H Is for Hawk
Helen MacDonald, 2014
Grove/Atlantic
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802123411
Summary
Winner, 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize
Winner, 2014 Costa Book of the Year and Biography Award
When Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer—Helen had been captivated by hawks since childhood—she'd never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators, the goshawk.
But in her grief, she saw that the goshawk's fierce and feral temperament mirrored her own. Resolving to purchase and raise the deadly creature as a means to cope with her loss, she adopted Mabel, and turned to the guidance of The Once and Future King author T.H. White's chronicle The Goshawk to begin her challenging endeavor. Projecting herself "in the hawk's wild mind to tame her" tested the limits of Macdonald's humanity and changed her life.
Heart-wrenching and humorous, this book is an unflinching account of bereavement and a unique look at the magnetism of an extraordinary beast, with a parallel examination of a legendary writer's eccentric falconry. Obsession, madness, memory, myth, and history combine to achieve a distinctive blend of nature writing and memoir from an outstanding literary innovator.. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1970
• Where—Chertsey, Surrey, England, UK
• Education—B.A., M. Phil., Cambridge University
• Awards—Costa Award (Best Book and Biography); Samuel Johnson Award
• Currently—lives in The Fens (Cambridgeshire), England
Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, illustrator, historian, and naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses. She also worked as a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.
She is the author of a cultural history of falcons, titled Falcon, and three collections of poetry. As a professional falconer, she assisted with the management of raptor research and conservation projects across Eurasia. Her memoir H Is for Hawk was published in 2014. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Helen Macdonald's beautiful and nearly feral first book…is so good that, at times, it hurt me to read it. It draws blood, in ways that seem curative…H Is for Hawk seems to me a small, instant classic of nature writing, expansive in ways that recall Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), and as in touch with cruelty. It has, as well, some of the winding emotional reverb of Cheryl Strayed's Wild (2012). Yet this book is very English. Ms. Macdonald's sentences, like David Bowie's teeth (pre-veneers), are appealingly crooked. Nearly every paragraph is strange, injected with unexpected meaning.
Dwight Garner - New York Times
If birds are made of air, as the nature writer Sy Montgomery says, then writing a great bird book is a little like dusting for the fingerprints of a ghost. It calls for poetry and science, conjuring and evidence. In her breathtaking new book, H Is for Hawk…Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence—and her own—with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering…Although "animal as emotional healer" is a familiar motif, Macdonald's journey clears its own path—messy, muddy and raw.
Vicki Constantine Croke - New York Times Book Reviews
To categorize this work as merely memoir, nature writing or spiritual writing would understate [Macdonald’s] achievement...her prose glows and burns.
Karin Altenberg - Wall Street Journal
[Macdonald’s] writing—about soil and weather, myth and history, pain and its slow easing—retains the qualities of [her hawk] Mabel's wild heart, and the commanding scope and piercing accuracy of her hawk's eye.
Joanna Scutts - Newsday (Long Island)
An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement.... It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways.
Guy Gavriel Kay - Washington Post
Assured, honest and raw...a soaring wonder of a book.
Daneet Steffens - Boston Globe
One of a kind...Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut.... As she descends into a wild, nearly mad connection with her hawk, her words keep powerful track.... [She] brings her observer's eye and poet's voice to the universal experience of sorrow and loss.
Barbara Brotman - Chicago Tribune
[A] singular book that combines memoir and landscape, history and falconry...it is not like anything I've ever read.... what Macdonald tells us so eloquently in her fine memoir [is] that transformation of our docile or resigned lives can be had if we only look up into the world.
Susan Straight - Los Angeles Times
What [Macdonald] has achieved is a very rare thing in literature—a completely realistic account of a human relationship with animal consciousness.... Her training of Mabel has the suspense and tension of the here and now. You are gripped by the slightest movement, by the turn of every feather. It is a soaring performance and Mabel is the star.
