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We Are Taking Only What We Need: Stories
In these powerfully rendered, prizewinning stories, working-class African Americans across the South strive for meaning and search for direction in lives shaped by forces beyond their control
The ten stories in this resonant collection deal with both the ties that bind and the gulf that separates generations, from children confronting the fallibility of their own parents for the first time to adults finding themselves forced to start over again and again.
In “Highway 18” a young Jehovah’s Witness going door to door with an expert field-service partner from up north is at a crossroads: will she go to college or continue to serve the church? “If You Hit Randall County, You’ve Gone Too Far” tells of a family trying to make it through a tense celebratory dinner for a son just out on bail. And in the collection’s title story, a young girl experiences loss for the first time in the fallout from her father’s relationship with her babysitter.
Startling, intimate, and prescient on their own, these stories build to a kaleidoscopic understanding of both the individual and the collective black experience over the last fifty years in the American South. With We Are Taking Only What We Need, Stephanie Powell Watts has crafted an incredibly assured and emotionally affecting meditation on everything from the large institutional forces to the small interpersonal moments that impress upon us and direct our lives.
231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2011
43 people are currently reading
1599 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Powell Watts
6 books256 followersStephanie Powell Watts won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for her debut story collection, We Are Taking Only What We Need (2012), also named one of 2013’s Best Summer Reads by O: The Oprah Magazine. Her short fiction has been included in two volumes of the Best New Stories from the South anthology and honored with a Pushcart Prize. Ms. Powell Watts’s stories explore the lives of African Americans in fast food and factory jobs, working door to door as Jehovah’s Witness ministers, and pressing against the boundaries of the small town, post-integration South. Her forthcoming debut novel, titled No One Is Coming to Save Us, follows the return of a successful native son to his home in North Carolina and his attempt to join the only family he ever wanted but never had. As Ms. Powell Watts describes it, “Imagine The Great Gatsby set in rural North Carolina, nine decades later, with desperate black people.” Born in the foothills of North Carolina, with a PhD from the University of Missouri and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she now lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where she is an associate professor at Lehigh University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
November 25, 2012
My thoughts:
• I am not a big fan of short stories but have been learning how to appreciate a good short story collection and for me this works best if I read one short story per day until I finish the collection. This way I get a chance to reflect on each story and ponder on the author’s writing style.
• I was interested in reading this collection not only because it won the Ernest J Gaines Award for Literary Excellence but also because the stories were set in rural NC towns and was interested in reading stories that would reflect African American black sensibilities of living in the rural south.
• This is a collection of gritty stories written in an unsentimental manner communicating the intimate emotions of life in rural North Carolina for African American women. The stories that expressed the lives of Jehovah Witnesses in a rural setting were the most poignant for me.
• Great sense of place and time. “My writing has always been about trying to give voice to individuals who aren’t heard in our culture: the poor, African-American dirt-roaders that are my people,” Watts said. “In that sense, this award isn’t just for me, but for the communities I came from. I’m proud of that -- and I’m proud of them. Literature belongs to everyone.” This is a quote from the author and she definitely achieved her goal in this collection.
• I do not expect to like all of the stories in a collection equally but got a little concerned as the first story was my least favorite but by the end of the second story – I settled into the author’s elegant writing style and was captivated by the characters she so carefully constructed and place me within their world.
• Stephanie Powell Watts is definitely an author to watch as she writes of a people who are often not the main subject in southern literature – African American women in the current times of the rural south as they maneuver through their place in this world.
• I am not a big fan of short stories but have been learning how to appreciate a good short story collection and for me this works best if I read one short story per day until I finish the collection. This way I get a chance to reflect on each story and ponder on the author’s writing style.
• I was interested in reading this collection not only because it won the Ernest J Gaines Award for Literary Excellence but also because the stories were set in rural NC towns and was interested in reading stories that would reflect African American black sensibilities of living in the rural south.
• This is a collection of gritty stories written in an unsentimental manner communicating the intimate emotions of life in rural North Carolina for African American women. The stories that expressed the lives of Jehovah Witnesses in a rural setting were the most poignant for me.
• Great sense of place and time. “My writing has always been about trying to give voice to individuals who aren’t heard in our culture: the poor, African-American dirt-roaders that are my people,” Watts said. “In that sense, this award isn’t just for me, but for the communities I came from. I’m proud of that -- and I’m proud of them. Literature belongs to everyone.” This is a quote from the author and she definitely achieved her goal in this collection.
• I do not expect to like all of the stories in a collection equally but got a little concerned as the first story was my least favorite but by the end of the second story – I settled into the author’s elegant writing style and was captivated by the characters she so carefully constructed and place me within their world.
• Stephanie Powell Watts is definitely an author to watch as she writes of a people who are often not the main subject in southern literature – African American women in the current times of the rural south as they maneuver through their place in this world.
August 3, 2018
Another Levar Burton Reads Podcast offering.
Meh. There didn’t seem to be a point to this one. Slice of life maybe? Didn’t do it for me at all. 2 stars.
Meh. There didn’t seem to be a point to this one. Slice of life maybe? Didn’t do it for me at all. 2 stars.
February 13, 2021
I don't think I was ready for these stories during this pandemic. I found most of these stories incredibly deep and quietly depressing.
February 4, 2013
We Are Taking Only What We Need, a collection of stories by Stephanie Powell Watts, has a thread running through it that goes something like this: an African-American, intelligent, observant, depressed dirt-road country girl in North Carolina struggles every day, in every situation, to make sense of her feelings, her relatives, and her lack of a clear future, whether it involves a man, a job, or God.
In the best story, “There Can Never Be Another Me,” that girl is pushed aside by an older man’s continuing attraction to the wife he’s always leaving. The wife he’s always leaving, of course, is the basic girl grown older, angrier, and still as confused as ever about why men are necessary, or so damned persistent.
Watts’ setting, character and themes make me think of a white female writer who grew up in Georgia: Flannery O’Connor. What Watts lacks that O’Connor possessed, it seems to me, is a tight, explosive sense of story wrapped up in the fundamentally tragicomic wickedness of people--their vanity and greed above all.
Some of these stories are so socially fuzzy (who is related to whom? who is sleeping with whom?) that it’s a challenge for the reader to keep the narrative straight. Others are richer in the middle than in the end, when the fundamental girl just has to give up and yield to uncertainty.
