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Between the World and Me
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Between the World and Me
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Between the World and Me
Audiobook3 hours

Between the World and Me

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER | NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER | PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST | NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST | NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly

Hailed by Toni Morrison as "required reading," a bold and personal literary exploration of America's racial history by "the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States" (The New York Observer)


"This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it."

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men-bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates's attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son-and readers-the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children's lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Praise for Between the World and Me

"I've been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates. The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates's journey, is visceral, eloquent, and beautifully redemptive. And its examination of the hazards and hopes of black male life is as profound as it is revelatory."-Toni Morrison

"Powerful and passionate . . . profoundly moving . . . a searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today."-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Really powerful and emotional."-John Legend, The Wall Street Journal

"Extraordinary."-David Remnick, The New Yorker

"Brilliant . . . a mature writer entirely consumed by a momentous subject and working at the extreme of his considerable powers."-The Washington Post

"An eloquent blend of history, reportage, and memoir."-The Boston Globe

"[Coates] speaks resolutely and vividly to all of black America."-Los Angeles Times

"A work that's both titanic and timely . . . the latest essential reading in America's social canon."-Entertainment Weekly

Editor's Note

Powerful & necessary…

In this book addressed to his teenage son, Coates handles the tragedy of America’s history of racism and the most recent displays of police violence with a poetry and an honesty that make the book impossible to put down.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 14, 2015
ISBN9780147520500
Unavailable
Between the World and Me

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Reviews for Between the World and Me

Rating: 4.4527447057366905 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

2,423 ratings242 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I know there is racism in America. It's clear from watching the news. However, I don't know how it feels to be black and grow up in America. This book gave me incredible insight to how that might feel and the fear of just living your life. The tender approach of the author through letters to his son and the raw, brutal truths he shares through his own experiences and observations was more thought provoking than anything I've read. It is personal. It is sad. It's an amazing read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So important. Required reading. Thoughts that help me be more authentic as I struggle to stay woke.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Written in the form of a letter to his young son, explaining what it is to be black in America. The legacy of slavery that has never ended, that continues on in the hearts and minds of all of us. Eloquent. Heartbreaking. Will this ever end? It seems even worse now, in the time of Trump. But even without Trump, it would be alive and well, this racism.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book ¨ broke my heart ¨. A father cannot console his child, cannot reassure his son that there will be a place in American society where racism is not a daily burden.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Everyone's saying "required modern reading," and I cannot disagree. It's like 150 little pages. Read it. And read it with a pen in your hand. This is a book to converse with, not just read straight through. I read most of it on my back patio, and also found it helpful to have a phone nearby for looking up the references and allusions he makes. I'm ashamed not to know many of the black historical figures he mentions, but now at least I'll recognize the names if I see them again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    But all our phrasing—race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy—serves to obscure that racism is a visceral experience, that it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth. You must never look away from this. You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regressions all land, with great violence, upon the body.

    Rounded up in terms of stars and likely nostalgic for the outrage of my youth. Was anyone else self-aware last week when watching another crocodile of schoolchildren walking out with their hands up? Anyone else feel impotent or, worse, fear that this is what we deserve? I live in a metropolitan area with an abnormally high murder rate. Local newscasters with a sparkle in their eye show yellow tape and flashing lights, mugshots of (mostly) black men in orange jumpsuits.

    Neither despair nor outrage is the exclusive property of either extreme of a political spectrum. Each is manifest in every human heart. The fact that ostensibly is a letter the author pens to his son is intriguing but not novel. I'd love to hear what Coates and Wendell Berry together have to say about the local provenance of prosperity, justice or pride.

    I found much of Baldwin in this memoir. The elevation of the library over the classroom. The stressing of corporeality. The acknowledgement like brother Malcolm that most of us are cursed with our own blinders.

    There was a poetic tide of Coates' ruminations. It isn't hopeful. I'm finding an increasing difficulty with such myself.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Written to his son, a memoir, eloquent, an unflinching examination of the brutality of life, and an exaltation of the struggle to comprehend it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Summary: In this open letter to his son, Coates discusses how black people in the US have lost their bodies – first to slavery and now to statistically disproportionate murder, imprisonment, and threats.My Thoughts: This was a short work, but a powerful one. Coates makes the point that “race” is a false way of categorizing humans and that people who view themselves as “white” in the US have built their empire with the blood of people they view as “black.” It is a very personal account of how Coates feels that he and his friends have lost their bodies to this empire. I think it was the personal nature of his letter, combined with intelligent points, that has made this work touch the hearts of so many Americans. This is a must-read for everyone, no matter their race.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I worry that part of the reason this has been so widely read is because it's so short. It's depressing and blunt but the focus on black bodies and the crimes committed against them creates a fresh urgency. Essentially a letter from a father to a son this is undeniably affecting and fairly essential.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Essential reading- though written as a series of letter/essays aimed at his 15 year old son, BtWaM is important for standing in the shoes and understanding the Black experience in the United States, a perspective necessary for comprehending current events (especially if unfamiliar to you- I've had chats about anthem protests with people who genuinely seem to think it's bad because 'you shouldn't protest on the clock in a private job' without seeing the bigger picture).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The entire book is quotable. Heavy, pithy, and full of emotion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Strong and certainly passionate. But I wished for a few more glimpses of optimism on this epistle to his son. Then again, I haven't lived his experiences... Certainly a very valuable and thought-provoking perspective. I'm going to be processing this one for quite sometime.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was floored by this. Read it in one sitting. Coates' writing totally enveloped me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The audiobook of Between the World and Me, read by the author, is the perfect length for a drive from Fresno to Sacramento. My grandma and I listened to it on our winter trip. The book is about race. Specifically about how racism is (still) a pervasive problem in our society, and Coates has lost a lot of hope about that ever changing. But at least he's talking about it. It's a challenging conversation for white people to have, and I'm appreciative of Coates' thoughts. For me, this book has been in my mind for the past few weeks, and it's already shaping my interactions with the world. I hope it reaches a wide audience and shapes our society for the better.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    incredible and damning
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    'Between the World and Me' is a magnificent book, an eye-opening read about what it means to be black in today's America, and an erudite examination of the legacy of slavery. Ta-Nehisi Coates proves his mastery of the craft of writing - not a single word here is misplaced or employed without reason, and the result is a text of Biblical precision. Required reading for anybody who is interested in race in the modern world; required reading also for anybody interested in the craft of writing, as this is really as good as it gets.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was not written for me, or other people that society sees (or who see themselves) as white. This is a letter from a black man in the US to a black son in the US. It is full of harsh truths that a lot of people who aren’t black don’t want to read. It doesn’t end on some false note of hope. It’s one man’s truth that he is choosing to share with another person, a man who is generous enough to allow the rest of us a chance to read it.