John Carey - Sunday Times (UK)
A dazzling piece of work: deeply affecting, utterly fascinating and blazing with love...a deeply human work shot through, like cloth of gold, with intelligence and compassion—an exemplar of the mysterious alchemy by which suffering can be transmuted into beauty. I will be surprised if a better book than H is for Hawk is published this year.
Melissa Harrison - Financial Times (UK)
More than any other writer I know, including her beloved [T.H.] White, Macdonald is able to summon the mental world of a bird of prey...she extends the boundaries of nature writing. As a naturalist she has somehow acquired her bird's laser-like visual acuity. As a writer she combines a lexicographer's pleasure in words as carefully curated objects with an inventive passion for new words or for ways of releasing fresh effects from the old stoc.... Macdonald looks set to revive the genre.
Mark Cocker - Guardian (UK)
A talon-sharp memoir that will thrill and chill you to the bone.... Macdonald has just the right blend of the scientist and the poet, of observing on the one hand and feeling on the other.
Craig Brown - Daily Mail (UK)
A well-wrought book, one part memoir, one part gorgeous evocation of the natural world and one part literary meditation...lit with flashes of grace, a grace that sweeps down to the reader to hold her wrist tight with beautiful, terrible claws. The discovery of the season.
Erica Wagner - Economist (UK)
"Had there been an award for the best new book that defies every genre, I imagine it would have won that too.... Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year.
Kathryn Schulz - New Yorker
Captivating and beautifully written, it’s a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive (Book of the Week).
People
One of the loveliest things you’ll read this year.... You’ll never see a bird overhead the same way again.
Jason Sheeler - Entertainment Weekly
In this elegant synthesis of memoir and literary sleuthing...Macdonald describes in beautiful, thoughtful prose how she comes to terms with death in new and startling ways.
Publishers Weekly
In this profoundly inquiring and wholly enrapturing memoir, Macdonald exquisitely and unforgettably entwines misery and astonishment, elegy and natural history, human and hawk. —Donna Seamen
Booklist
(Starred review.) An inspired, beautiful and absorbing account of a woman battling grief—with a goshawk.... Writing with breathless urgency...Macdonald broadens her scope well beyond herself to focus on the antagonism between people and the environment. Whether you call this a personal story or nature writing, it's poignant, thoughtful and moving—and likely to become a classic in either genre.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
2 Years 4 Months 2 Hours: From Italy to the world. A Memoir of Love and Travel
Chiara B. Townley, 2015
CreateSpace
150 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781505302752
Summary
2 years 4 months 2 hours is a memoir of love and travel.
Chiara meets Tyler in London while she's working in a hotel. For her it's love at first sight. She is from Italy and he is American. There is no time for dating because he's leaving for a trip to South America then back to the US.
What happens next is the journey of a woman that follows her heart against all odds. This true story will push you to fight more for your dreams. And if you gave up on your dreams maybe you will think about getting them back. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 8, 1984
• Where—Milan, Italy
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in San Francisco, California, USA
The story is told through different sources: the author's narrative, some letters and parts of personal diary.
Follow Chiara on Facebook.
Book Reviews
The story is not all flowers and sweet kisses—long distance breeds complications and at times the read is an emotional roller coaster. However, Chiara is persistent and courageous and pursues Tyler when perhaps others might have given up on such a relationship. This is the true, at times intensely personal story of a romantic dream that ultimately and perhaps surprisingly comes true.
Dave's Travel Corner
Below are comments excerpted from Amazon Customer Reivews:
—Amazing true story of love and courage.
—A nonstop page turner. Once you feel like you could predict the ending, a curveball keeps you intertwined with mixed emotions and hope.
—Tyler & Chiara's story is truly an inspiration and Chiara tells it with such passion and clarity that you can't help but feel like part of the story.
—Chiara and Tyler have clearly shown that love knows no boundaries.
—Chiara's willingness to follow her heart which leads her to "true love" is a beautiful journey filled with experiences around the globe.