The collection has several strengths: a consistent, well-controlled prose style full of vivid details; a great instinct for titles (“If You Hit Randolph County, You’ve Gone Too Far;” “Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards”); and a commitment to bringing the South’s backwoods African-American trailer-folk to the fore. Here we have prison visits, mental institution visits, and painfully accurate portrayals of people who fear they have passed the entire day not being seen.
In the best story, “There Can Never Be Another Me,” that girl is pushed aside by an older man’s continuing attraction to the wife he’s always leaving. The wife he’s always leaving, of course, is the basic girl grown older, angrier, and still as confused as ever about why men are necessary, or so damned persistent.
Watts’ setting, character and themes make me think of a white female writer who grew up in Georgia: Flannery O’Connor. What Watts lacks that O’Connor possessed, it seems to me, is a tight, explosive sense of story wrapped up in the fundamentally tragicomic wickedness of people--their vanity and greed above all.
Some of these stories are so socially fuzzy (who is related to whom? who is sleeping with whom?) that it’s a challenge for the reader to keep the narrative straight. Others are richer in the middle than in the end, when the fundamental girl just has to give up and yield to uncertainty.
The collection has several strengths: a consistent, well-controlled prose style full of vivid details; a great instinct for titles (“If You Hit Randolph County, You’ve Gone Too Far;” “Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards”); and a commitment to bringing the South’s backwoods African-American trailer-folk to the fore. Here we have prison visits, mental institution visits, and painfully accurate portrayals of people who fear they have passed the entire day not being seen.
June 12, 2020
I was sent this book for free from the publisher. I was not paid to review this book. The following is my honest review.
I had been wanting to read more collections of stories. Although this is one of Ecco Book’s backlisted works, after learning that Stephanie Powell Watts won the Ernest J. Gaines award for Literary Excellence for We Are Taking Only What We Need, I was excited when the folks over at Ecco Books offered to send it to me for free. Ecco Books has a series called The Art of the Story that features short fiction from many acclaimed authors.
Although I loved the ubiquitous theme of each of these short form stories that tackles the “everyday” experiences of these Black American characters in the South, I found a few of the stories lackluster & without conclusion. I am not at all opposed to stories detailing the mundanities of humanity and the ordinary; the stories of the regular everyday people we could know, but I feel there can be a technique of writing, in terms of this, that can captivate the reader. I started to zone out on a few of them.
I enjoyed journaling my feelings about the stories that I did relish. As a Black woman I was able to find a connective thread, in a few of them, that reminded me of so many instances from my childhood. Some of my favorite stories in this collection are ‘Family Museum of the Ancient Postcard’, ‘Unassigned Territory’, ‘Welcome to the City of Dreams’ and ‘Highway 18’.
Family Museum of the Ancient Postcard
This is such a generational story being told from the memory of a woman who stayed with her Aunt Ginny in the house on Mills Road when she was fourteen years old. Aunt Ginny is sassy, spirited and brutally honest. Most Black people can probably recall or presently have their own Aunt Ginny. She is ever present & wise. Her relationship with her “old man”, Uncle Gerald, is volatile, but she holds tight to him because that’s what Black women did way back when despite the trauma from being mistreated. Thank God we’re evolving.
p.5 “Aunt Ginny tried; you have to give her that. We saw her trying, felt her stretching for something good. We knew that what she wanted was that glad day when the life with Gerald that she knew was just around the corner finally materialized, poof, in a cloud of sorcerer’s smoke.”
This also made me reflect on how high the tolerance of black women has been, historically, when it comes to relationships. There is an overarching idea that black women are “strong” so inadvertently less respect and protection has been given and I find this still rings true in our current climate. Aunt Ginny is a familiar cultural figure & staple of the black family unit. What I loved most about this story was how vividly her house on Mills Road was written.
My great grandmother’s home was filled with relics of a time past; filled with the littlest things, smells & textures that told stories to pass down through generations.
Highway 18 & Unassigned Territory are both stories centered around Jehovah’s Witnessing. I remember members of this faith knocking on my door as a young girl and handing me a Watchtower magazine. Highway 18 was the favorite of these two. It deals with contending to staying true to the parameters of one’s beliefs or having experiences that are considered outside the boundaries of it. I’ve personally been through this.
——
Each of these stories are resonant & relatable to many Black people. What I found compelling is that Watts constructed each story to give the reader a sequence of emotions, feelings & circumstances that are written as a COLLECTIVE Black experience but really they’re all INDIVIDUAL. To expound on this, as much as I enjoyed a few of the stories, I am worn of reading about the “struggle” of black life both from personal, systemic & institutional perspectives consistently; although IMPERATIVE to be clear. The Black experience in America is unique but there are so many layers aside from the pain. I would really love a collection of happy black short form stories - love, career, travel, friendship, positive growth. I unfortunately wouldn’t highly recommend this collection. I found it satisfactory.
I had been wanting to read more collections of stories. Although this is one of Ecco Book’s backlisted works, after learning that Stephanie Powell Watts won the Ernest J. Gaines award for Literary Excellence for We Are Taking Only What We Need, I was excited when the folks over at Ecco Books offered to send it to me for free. Ecco Books has a series called The Art of the Story that features short fiction from many acclaimed authors.
Although I loved the ubiquitous theme of each of these short form stories that tackles the “everyday” experiences of these Black American characters in the South, I found a few of the stories lackluster & without conclusion. I am not at all opposed to stories detailing the mundanities of humanity and the ordinary; the stories of the regular everyday people we could know, but I feel there can be a technique of writing, in terms of this, that can captivate the reader. I started to zone out on a few of them.
I enjoyed journaling my feelings about the stories that I did relish. As a Black woman I was able to find a connective thread, in a few of them, that reminded me of so many instances from my childhood. Some of my favorite stories in this collection are ‘Family Museum of the Ancient Postcard’, ‘Unassigned Territory’, ‘Welcome to the City of Dreams’ and ‘Highway 18’.
