B. P. Rinehart > Recent Status Updates

The previous chapter dealt with the white American church’s (lack of) response to the Black Power Movement in 1969. The next chapter deals with the Black church response to the same.

That guy was the most center-right Goodreads user of all time lol

Second chapter down and I really want to finish this before the year is out. I love the righteous anger and love of the last chapter.

Been wanting to read Cone since at least 2008, finally getting to him now. I love his relentless style.

My first time with Komunyakaa. Some good poems, some great poems so far.

I desperately-need a creative work ethic like Kendrick Lamar.

Halfway through this final chapter and it is a harrowing catalogue of atrocities. Like Mississippi in the Middle East. Really going to have to sit with this before I review it.

Talk about a timely reminder of the book ban era. I remember following his journey to South Carolina in real time. I remember the wave of bans on teaching Black history in Central/Southwest Virginia. Well we have 4 more years at least of that to look forward to now. Anyway, now I get to read the part of this book that has people the most bent out of shape.

What a good chapter. Though I hate this book being formatted similarly to Between the World and Me, it still gets across the story of his experience in Senegal. So much to think on already and we still have 75% more of this book to read.

Finally diving into this now that pandemonium has died down some. This book seems to be Coates’ version of James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name.

Reading slump suspended, book time again. No points for guessing what book has brought me back given it is all over the news.

Two more chapter to go. This preceding chapter is the longest and most controversial of the book.

This was an interesting chapter that seems to be building to his critique of Negritude (a critique that may or may not be a bit superficial for my taste). Much of this book has been influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre, but this last chapter was the most notiably Sartrean, so far.

A lot to chew on in this chapter, but it was very insightful. Might be second favorite chapter from the book so far after the first chapter. One always wonders how much the translation is affecting how I am reading this, but I get the feeling that enough of Fanon’s personality is coming through authentically.

Fanon must of had some fun writing that chapter, and it also had some surprisingly deep insights.

This was a solid first chapter and I think I am getting the rhythm of Fanon’s style.

Happy New Year to anybody who is still following me. I haven't been on here or really anywhere online for a year and a half. Been having to take care of some things with me, but I want to try and get myself back to reading and reviewing again. As always, I make no promises that I will stick around, but I'll try. So much of this site has changed since I last visited and it has even been making the news (lol).

Beginning of autumn, about to start a new job and have no idea of what I'm trying to read. Going to try and finish A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-62, but am mostly going to be reading sequential art for now (watch me be a contrarian and begin some other book as soon as I post this).

Crawling up from the House of the dead, let's see if I can mount a comeback on here. I needed some time off from reading and just wanted to take some time to myself. I guess I have some house-cleaning to do, but I'll see if I can keep this up. I need to look back at everything I read in 2021 (I barely read anything this year) and I'll write up a summary when I get to it. But first, some Shakespeare.

Since I last updated on this book, much has passed. But to keep it short: De Gaulle's goal of a peace settlement on purely French terms fell apart because of extremists on both sides, there was a military putsch by four generals in Algeria that failed thanks to the majority of the French military outside of Algeria being completely loyal to De Gaulle, and the first round of peace talks in Evian have begun.

Haiku 345: "The sad sound of hymns / Flooding on to autumn fields / In hazy moonlight."

Alright let's try and get back into reading! I'll start by picking this book back up.

In the vain of the previous chapter, this last chapter is a character study. This chapter looked at the different groups at this stage of the war: Algerian women, children, Jews, FLN medical-care (or the lack of), and the change of leadership in the FLN with purges and leadership changes that the French never learned about until after the war. The big change was the rise to power of Houari Boumédiène.