I recently read
He's a black man who grew up in Pasadena California with a crackhead mom and hung out in the hood, had fights, sold drugs, was the leader of his pack but also had the intelligence and.....I don't know, sense that his peers didn't have to be more successful.... Anyway he graduated high school early went to UC- Berkeley...yadda yadda
This book is kind of like a poorly written art of war/ 48 laws of power.
He just tells his little stories from his life, then tells you a lesson
Idk, others might like it or take some wisdom from it....I didn't really. It's an easy read though.
He's a black man who grew up in Pasadena California with a crackhead mom and hung out in the hood, had fights, sold drugs, was the leader of his pack but also had the intelligence and.....I don't know, sense that his peers didn't have to be more successful.... Anyway he graduated high school early went to UC- Berkeley...yadda yadda
This book is kind of like a poorly written art of war/ 48 laws of power.
He just tells his little stories from his life, then tells you a lesson
Idk, others might like it or take some wisdom from it....I didn't really. It's an easy read though.
I found it way too loquacious to continue. I think I gave it away.
Yeah.....I don't know if I really buy his story. Maybe he's that guy but but he was too much of everything. He was the tough gangster no one could fukk with, won all his fights, outsmarted the teachers, out smarted his peers, bagged all the ladies.....
It was almost like if some form of his character didn't resonate with you, just keep reading, he's got one for you.
And ive read those stories where people tell who they are and how they got there and what they've learned. Those are written in a style of: here's the lesson.
All of his stories just left me with a "I'm the shyt" and that's what you need to know, but there's some lessons too. Almost like he brags about everything he says he experienced.
I copped it early on during the pandemic cause K. Samuels basically boosted everybody's signal on the algorithm.
First I was into hearing what he had to say, but it just got too "out there" for me to stop giving him my full attention...and then any attention at all.
Yeah I've seen him on social media (someone linked him here). It's almost like he wants to be pro black/anti c00n but is happy riding in the middle. He'll say some shyt that's pro black then say some shyt that's c00ning. I saw he wrote a book and decided to read it and see what was up. He's like a John Everyman. I don't dislike him as a person hope he continues to do well and hopes he motivates or inspires others. He didn't do it for me.
Two books that I finished recently:
Wild Seed (Octavia Butler)
Piranesi (Susanna Clarke).
They're both a bit smaller in scale than what I typically read, especially for fantasy, but I enjoyed them both quite a bit.
Wild Seed was like a chess match, back and forth between the two main characters, and I liked how Butler kind of put growth on display for these immortal beings using two different avenues.
Piranesi was fly just in the sense that the author tried to do something different than the typical in modern day fantasy and created this "house of beauty" so to speak that enabled dude to kind of really find the meaning of life, for him at least.
Wild Seed (Octavia Butler)
Piranesi (Susanna Clarke).
They're both a bit smaller in scale than what I typically read, especially for fantasy, but I enjoyed them both quite a bit.
Wild Seed was like a chess match, back and forth between the two main characters, and I liked how Butler kind of put growth on display for these immortal beings using two different avenues.
Piranesi was fly just in the sense that the author tried to do something different than the typical in modern day fantasy and created this "house of beauty" so to speak that enabled dude to kind of really find the meaning of life, for him at least.
Spoiler
What'd you make of him being Ghanaian/Half Ghanian and put into what was essentially a barefoot slave serving his master?
Her other super popular book, one of the key characters, "Steven", he's a Black man in England, arguably tortured, and then kept at bay by the main villain who is promising to reveal his name.
Her other super popular book, one of the key characters, "Steven", he's a Black man in England, arguably tortured, and then kept at bay by the main villain who is promising to reveal his name.
I'm not gonna hold you....I read that part of the reveal and it did give me pause. I'm just not sure it gave me enough pause to say his captivity was essentially reframed in my eyes.
I'm not familiar with the other joint, but as far as this one goes, she doesn't actively place emphasis on race at any point in the story, but inherently when you make that decision to include that, it does make you question some things from a colonial standpoint.
I'm kind of still sitting with it and feel like it was subtle enough to not be taken in a bad way but if this is like, kind of her bag or whatever, I might have more questions.
I'm not familiar with the other joint, but as far as this one goes, she doesn't actively place emphasis on race at any point in the story, but inherently when you make that decision to include that, it does make you question some things from a colonial standpoint.