Family Museum of the Ancient Postcard
This is such a generational story being told from the memory of a woman who stayed with her Aunt Ginny in the house on Mills Road when she was fourteen years old. Aunt Ginny is sassy, spirited and brutally honest. Most Black people can probably recall or presently have their own Aunt Ginny. She is ever present & wise. Her relationship with her “old man”, Uncle Gerald, is volatile, but she holds tight to him because that’s what Black women did way back when despite the trauma from being mistreated. Thank God we’re evolving.
p.5 “Aunt Ginny tried; you have to give her that. We saw her trying, felt her stretching for something good. We knew that what she wanted was that glad day when the life with Gerald that she knew was just around the corner finally materialized, poof, in a cloud of sorcerer’s smoke.”
This also made me reflect on how high the tolerance of black women has been, historically, when it comes to relationships. There is an overarching idea that black women are “strong” so inadvertently less respect and protection has been given and I find this still rings true in our current climate. Aunt Ginny is a familiar cultural figure & staple of the black family unit. What I loved most about this story was how vividly her house on Mills Road was written.
My great grandmother’s home was filled with relics of a time past; filled with the littlest things, smells & textures that told stories to pass down through generations.
Highway 18 & Unassigned Territory are both stories centered around Jehovah’s Witnessing. I remember members of this faith knocking on my door as a young girl and handing me a Watchtower magazine. Highway 18 was the favorite of these two. It deals with contending to staying true to the parameters of one’s beliefs or having experiences that are considered outside the boundaries of it. I’ve personally been through this.
——
Each of these stories are resonant & relatable to many Black people. What I found compelling is that Watts constructed each story to give the reader a sequence of emotions, feelings & circumstances that are written as a COLLECTIVE Black experience but really they’re all INDIVIDUAL. To expound on this, as much as I enjoyed a few of the stories, I am worn of reading about the “struggle” of black life both from personal, systemic & institutional perspectives consistently; although IMPERATIVE to be clear. The Black experience in America is unique but there are so many layers aside from the pain. I would really love a collection of happy black short form stories - love, career, travel, friendship, positive growth. I unfortunately wouldn’t highly recommend this collection. I found it satisfactory.
August 2, 2012
Scranton was in for a storm. An intense one, by all reports. The skies darkened their ugly, menacing grays and blacks. The rain fell at angles in sheets while trees bent against the wind, their leaves flipping up and down flashing shades of dark then light green.
Then, as soon as it began, it was over. There were no tornadoes. No fallen trees. The power hadn't even gone out. Just flickered a few times like a hiccup. The ravaging storm that the weathermen had predicted turned into a temper tantrum. It came close, but fell just a bit short.
Out I ventured. After learning of the planned open mic cancellation, I made my way to the Radisson hotel where author Stephanie Powell Watts was to read for a Pages and Places event. One Jack-and-Coke, a comfortable chair, and a few moments later, Watts took her place at the podium.
Watts read the first in her debut collection of short stories We Are Taking Only What We Need titled "Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards". Despite the chilly room and the minor microphone problems, Watts managed to engage the crowd with a great reading. Afterwards, she spoke a bit about her writing process and the completion of the collection.
Watts takes time to develop her stories and the characters within. She commented, during her reading, that "Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards", a 23-page story, took almost three years to finalize. Her process of writing is slow, by her accounts, and it's reflected within these stories in a good way. There's thought here. There's a carefully crafted image.
Southern writer. It's a title, as Watts explains, she tries not to think about while writing. It is a title for publishers, librarians, and people like me to use when describing her work. Southern writer is a title that fits, but only superficially. Her writing goes beyond the borders of the Mason-Dixon line.
This debut collection was a PEN Hemingway Award finalist and contains the short "Unassigned Territory" which won the Pushcart Prize. Many of the stories have been featured in well-known short story anthologies. And it's no wonder why.
The stories contained within We Are Taking Only What We Need focus on a rural setting that is most certainly intimately familiar to Watts. Criss-crossing, dusty back roads dotted by houses every few miles. The hardened lives and the people who live them. These stories focus on the lost and found. Not material, but mental and emotional.
Like the storm that threatened Scranton, though, there are a few things that make We Are Taking Only What We Need fall just short of what it could have been. However, I don't believe it's much of Watts's fault as it is poor editing.
Throughout the book there are errors. Glaringly obvious errors that should have never made it past an editor. Anyone who reads knows that an awkward phrase, misspelled word, or errant punctuation can completely pull you from a story. I know it does for me. It's a shame that, because of a lackluster editor, an author's work should suffer, but it does.
I also feel that a truly good editor, or publisher, would have ordered the stories differently. This, I noticed, with the first two shorts. Both began with a character just being released from jail. It's not a bad thing to start multiple stories in a similar fashion or with similar events, but to place them one after the other in such a small collection of shorts becomes detrimental, in my opinion. It can make the writing seem redundant even when it's not the case.
Maybe it's just me, but I seem to be finding slack editing in contemporary publications more and more. Maybe it's a sign of the times. Whatever it is, I hope it stops. I hope editors begin taking their jobs seriously and realizing just how important they are when it comes to a final product.
Despite the editing problems, We Are Taking Only What We Need is an incredible read. Watts writes with beautiful description. I can see the snaking dirt roads and taste the dust. I can feel these characters' emotions. The tension and moments of clarity. Watts has a tendency, in these stories, to bring you from a wide, breathtaking view of your surroundings and focus you in tighter and tighter until the very end where she opens the chest of her characters and lets their entire being pour out.
Pick it up and read it. My hopes, for this particular collection, are for better editing in a second printing. Fix the errors. Order the stories a bit better. But, until then, you'll have to read this version. And it's worth it.
Then, as soon as it began, it was over. There were no tornadoes. No fallen trees. The power hadn't even gone out. Just flickered a few times like a hiccup. The ravaging storm that the weathermen had predicted turned into a temper tantrum. It came close, but fell just a bit short.
Out I ventured. After learning of the planned open mic cancellation, I made my way to the Radisson hotel where author Stephanie Powell Watts was to read for a Pages and Places event. One Jack-and-Coke, a comfortable chair, and a few moments later, Watts took her place at the podium.
Watts read the first in her debut collection of short stories We Are Taking Only What We Need titled "Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards". Despite the chilly room and the minor microphone problems, Watts managed to engage the crowd with a great reading. Afterwards, she spoke a bit about her writing process and the completion of the collection.
Watts takes time to develop her stories and the characters within. She commented, during her reading, that "Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards", a 23-page story, took almost three years to finalize. Her process of writing is slow, by her accounts, and it's reflected within these stories in a good way. There's thought here. There's a carefully crafted image.