    Racism is part of the history of the US, but it is also a part of the present in the US. A big part. It’s present in the neighborhoods that are segregated, the neighborhoods that are gentrifying. It’s present in our criminal justice system, and our school systems. It is everywhere. Some of us, however, are at times able to pretend it isn’t present because we aren’t the ones being stopped and frisked, or shot when seeking help after a car accident, or strangled when selling cigarettes.

    I don’t think a review of this book – especially by someone who the book is not for – is really appropriate. I think the best I can do is suggest that everyone read it. Then read it again.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the single most powerful thing I have ever read in my life. It is nonfiction as art. Ta-Nehisi Coates does not write prose, he sculpts it. This book reached inside of me and communicated directly with my heart.I am far too humbled by this gift which he has bestowed upon us by laying his soul bare and unprotected before the world to even begin to review this properly. Please read this.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Last night, I attended a lecture at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. The speaker? Ta-Nehisi Coates.

    What we need in this country is an honest conversation, and Between the World and Me is a great stopping point along the way. It is a book that needs to be read slowly and thoughtfully, and more than once.

    It is a book filled with raw truth, a truth that is highly unpopular in certain circles.

    "Race is the child of racism, not the father."

    "It is so easy to look away, to live with the fruits of our history and to ignore the great evil done in all of our names."

    "If the streets shackled by right leg, the schools shackled my left."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is one very special book. Ostensibly, a sort of "letter" from the black American author to his son, this is -- well, this is so much more -- it's easy to lose track of its foundation. Very early on, in reading it, there was so much drive and speed to its narrative, I was very much reminded of poetry slams. And there is a great deal of poetry in the prose phrasing. The words and their meaning pelt the reader like hail. Whether, the presentation changes or I just dressed better for the weather, I was eventually better able to go with the flow. Having read a great deal already -- as a white man -- about the black experience, the book did not "inform" me of very much new. What it did do is let me "feel" the experience a bit more vividly and intimately than before, while knowing full well that a white person in America can never quite reach that "in the marrow" embodiment of being cast permanently into another life. I know I'm floundering with this review. It's partly why I downgraded my rating a notch. The book needs to be read more than once, perhaps many times. And I'm not at all sure I'm up to the task of absorbing it fully even when I do read it again, so it may never have the full impact on me that it would have on another more in line with the author's experiences. I will end by adding two points: (1) the book has been compared often to James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. Other than a couple obvious similarities, this book is really nothing like that book. Not apples to oranges. Apples to potatoes. (2) Much has been made of the author's lack of deity belief. Even the author brings it up from time to time, but more as though he's wondering out loud if what he is saying would be very different if he was "devout" in a religion. I personally did not see what he had to say affected one way or another by his religious stance, or lack there of. My apologies for this train wreck of a review. Please chalk it up to a bit of post-traumatic literary experience.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Extremely good. I balk at the comparisons to Baldwin because there is only one James Baldwin, but I think both he and Malcolm would have loved this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ta-Nehisi Coates is angry.

    But anger fuels understanding and rare teaching moments. Here, in Between the World and Me, Coates is writing to his son, holding him accountable for learning his history, helping him to navigate a world still making fatal decisions based on race: a world threatening the African-American body.

    Between the World and Me is essential reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Incisive, eloquent, and indispensable
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A compact, powerful message that must be read, broadcast, and the lessons heavily applied to the world. Read. This. Book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As far as the content goes, Coates is preaching to my choir -- I found myself nodding a lot, but was seldom surprised. But it was fascinating to hear about life at Howard, and I was particularly moved by the author's experiences in Paris.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The audiobook is wonderfully compelling.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is very enlightening to me as a white person. I think, personally, that it is terrible that black people feel the way that he feels. It must be such a burden and heartache to be made to feel that you are not worth anything, no matter how you live.I know that a lot of races have gone through this, but this author so places his race as the main race that will never overcome the stigma.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Between the World and Me is a short read, but it packs a punch. It's one of those books that takes you out of yourself and lets you walk in someone else's shoes, like opening a door into another person's lived experience. When it was over, I felt like I had gained a much deeper, more personal understanding of the current discourse surrounding racial issues in the United States. Powerfully written and evocative, this book is a must-read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Speechless.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A brilliant manifesto, written with such grace and style. Eye opening.