I'm kind of still sitting with it and feel like it was subtle enough to not be taken in a bad way but if this is like, kind of her bag or whatever, I might have more questions.
I read it one night. It was that gripping. With Piranesi, I let it slide, but I NOTICED...and I also noticed that no one else noticed when I was reading the reviews.
Racist Imagery, benign or not, conscious or not, sticks in my mind. I guess too much Public Enemy and Brand Nubian and Malcolm X as a youth. *shrugs* *adjusts kufi*
It's the long book (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), where I was like - the whole cast is white, and it's England, but you have 1 black character and torture him over slavery? Hmm.
Any time white authors involve Black/African characters, my Farrakhan Sense perks up. No Latinos? No "Chinamen"? No Ay-rabs? No gypsys? No Red Dots or Feathers? But you manage to fit a Black person into your story....hmmmmmm
Racist Imagery, benign or not, conscious or not, sticks in my mind. I guess too much Public Enemy and Brand Nubian and Malcolm X as a youth. *shrugs* *adjusts kufi*
It's the long book (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), where I was like - the whole cast is white, and it's England, but you have 1 black character and torture him over slavery? Hmm.
Any time white authors involve Black/African characters, my Farrakhan Sense perks up. No Latinos? No "Chinamen"? No Ay-rabs? No gypsys? No Red Dots or Feathers? But you manage to fit a Black person into your story....hmmmmmm
Yeah, if this was, say, Butler or Jemisin trying to get this shyt off, I'd be much more inclined to not question it for obvious reasons.
But I think you have to inherently give the side-eye to anybody who doesn't look like *us* attempting to shoehorn this in their story
.
I'm very mindful of our perception in media the older I get, I think. I'm not as quick to accept "well, they're just displaying the times" and other rhetoric like that if it comes off a certain way.
Piranesi was a quick read for me too---I finished it in a cpl days---and the main thing that got me about that part in particular is that up until then, I was certain it was a white man once I heard his name and all of the talk of England, etc.
Matthew....Rose....Sorenson doesn't scream Ghanaian to me and so it did make me question what exactly was the point there unless you just called yourself shoehorning an Easter egg at the last minute on some "hey, look how I creatively drew a parallel to the Atlantic slave trade with this man stuck in proverbial shackles who's been broken almost beyond repair".
And I think we can assume that the main audience of this novel was probably people who don't look like us so they were inclined to not even blink twice at it. A good deal didn't even enjoy it and that's an entirely different can of worms to unpack.
It's "funny" too b/c it's literally the only time that she mentioned his ancestry and it's such a strange inclusion if you're not going to take it all the way there.
If anything, for Piranesi alone (and not her other work), I think that might have been her "round up to a $1 donation" of the year if you will---and it probably made her feel good inside.
But I think you have to inherently give the side-eye to anybody who doesn't look like *us* attempting to shoehorn this in their story
I'm very mindful of our perception in media the older I get, I think. I'm not as quick to accept "well, they're just displaying the times" and other rhetoric like that if it comes off a certain way.
Piranesi was a quick read for me too---I finished it in a cpl days---and the main thing that got me about that part in particular is that up until then, I was certain it was a white man once I heard his name and all of the talk of England, etc.
Matthew....Rose....Sorenson doesn't scream Ghanaian to me and so it did make me question what exactly was the point there unless you just called yourself shoehorning an Easter egg at the last minute on some "hey, look how I creatively drew a parallel to the Atlantic slave trade with this man stuck in proverbial shackles who's been broken almost beyond repair".
And I think we can assume that the main audience of this novel was probably people who don't look like us so they were inclined to not even blink twice at it. A good deal didn't even enjoy it and that's an entirely different can of worms to unpack.
It's "funny" too b/c it's literally the only time that she mentioned his ancestry and it's such a strange inclusion if you're not going to take it all the way there.
If anything, for Piranesi alone (and not her other work), I think that might have been her "round up to a $1 donation" of the year if you will---and it probably made her feel good inside.
Low-key, the more I talk about it, the more that I get pissed/antagonized
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Just started this one.
I'm halfway through the 2nd Sun Eater series book Howling Dark and just finished Chapter 43....
Hadrian in for some shyt. Those visions he received from the Brethren were crazy.
I'm halfway through the 2nd Sun Eater series book Howling Dark and just finished Chapter 43....
Hadrian in for some shyt. Those visions he received from the Brethren were crazy.
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