Southern writer. It's a title, as Watts explains, she tries not to think about while writing. It is a title for publishers, librarians, and people like me to use when describing her work. Southern writer is a title that fits, but only superficially. Her writing goes beyond the borders of the Mason-Dixon line.
This debut collection was a PEN Hemingway Award finalist and contains the short "Unassigned Territory" which won the Pushcart Prize. Many of the stories have been featured in well-known short story anthologies. And it's no wonder why.
The stories contained within We Are Taking Only What We Need focus on a rural setting that is most certainly intimately familiar to Watts. Criss-crossing, dusty back roads dotted by houses every few miles. The hardened lives and the people who live them. These stories focus on the lost and found. Not material, but mental and emotional.
Like the storm that threatened Scranton, though, there are a few things that make We Are Taking Only What We Need fall just short of what it could have been. However, I don't believe it's much of Watts's fault as it is poor editing.
Throughout the book there are errors. Glaringly obvious errors that should have never made it past an editor. Anyone who reads knows that an awkward phrase, misspelled word, or errant punctuation can completely pull you from a story. I know it does for me. It's a shame that, because of a lackluster editor, an author's work should suffer, but it does.
I also feel that a truly good editor, or publisher, would have ordered the stories differently. This, I noticed, with the first two shorts. Both began with a character just being released from jail. It's not a bad thing to start multiple stories in a similar fashion or with similar events, but to place them one after the other in such a small collection of shorts becomes detrimental, in my opinion. It can make the writing seem redundant even when it's not the case.
Maybe it's just me, but I seem to be finding slack editing in contemporary publications more and more. Maybe it's a sign of the times. Whatever it is, I hope it stops. I hope editors begin taking their jobs seriously and realizing just how important they are when it comes to a final product.
Despite the editing problems, We Are Taking Only What We Need is an incredible read. Watts writes with beautiful description. I can see the snaking dirt roads and taste the dust. I can feel these characters' emotions. The tension and moments of clarity. Watts has a tendency, in these stories, to bring you from a wide, breathtaking view of your surroundings and focus you in tighter and tighter until the very end where she opens the chest of her characters and lets their entire being pour out.
Pick it up and read it. My hopes, for this particular collection, are for better editing in a second printing. Fix the errors. Order the stories a bit better. But, until then, you'll have to read this version. And it's worth it.
September 12, 2017
This book was originally published in 2011 and is being relaunched in February to take advantage of her paperback release of No One Is Coming To Save Us. A collection of ten stories that maintain a consistent thread of country southern poor Black women and their quotidian lives. Her prose is fetching yet regular and these tales are mostly entertaining. The standout for me was 'Highway 18.'In that story of a young Jehovah's Witness girl out with her seasoned partner, they encounter a lady who wants to gossip about Shelby, a known prostitute about town that the young JW had some affinity for, although she wasn't sure why after only one brief meeting and chat with her.
"I was embarrassed that Shelby was so important to me. And lately, when I catch myself thinking about her, wishing for her to appear, I am just ashamed. The same vile feeling as if someone smacked a nasty word in my direction that I pretended I didn’t hear."Stephanie Powell Watts knitted this story so exceptionally, it was coated with the unwritten and yet gives the reader a sense of completeness which is often difficult to pull off in short stories but her success here is indicative of her writing prowess. This talent comes through in all the stories but some felt incomplete and shallow. All in all, I would recommend it for those who like short stories and have an interest in the collective Black lives being led in the south. Thanks to Ecco Press and Edelweiss for an advanced ebook. The book publishes February 6, 2018
"I was embarrassed that Shelby was so important to me. And lately, when I catch myself thinking about her, wishing for her to appear, I am just ashamed. The same vile feeling as if someone smacked a nasty word in my direction that I pretended I didn’t hear."Stephanie Powell Watts knitted this story so exceptionally, it was coated with the unwritten and yet gives the reader a sense of completeness which is often difficult to pull off in short stories but her success here is indicative of her writing prowess. This talent comes through in all the stories but some felt incomplete and shallow. All in all, I would recommend it for those who like short stories and have an interest in the collective Black lives being led in the south. Thanks to Ecco Press and Edelweiss for an advanced ebook. The book publishes February 6, 2018
April 26, 2018
Stephanine Powell Watts' collection of short stories is a lovely bunch of stories following the lives of black families living in and around rural North Carolina. The stories are windows, sometimes leaving the reader feeling voyeuristic other times welcomed into the family. She writes with great success about finding belonging and trying to change routines. However, I found Powell Watts at her best writing protagonists that wanted or needed to escape their hometowns but couldn't quite figure out how. Maybe I relate to this story line more than the others but I think Watts does it with grace, accurately expressing the agony implicit in the experience. I don't know if I will walk away with any of these stories seared into my memory but it was a great little book! So easy to fall into the worlds that Watts creates and empathize with her characters! Also, great stories about black people who live in rural parts of this country!! A demographic that opinion pieces seem keen to forget about these days.
August 6, 2019
We Are Taking Only What We Need by Stephanie Powell Watts is a collection of ten stories about growing up, even while already an adult, as a Black Person in the United States South. Some of the characters will make forays North, but experiences and roots will influence their entire life experiences. One theme that illustrates this which appears in several stories is how a poignant event from the past will be triggered by a seemingly insignificant later life resulting in tears to the surprise of the character and anyone surrounding her. I use the gender-specific pronoun because these are women’s stories. Which leads me to one problem with perspective.
I am not a woman, I am not Black, and the only time I have lived in the American South was as a soldier comfortably housed and isolated on military bases. It is not the same as living in the American South. Never-the-less, these stories powerfully affected me because of another recurring theme, poverty. Several characters will struggle to pay the rent or buy food. Characters will work at low paid jobs and less desirable hours than their White counterparts. Anne will scream at Sheila, a worker in a call center dog registry as if Sheila were an animal. The economic conditions of Black characters were almost equivalent to those of Whites called Trailer Trash. The examination of poverty provides a context for stories; it is not a focused theme. Racial inequities are examined from different perspectives: Black, White, Young, Old, Parent, and Child. This examination displays the power of the stories.
