER SALE ALERT!

#KindleDailyDeal This book is so good!

Just some powerful quotes I pulled out while reading this book. It took me a month to read this book because of how sad it is I could only read one story at a time. Too many people, especially young men, are dying daily due to gun violence. This book does a great job of evaluating some of these tragic deaths and also gives facts and studies that show why we need more gun laws. #quotsymarch18 #consequence #struggle #strictergunlaws #marchforlife

Reading at 33,000 feet! #lmpbc

Finishing this one up to send off! #lmpbc #booksandcoffee #sundayreads

Deviled eggs, a Moscow mule, and a book. I‘m happy.

This is a slow read bc I have to take a break in between each chapter since it's so intense. My slow food and break was enjoying a nice long dinner at a cute tapas place near my place #happinessisresistance #slowread #slowfood #intenseread

Horrible and scary facts I'm learning while reading this book but I'm educating myself from all angles as this is something I have a strong passion for doing something about.

#litsymarkup #postalmarkup #lmpbc

So I‘m staring at this book, know it‘s important & scared out of my mind to read it. Premise is: author picked a random day in 2013 & reported on the kids killed by firearms on that day in the US. It‘s gotta be heartbreaking. Quote above starts off the book.

#readsoullit Photo Challenge Day 4 Sign of the Times (nonfiction)

This book is relevant to gun violence, which is a #trending topic far too often, sad to say. #readingresolutions @Jess7

#tobeyounggiftedandblack #fiercefeb
I looked through my 'read' list of books and found so many brilliant books by black writers both male and female that i have loved in the last few years from America, Africa and Britain and further afield that i realised how much talent doesn't reach its potential - thus this 5* read that had me despairing at the loss of life and opportunity - 'there but for... '

Younge randomly chose a day and wrote about the 10 children and teens who died by gun violence in the US that day. He gives a face to these kids, combined with supporting research that helps to give context on the deaths- gangs, domestic violence, accidents. It is a thoroughly well researched book, which makes it both brutally frightening and interesting.

Great illustration of how far apart stereotypes and reality can be.
This book is so well researched and I do love a well researched piece of non-fic 🧐

What makes this book so good is that the author chose to cover the lost lives on a random day instead of going for well documented incidents. He chronicles the short lives of these children and teens, but supplements the narratives with gun violence statistics and the latest and greatest of the gun lobby.

Nonfiction November TBR! I know there‘s no way I‘m going on to get through all of these, but I like to give myself options #nonfictionnovember

Finished!! An incredibly moving commentary of some the causes, consequences and casualties of gun crime in America. It is by no means an academic study and the journalist author has some very personal feelings that shine through. A tough but important, eloquent read

Only read the intro and authors note and am already hooked. There are some powerful words and statistics in there. One to read slowly I think ....

Wow. This is a sobering read, but written so well that I read it faster than I usually read non-fiction. It's a shame that the people who need to read this probably never will. It all just seems so pointless, and as a Brit, I struggle to understand why guns should be so readily available. But when they are so firmly entrenched in a society it's also easy to see why they probably always will be.

⭐⭐⭐: great attempt at a hard subject matter but got a little bored halfway through. Maybe just not my cup of tea. #NonFiction #GunsInAmerica

This is the second of two free books I received last week from Mumsnet (a website here in the U.K. for, unsurprisingly, Mums!). I don't know how I feel about the prospect of reading this one, to be honest.

Difficult subject - well-written. Probably not for everyone but I think it's good to learn a bit about the people who make up the statistics.

I've taken an image of a comment in the conclusion of the book which echoes how i felt. This is an incredible read but it's conclusion offers little hope for black and /or poor young people in America. The pictures of 10 children/adolescents whose lives are cut short in one single day by guns is tragic, it emphasises how vulnerable they are by their age and maturity esp boys & is just incredibly sad. Makes me want to wrap mine in cotton wool

I started this last night and felt overwhelmed by the first story. I think I will have to go slowly, maybe one story a night as the personalisation of something so horrendous that on one day so many young lives would be lost by gun crime is incredible to comprehend. This image is the song one of the school friends of Jaiden, the 9 year old first victim composes for him.

So much non-fiction lately. I'm playing the read fast because the library wants this back soon game.

This was heartbreaking and brilliant. By telling the stories of ten boys from all over the US killed by gunshots on the same day, Younge has created a document as valuable to the discussion of guns in American culture as any I have ever read. As crushing as gun violence statistics are, no statistic can convey the human cost as well as personal stories can. I so appreciate Younge's work to present these stories to the world.

An important, well written, book. The stories utilised are; engrossing, Heartbreaking and enlightening. However, I suggest you take your time reading this. Leave a gap between each story. At least give yourself a few minutes to Digest each one. Maybe, you could even read one a day. If you binge, as I did, then they loose their impact and leave you feeling depressed.

#WeekendRead #amreading

A very depressing look at the cost of gun culture in the US. So many families and friends left mourning... it is like slow motion genocide.

And I can't take any more tonight. Have mercy on all of these poor families. Jen Campbell does a youtube video on Two Very Important Books--this is one. She says it much better than I can.

This is painful. This much pain can not be contained in one book.

This book broke my heart. It doesn't try to give solutions - just shows that we are short-changing the next generation without really asking questions about gun crime

This book made me angry and it made me cry. I felt that Gary Younge did a fantastic job looking deeper into the reasons behind gun violence. He is a journalist for The Guardian and tells the stories of 10 young men killed in a single day in 2013 across the US. It's a heartbreaking book but a must read.

Not finished with the book yet but my sense of outrage compelled me to mourn all the victims gun violence , so tragic .We still lack a genuine dialog on the issues involved .Sadly ,this book could be rewritten everyday with a new list of victims.

Heartbreaking stories, but it still felt a little flat to me. I couldn't really tell what he was trying to say through the stories. In the beginning he claims there isn't a point, they are just stories but isn't the point of stories to learn something?

#bookriot challenge day 6. #riotgrams #currentread

This is a masterpiece of nonfiction. Very well-researched with an extremely powerful emotional component. It really shines a light on the ravages of inequality and the myriad ways in which society fails its most vulnerable members every single day. I'm heartbroken and angry but at least my eyes are wide open.

What this book says it's about is the ten children who died from gunshot wounds on November 23, 2013. What it's actually about is how multifaceted of an issue gun violence is, how different communities could use different solutions, and if you read carefully it's also about how different communities react different to gun violence, based on income, race, and social standing. Five shining stars.

Hey look I'm literally doing the exact same thing as last night!

Here's a #2016Book I missed. I actually sent a copy back to the library unread because I am not in the right headspace for this at the moment. It's an issue I feel passionately about, though, so I hope to come back to it soon. #ReadJanuary