Navigate Your Stars
Written by Jesmyn Ward
Narrated by Jesmyn Ward
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
For Tulane University’s 2018 commencement, Jesmyn Ward delivered a stirring speech about the value of hard work and the importance of respect for oneself and others. Speaking about the challenges she and her family overcame, Ward inspired everyone in the audience with her meditation on tenacity in the face of hardship. Ward’s moving words will inspire readers as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives, whether, like Ward, they are the first in their families to graduate from college or are preceded by generations, or whether they are embarking on a different kind of journey later in life.
Beautifully illustrated in full color by Gina Triplett, this gorgeous and profound book will charm a generation of students—and their parents. Ward’s inimitable voice shines through as she shares her experience as a Southern black woman and addresses the themes of grit, adversity, and the importance of family bonds. Navigate Your Stars is a perfect gift for anyone in need of inspiration from the author of Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011). She is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and the Media for a Just Society Award. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in Mississippi.
More audiobooks from Jesmyn Ward
The Best American Short Stories 2021 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Line Bleeds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Navigate Your Stars
Related audiobooks
My Monticello: Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Toni Morrison Book Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long Division Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heavy: An American Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aftershocks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heads of the Colored People: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Citizen: An American Lyric Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How We Fight For Our Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another Brooklyn: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Doesn't Require You: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orange Mint and Honey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things I Have Withheld Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting Descent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freshwater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me (Moth): (National Book Award Finalist) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of Alice Walker’s Masterpiece Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Girl is A Body of Water Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Halsey Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesmyn Ward: Sing, Unburied, Sing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Every One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Women Writers at Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Personal Growth For You
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing The Uncommon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paris: The Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Starts with Self-Compassion: A Practical Road Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Highly Sensitive Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How to Say No Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man's Search For Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/58 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Open Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Navigate Your Stars
186 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is a beautiful reminder by Jesmyn regarding life’s beauty in arriving at your destination despite the hardships we endure.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inspirational, even for this white male who is retired. Retirement and aging well is also demanding.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely clear and direct. Great advice and informative, insightful and inspiring
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A co-worker of mine introduced me to Ms Ward. I'm so very thankful I've found her
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesmyn Ward's message inspired me, as intended, even though many moons have crossed the sky since graduation. Thank you. Be well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was great because it follows the trials and tribulations of life. Giving a grit fueled and powered perspective of life. Truly powerful.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely short story of how perseverance and the shoulders of our ancestors on which we stand , are essential in achieving your life's purpose.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesmyn keep going, you have a gift the world is waiting to receive. Excellent message.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A short but powerful book based on Ward’s 2018 commencement speech at Tulane University. It underscores the importance of both determination and family. It also offers beautiful illustrations done by Gina Triplett. I received this book as an arc in exchange for my honest review.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Navigate Your Stars, Jesmyn WardHaving read several books by this author, I eagerly looked forward to reading her latest brief, but very poignant, beautifully illustrated, inspirational book. I received an uncorrected proof which I immediately sat down and read. I was not disappointed.The prose is easy to read, her suggestions are common sense and her background is similar to mine in many ways. I am sure there are many others who will also identify with her experiences and her advice. The environment in which my family lived was hostile for religious and other reasons. Jesmyn Ward’s environment was hostile for racial and economic reasons. Her parents, like mine, encouraged her to work hard to get ahead; to do this, she, like I, was told to “go to college”. Some doors were closed to us, some remain closed today. I found it inspiring that we had so much in common, especially with regard to a philosophy of life that was imparted to us by our parents. Jesmyn gives the reader a more considered piece of advice than our parents gave us. She advises that after we work hard, we should keep working hard, we should not give up. If we don’t succeed, we should persist, have patience and keep trying. I think it is great advice from a great author!Also, I think this book can show the world that race and creed are not the roadblocks to unity that we make them. We actually might have far more in common if we stopped and truly got to know each other. In the current political environment, it is really good advice to keep on trying!