After reading the first story, Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards, I stopped to consider how I would continue reading. The writing was so powerful; I knew I would read slower to appreciate the beauty of language and expression. It was time to reschedule my day. The collection is a page-turner, but the stories can be read in isolation. I am sure readers will make connections as characters in later stories appear to be related to those in earlier tales, but readers will not lose a continuing thread by reading each story as a stand-alone presentation.
I highly recommend this collection and give it five (plus) stars any scale. On different scales, pick the highest rating and add (plus). I do not usually add information about an author. Stephanie Powell Watts impressed me so much I quote this author information.
“Stephanie Powell Watts is an associate professor of English at Lehigh University and is the author of No One Is Coming to Save Us. She has won numerous awards, including a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and the Southern Women’s Wrier Award for Emerging Writer of the Year, and has been a PEN/Hemingway finalist. In 2017, No One Is Coming to Save Us was chosen by Sarah Jessica Parker as an inaugural pick for the American Library Association’s Book Club Central.” (p. 216 from eBook offered by Scribd).
It is also my practice to say something about each story. Following are a few immediate reaction thoughts because I also like the titles of the stories. They evoke thought too, but more so after reading the stories.
Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards ***** This is a great first story. It has several vignettes of family life on Sundays and at family gatherings as it illustrates coming-of-age problems for children and adults.
If You Hit Randolph County, You’ve Gone Too Far ***** Older brother Greg came home from jail. So why is he being treated like someone so important? A story of jealousies.
We Are Taking Only What We Need ***** Primarily a story of dogs and babysitters, watch out on page 72 for an admission by Tammi (the babysitter) as she makes one of the most disturbing observations I have ever read. I am a fan of upsetting stuff, but this almost caused me to include a trigger warning.
Unassigned Territory ***** If you are one of those disturbed by unannounced visits by Jehovah’s Witness missionaries, the information provided in this story will give new insights.
All the Sad Etc. ***** A visit to a relative who is a patient in a mental health facility presents a new perspective on Christmas.
Welcome to the City of Dreams ***** Moving from country life to live in the big city is not for everyone. Young people would find it most appealing, right?
Do You Remember the Summer of Love? ***** A lot of people missed the revolution of the ‘60s, one that took place most notably in California. For those who missed it, maybe a move to California could bring the images seen on television to life.
Black Power ***** Referenced above, note how Sheila reflects on her image as non-Black, at least while she is on the phone.
Highway 18 **** More perspectives on visits by a Jehovah’s witness, the death of a small town’s hooker, ad inappropriate actions at the drive-through while waiting for chicken.
There Can Never Be Another Me ***** Don had known Mae all his life. Mae and Jonnie had opened a restaurant called The Sisters, but they weren’t sisters; Jonnie was Mae’s daughter. Don was a frequent and loyal customer at the restaurant.
We Are Taking Only What We Need is brilliant. Take time to read it slowly to savor some profound observations on the lives of characters outside the novels (also known as readers).
I am not a woman, I am not Black, and the only time I have lived in the American South was as a soldier comfortably housed and isolated on military bases. It is not the same as living in the American South. Never-the-less, these stories powerfully affected me because of another recurring theme, poverty. Several characters will struggle to pay the rent or buy food. Characters will work at low paid jobs and less desirable hours than their White counterparts. Anne will scream at Sheila, a worker in a call center dog registry as if Sheila were an animal. The economic conditions of Black characters were almost equivalent to those of Whites called Trailer Trash. The examination of poverty provides a context for stories; it is not a focused theme. Racial inequities are examined from different perspectives: Black, White, Young, Old, Parent, and Child. This examination displays the power of the stories.
After reading the first story, Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards, I stopped to consider how I would continue reading. The writing was so powerful; I knew I would read slower to appreciate the beauty of language and expression. It was time to reschedule my day. The collection is a page-turner, but the stories can be read in isolation. I am sure readers will make connections as characters in later stories appear to be related to those in earlier tales, but readers will not lose a continuing thread by reading each story as a stand-alone presentation.
I highly recommend this collection and give it five (plus) stars any scale. On different scales, pick the highest rating and add (plus). I do not usually add information about an author. Stephanie Powell Watts impressed me so much I quote this author information.
“Stephanie Powell Watts is an associate professor of English at Lehigh University and is the author of No One Is Coming to Save Us. She has won numerous awards, including a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and the Southern Women’s Wrier Award for Emerging Writer of the Year, and has been a PEN/Hemingway finalist. In 2017, No One Is Coming to Save Us was chosen by Sarah Jessica Parker as an inaugural pick for the American Library Association’s Book Club Central.” (p. 216 from eBook offered by Scribd).
It is also my practice to say something about each story. Following are a few immediate reaction thoughts because I also like the titles of the stories. They evoke thought too, but more so after reading the stories.
Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards ***** This is a great first story. It has several vignettes of family life on Sundays and at family gatherings as it illustrates coming-of-age problems for children and adults.
If You Hit Randolph County, You’ve Gone Too Far ***** Older brother Greg came home from jail. So why is he being treated like someone so important? A story of jealousies.
We Are Taking Only What We Need ***** Primarily a story of dogs and babysitters, watch out on page 72 for an admission by Tammi (the babysitter) as she makes one of the most disturbing observations I have ever read. I am a fan of upsetting stuff, but this almost caused me to include a trigger warning.
Unassigned Territory ***** If you are one of those disturbed by unannounced visits by Jehovah’s Witness missionaries, the information provided in this story will give new insights.
All the Sad Etc. ***** A visit to a relative who is a patient in a mental health facility presents a new perspective on Christmas.
Welcome to the City of Dreams ***** Moving from country life to live in the big city is not for everyone. Young people would find it most appealing, right?
Do You Remember the Summer of Love? ***** A lot of people missed the revolution of the ‘60s, one that took place most notably in California. For those who missed it, maybe a move to California could bring the images seen on television to life.
Black Power ***** Referenced above, note how Sheila reflects on her image as non-Black, at least while she is on the phone.
Highway 18 **** More perspectives on visits by a Jehovah’s witness, the death of a small town’s hooker, ad inappropriate actions at the drive-through while waiting for chicken.
There Can Never Be Another Me ***** Don had known Mae all his life. Mae and Jonnie had opened a restaurant called The Sisters, but they weren’t sisters; Jonnie was Mae’s daughter. Don was a frequent and loyal customer at the restaurant.
We Are Taking Only What We Need is brilliant. Take time to read it slowly to savor some profound observations on the lives of characters outside the novels (also known as readers).
June 4, 2020
I received an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) of We Are Taking Only What We Need: Stories by Stephanie Powell Watts via Edelweiss+.
Ten stories about everyday people dealing with the intense emotions that come with death, divorce, change, betrayal, religion, and love. Nothing about any one of these stories is altogether phenomenal, but the beauty is in their simplicity. Their brutal realness.
The ones that stood out the most, at least for me, were Do You Remember the Summer of Love and Black Power.
The former is about a woman whose recently left her husband, after discovering he's been seeing (and presumably fallen in love with a man); she's struggling to figure out who she is in a world where her reality consists of a man who likely never loved her, and a life where she centered all she aaa around that love. The realization that she settled for a life, that turned out to be such a lie, has made her wonder if she can even trust herself anymore.
The dialogue she has within herself, as well as with her unwitting (and a touch creepy) companion, speaks volumes as to how difficult it can be to fix yourself once you've discovered you're broken.
The latter is much the same, only the woman in that particular story has already decided that settling is as good an option as any, given her choices; she dreams of something better being on the other side, but she hasn’t the motivation to seek it out.
Each story offers the opportunity to reflect and discuss the thought process a woman goes through when making a decision about her happiness. You get a feel for just how hopeless and trapped one can feel when life doesn't seem to be playing fair—which is often the case.
Ten stories about everyday people dealing with the intense emotions that come with death, divorce, change, betrayal, religion, and love. Nothing about any one of these stories is altogether phenomenal, but the beauty is in their simplicity. Their brutal realness.
The ones that stood out the most, at least for me, were Do You Remember the Summer of Love and Black Power.
The former is about a woman whose recently left her husband, after discovering he's been seeing (and presumably fallen in love with a man); she's struggling to figure out who she is in a world where her reality consists of a man who likely never loved her, and a life where she centered all she aaa around that love. The realization that she settled for a life, that turned out to be such a lie, has made her wonder if she can even trust herself anymore.
The dialogue she has within herself, as well as with her unwitting (and a touch creepy) companion, speaks volumes as to how difficult it can be to fix yourself once you've discovered you're broken.
The latter is much the same, only the woman in that particular story has already decided that settling is as good an option as any, given her choices; she dreams of something better being on the other side, but she hasn’t the motivation to seek it out.
Each story offers the opportunity to reflect and discuss the thought process a woman goes through when making a decision about her happiness. You get a feel for just how hopeless and trapped one can feel when life doesn't seem to be playing fair—which is often the case.
March 13, 2018
Listened via LeVar Burton Reads podcast. (#14)
Bored. That is how I felt about most of the book. I vastly prefer world-building over character studies, although I can enjoy the latter if the item is written well/interestingly. (I like words/vocabulary and semicolons!) This was average/fair writing, ostensibly taking place as a conversation between two mostly stationary characters but was really nearly entirely in the one character's head.
I also disagreed with LeVar's interpretation of the end, and thus that his commentary probably takes away from the story.
Bored. That is how I felt about most of the book. I vastly prefer world-building over character studies, although I can enjoy the latter if the item is written well/interestingly. (I like words/vocabulary and semicolons!) This was average/fair writing, ostensibly taking place as a conversation between two mostly stationary characters but was really nearly entirely in the one character's head.
I also disagreed with LeVar's interpretation of the end, and thus that his commentary probably takes away from the story.
June 13, 2019
In the short story "Unassigned Territory", Stephanie is an eighteen year old Jehovah's Witness, who is at a crossroads in her life. She travels the rural backroads of North Carolina with a partner hoping to bring new believers into her faith, but at times she faces skepticism and discrimination, as she is black in a typically white congregation. While a believer, she doesn't have the same fervor for proselytizing as her friend and wonders if she should go to college or marry young to someone from her church. An unknown future awaits this witty young woman, and you will wonder what choice she will end up making. This was episode 15 from podcast LeVar Burton Reads.
March 30, 2020
I don’t think I can speak highly enough of Stephanie Watts exceptional delivery and highly engaging content in this collection of stories. Readers should take note; this is what good writers sound like without all the mush filler modern writers put out to inflate the size of their books. Watts gets right to the point and delivers the story.
July 23, 2017
I have been reading a lot of short stories because I am in the midst of writing and submitting a lot of them. With each book I read, I read the blurbs about the authors to try and get a small sense of who they are and see how their experiences shape their writing, good or bad.
We Are Taking Only What We Need is a series of short stories about the mundane things of life: teenage angst, religion, and relationships. The stories were well-written (mostly, spelling errors aside), but I found them really lacking "oomph." It was kind of like sitting on a porch listening to someone talk about the same old problems over and over without wanting to do anything to change their situation.
I hate to give bad reviews. As a pre-published author I know how much a writer puts of him or herself into their stories. But I found myself ready to be done with this book. I am still going to read her other book "No One Is Coming To Save Us" because I want to like her writing, I really do.
We Are Taking Only What We Need is a series of short stories about the mundane things of life: teenage angst, religion, and relationships. The stories were well-written (mostly, spelling errors aside), but I found them really lacking "oomph." It was kind of like sitting on a porch listening to someone talk about the same old problems over and over without wanting to do anything to change their situation.
I hate to give bad reviews. As a pre-published author I know how much a writer puts of him or herself into their stories. But I found myself ready to be done with this book. I am still going to read her other book "No One Is Coming To Save Us" because I want to like her writing, I really do.
October 23, 2021
Heartbreakingly evocative portraits of poverty, longing, and the need to move on, told through the stories of Black women in the rural South. These are not traditional stories and will not appeal to everyone, but I felt the subtle poetry with which the author illustrate these scenes to be quite impressive in its minimalism. What you are left with as a reader are fragments of a story - a subset of characters, a painful memory, a moment of anger - Watts trusts us to have the creativity and curiosity to fill in the rest.
January 29, 2023
This is my first time reading anything from this author, and I have been introduced to her by the Olive Editions in the 2022 Short Story Collection. The author is excellent in conveying the feelings of the main characters in her stories following a train to thought, story telling style. I thinks she is spot on in conveying each story while conveying a strong sense of place. The stories that stood out to me were: Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards and Highway 18. I look forward to reading more of this author’s work, as she convey’s hope.
March 11, 2025
"I didn't see any understanding on these faces that look so much like mine."
The idea that place plays an integral role in who we are and how we navigate the world is explored with uneven results throughout these 10 stories. Physical, emotional, and spiritual space and the dynamic interplay between them all.
Occasionally compelling but mostly mundane, I only really enjoyed a few of these: "If You Hit Randolph County, You've Gone Too Far", "Unassigned Territory", "Welcome to the City of Dreams", and "Black Power"
The idea that place plays an integral role in who we are and how we navigate the world is explored with uneven results throughout these 10 stories. Physical, emotional, and spiritual space and the dynamic interplay between them all.
Occasionally compelling but mostly mundane, I only really enjoyed a few of these: "If You Hit Randolph County, You've Gone Too Far", "Unassigned Territory", "Welcome to the City of Dreams", and "Black Power"
September 6, 2017
While the story quality is a bit uneven, there's enough gems here to make it worth the read. The writing is good, the truth in the author's words are undeniable, but some of the stories meander too much or end too abruptly. The main characters of most of the short stories feel like versions of the same girl, but I liked that, it felt like a connection tying the stories together.
February 5, 2018
Latest instalment in the LeVar Burton Reads podcast series.
This is a story of a black girl who is a Jehova's Witness and is sent out to spread the words.
Now, I'm not a fan of JW or anyone else coming to my door to disturb me, but it was interesting to read about. All the strategies and logistic that goes into preaching and handing out magazines. It's a glimpse into a world I know nothing about and that's always fascinating, while at the same time being a tender portrait of a smart, young girl who will very soon have to chose between belonging to a man or being an old maid.
It's a small slice-of-life story with an ending that leaves room for more.
This is a story of a black girl who is a Jehova's Witness and is sent out to spread the words.
Now, I'm not a fan of JW or anyone else coming to my door to disturb me, but it was interesting to read about. All the strategies and logistic that goes into preaching and handing out magazines. It's a glimpse into a world I know nothing about and that's always fascinating, while at the same time being a tender portrait of a smart, young girl who will very soon have to chose between belonging to a man or being an old maid.
It's a small slice-of-life story with an ending that leaves room for more.
January 19, 2019
[ 3.5 ] Watts manages to take the supposed hum drum moments of life, the uninteresting pieces of people, and make it all captivating in some strange way. Nothing major happens in most of these stories. Just quiet revelations for the characters that we're following and that is refreshing. Each story kept me just as engaged as the last and I think the collection is very well put together as certain themes continued to pop up in each story. Watts is an excellent storyteller and I look forward to reading more of her work.
March 11, 2018
Wow. Just wow, folks. So much anguish and so much familiar in one book of shirt stories - it makes my heart ache. Watts has given us a series of tales of Black girls and women in North Carolina, mostly in the eastern side of the state. I have met these women and girls. I have seen them hurting and turning away from their own hearts, or worse (and how could it be worse?) embracing those hearts only to feel them shatter in their breasts. They took care of my children. They tried their damnedest to get through school programs that were set up to fail girls in general and them in specific. They tried to find love, but the price was so often too high.
I wept reading Watts’ stories. These are not about “strong women,” although the women in them are strong. They have to be. They’re about women who are surviving - or not. They’re about their families, which are thriving - or very much not. They’re about what happens to the children, and what happens to the brothers and lovers, the fathers and husbands. And they’re about the choices women make when they really don’t have many choices at all.
I don’t feel sorry for the women in Watts’ tales. I feel rage for them. What kind of difference could they be making in a world where we - where, to be honest, I - had not contributed to pushing them down? I was bullied on my school bus by a couple of girls like the ones in these stories. But it wasn’t until I became an adult that I understood that when my family went to the school what price those girls paid. What price Watts’ girls would have paid in the same place, same time.
I don’t have any frame of reference to understand the things that lead someone to become a devout Jehovah’s Witness. But in the white missionary women I see myself - meaning well, but so very clumsy, and unaware that we are falling, have fallen, are tripping others. Many of the stories’ protagonists share the Witness faith. It hums quietly, but didn’t stop me from loving the characters.
This is not a book of easy reads. Mental hospitals, custody disputes, suicides - this book is a trigger warning in and of itself. But if you can, I urge you to read it. Look beyond the brutal intimacy, see the structures behind, and work to disassemble them. Just because these stories are fiction doesn’t mean Watts isn’t telling the harsh truth. This is the fiction to which So You Want To Talk About Race’s true stories leads. It’s not fantasy. It’s every bit as real as the singing of the cicadas in the Carolina summer that Watts summons so effortlessly. Five of five stars.
I wept reading Watts’ stories. These are not about “strong women,” although the women in them are strong. They have to be. They’re about women who are surviving - or not. They’re about their families, which are thriving - or very much not. They’re about what happens to the children, and what happens to the brothers and lovers, the fathers and husbands. And they’re about the choices women make when they really don’t have many choices at all.
I don’t feel sorry for the women in Watts’ tales. I feel rage for them. What kind of difference could they be making in a world where we - where, to be honest, I - had not contributed to pushing them down? I was bullied on my school bus by a couple of girls like the ones in these stories. But it wasn’t until I became an adult that I understood that when my family went to the school what price those girls paid. What price Watts’ girls would have paid in the same place, same time.
I don’t have any frame of reference to understand the things that lead someone to become a devout Jehovah’s Witness. But in the white missionary women I see myself - meaning well, but so very clumsy, and unaware that we are falling, have fallen, are tripping others. Many of the stories’ protagonists share the Witness faith. It hums quietly, but didn’t stop me from loving the characters.
This is not a book of easy reads. Mental hospitals, custody disputes, suicides - this book is a trigger warning in and of itself. But if you can, I urge you to read it. Look beyond the brutal intimacy, see the structures behind, and work to disassemble them. Just because these stories are fiction doesn’t mean Watts isn’t telling the harsh truth. This is the fiction to which So You Want To Talk About Race’s true stories leads. It’s not fantasy. It’s every bit as real as the singing of the cicadas in the Carolina summer that Watts summons so effortlessly. Five of five stars.
May 28, 2018
“She convinced him that she was the way a woman should look, and anything else was a compromise”
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It’s not easily done but Stephanie Powell Watts has arguably created a dynamic space to address the black woman experience within 10 different but related stories. That document and bring light to the daily struggle of being an improvised black woman navigating through the tough terrain of family, relationships, and work life in America.
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The stories start out with an intro that made me smile but couldn’t quite prepare me for “Family Museum of The Ancient Postcards”. I honestly read the story twice, and hours later when i still didn't quite understand what was going on, i made the decision to keep reading. Which served me well because, in order to fully understand “Aunt Ginny” in that first story , I had to get to the end of the collection where I’m dancing with “Don” and “Sylvia”.
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My favorite story HANDS DOWN is “There Can Never Be Another Me” but “Black Power” , and “Welcome to the City of Dreams” empowered and reminded me that their is beauty and more poignantly Art in what maybe the world has already made their assumptions on.
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Honestly, I know these women. I’ve felt these feelings and I THANK GOD Stephanie Powell Watts has affirmed that the journey matters , my feelings are real and not alone, and furthermore I need not look outside my own narrative for an ever expansive experience where, “We Are Taking Only What We Need”.
—————------------------------
It’s not easily done but Stephanie Powell Watts has arguably created a dynamic space to address the black woman experience within 10 different but related stories. That document and bring light to the daily struggle of being an improvised black woman navigating through the tough terrain of family, relationships, and work life in America.
—————------------------------
The stories start out with an intro that made me smile but couldn’t quite prepare me for “Family Museum of The Ancient Postcards”. I honestly read the story twice, and hours later when i still didn't quite understand what was going on, i made the decision to keep reading. Which served me well because, in order to fully understand “Aunt Ginny” in that first story , I had to get to the end of the collection where I’m dancing with “Don” and “Sylvia”.
—————------------------------
My favorite story HANDS DOWN is “There Can Never Be Another Me” but “Black Power” , and “Welcome to the City of Dreams” empowered and reminded me that their is beauty and more poignantly Art in what maybe the world has already made their assumptions on.
—————————————————-
Honestly, I know these women. I’ve felt these feelings and I THANK GOD Stephanie Powell Watts has affirmed that the journey matters , my feelings are real and not alone, and furthermore I need not look outside my own narrative for an ever expansive experience where, “We Are Taking Only What We Need”.
February 21, 2018
This was a good collection, though I should learn to trust myself when my gut reaction tells me to skip something. The story "We Are Taking Only What We Need" is a punch to the gut. Anyone with triggers involving animal cruelty should avoid this story. The last story, "There Will Never Be Another Me" must have been the starting point for "No One Is Coming to Save Us," or at least a story line she liked so much that she used it again. "Highway 18" will break your heart.
April 21, 2013
A compilation of short stories by an amazing, brilliant woman with a fabulous personality. I met her and her husband Bob Watts at a Literary Lecture at Western Carolina. The stories revolve around poor, young Black children in rural North Carolina, facing adversity of one kind or another. Her descriptions of the normal daily lives of her characters are heartfelt and tragic.
December 15, 2012
What a fantastic writer and storyteller. I really wanted to give this book a higher rating but the editing here is really poor. Some books can overcome it and some cannot. Hopefully, Watts sophomore effort will correct that problem.
September 12, 2015
"these dogs don't bother to bond with us, but stuck out their paws not to shake hands but so we could slit their wrists and get it the hell over with."
April 27, 2016
whoever copy edited this book does not know where to hyphenate "y'all" and it bothered me incredibly much.
July 16, 2018
Strong characters. Amazing writing.
August 19, 2022
So so good.
"Late marriages can't take; we nodded in agreement. The old are tired, sapless and try it, be our guest, but you can't make it without hope, the antidote to despair, that the old have irretrievably lost."
"To say we had a lot in common is wrong on the face of it, but same knows same, one desperation calls out without speaking to another, and we became friends."
"If we were alone in the world and nothing would ever stand between us and the dark, at least we would not touch that sadness in ourselves."
"I didn't know it then, but the question that breaks your heart never wants an answer."
"And whatever else you can say about crazy love, it is tenacious, it must be hyperbolic to survive or cooler heads, wise people with good sense--practical sorts who never find themselves drunk, crying, and stupid in the middle of the road--all those people and their boring practical reasonableness and their this-is-the-best-way, they win. And if that happens, love never gets the chance to look you in the eyes, inches from your face, never gets to say, Let me, let me, let me."
"It is no small thing to give a person even a moment of hope."
"There are things you learn from words and gestures, the sad human mistakes of others and there are things you can only get through the bitter taste on your own smooth tongue."
"Late marriages can't take; we nodded in agreement. The old are tired, sapless and try it, be our guest, but you can't make it without hope, the antidote to despair, that the old have irretrievably lost."
"To say we had a lot in common is wrong on the face of it, but same knows same, one desperation calls out without speaking to another, and we became friends."
"If we were alone in the world and nothing would ever stand between us and the dark, at least we would not touch that sadness in ourselves."
"I didn't know it then, but the question that breaks your heart never wants an answer."
"And whatever else you can say about crazy love, it is tenacious, it must be hyperbolic to survive or cooler heads, wise people with good sense--practical sorts who never find themselves drunk, crying, and stupid in the middle of the road--all those people and their boring practical reasonableness and their this-is-the-best-way, they win. And if that happens, love never gets the chance to look you in the eyes, inches from your face, never gets to say, Let me, let me, let me."
"It is no small thing to give a person even a moment of hope."
"There are things you learn from words and gestures, the sad human mistakes of others and there are things you can only get through the bitter taste on your own smooth tongue."
March 5, 2023
The stories in this collection are about Black families in the south. The characters are often coming of age or are young, figuring out how to navigate uncomfortable family relationships and the disappointments doled out by the people closest to them. My favorite stories include "Family Museum of the Ancient Postcards" where a child's aunt tries to find love in her forties and chooses a man no one in the family can stand; "If You Hit Randolph County, You've Gone Too Far" where a woman's brother upends the family after getting arrested on a drug charge; "We Are Taking Only What We Need" where a young girl's father falls in love with a white girl and brings her home to babysit, and other stories of breakups, life as a customer service phonebank worker, being a Jehova's Witness and canvassing the neighborhood for new converts, and more. The author bring the stories to life through the voices of her characters. Reminiscent of The Secret Life of Church Ladies, we are invited in to live in the heads of the people inside the stories.
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