Discussion Questions
1. Do you think that traveling is important?
2. Do you believe in dreams?
3. Do you think it's worth fighting for a dream?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson, 2015
Crown/Archetype
480 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307408860
Summary
The enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania
With his remarkable new work of nonfiction Dead Wake, Erik Larson ushers us aboard the Lusitania as it begins its tragic and final crossing. It is a timely trip, as 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
Setting sail on May 1, 1915, from New York, the Lusitania was a monument to the hubris and ingenuity of the age. It was immense and luxurious, the fastest civilian ship then in service, and carried a full roster of passengers, including a record number of infants and children.
The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though that morning a German notice had appeared in the city’s newspapers warning that travelers sailing on British ships "do so at their own risk." Though the notice didn’t name a particular vessel, it was widely interpreted as being aimed at the Lusitania. The idea that a German submarine could sink the ship struck many passengers as preposterous, a sentiment echoed in Cunard’s official response to the warning: "The truth is that the Lusitaniais the safest boat on the sea. She is too fast for any submarine. No German war vessel can get her or near her."
German U-boat captain Walther Schwieger—known to rescue dachshund puppies, but to let the crews of torpedoed ships drown—thought differently. Dead Wake switches between hunter and hunted, allowing readers to experience the crossing, and the disaster itself, as it unfolds.
Along the way, Larson paints a portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era, and brings to life a broad cast of characters, including President Woodrow Wilson, awash in grief after the loss of his wife, awakening with the blush of new love; famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat, a passenger carrying an irreplaceable literary treasure; Captain William Thomas Turner, who took the safety of his passengers very seriously, but secretly thought of them as "bloody monkeys"; and Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, whose ultra-secret spy group failed to convey crucial naval intelligence that might have saved the Lusitania and its passengers.
Like his monumental In the Garden of Beasts, the result is a captivating book that is rich in atmosphere. Thrillingly told and full of surprises, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured in the mists of history. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 3, 1954
• Where—Brooklyn, New York, USA
• Raised—Freeport (Long Island), New York
• Education—B.A., University of Pennsylvania; M.S., Columbia University
• Awards—Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, 2004
• Currently—lives in New York City and Seattle, Washington
Erik Larson is an American journalist and nonfiction author. Although he has written several books, he is particularly well-know for three: The Devil in the White City (2003), a history of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and serial killer H. H. Holmes, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and An American Family in Hitler's Berlin (2011), a portrayal of William E. Dodd, the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany, and his daughter Martha, and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (2015).
Early life
Born in Brooklyn, Larson grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. He studied Russian history at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated summa cum laude in 1976. After a year off, he attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, graduating in 1978.
Journalism
Larson's first newspaper job was with the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where he wrote about murder, witches, environmental poisons, and other "equally pleasant" things. He later became a features writer for the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine, where he is still a contributing writer. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and other publications.
Books
Larson has also written a number of books, beginning with The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities (1992), followed by Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (1995). Larson's next books were Isaac's Storm (1999), about the experiences of Isaac Cline during the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, and The Devil in the White City (2003), about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and a series of murders by H. H. Holmes that were committed in the city around the time of the Fair.
The Devil in the White City won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category. Next, Larson published Thunderstruck (2006), which intersperses the story of Hawley Harvey Crippen with that of Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of radio. His next book, In the Garden of Beasts (2011), concerns William E. Dodd, the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter. Dead Wake, published in 2015, is an account of the sinking of the Lusitania, which led to America's intervention in World War I.
Teaching and public speaking
Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State University, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon, and he has spoken to audiences from coast to coast.
Personal
Larson and his wife have three daughters. They reside in New York City, but maintain a home in Seattle, Washington. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/17/2015.)
Book Reviews
Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania..... Erik Larson is one of the modern masters of popular narrative nonfiction. In book after book, he’s proved adept at rescuing weird and wonderful gothic tales from the shadows of history. Larson is both a resourceful reporter and a subtle stylist.... Erik Larson and the sinking of the Lusitania would seem to be an ideal pairing. The mighty ocean liner was the paragon of civilization, big and fast, strong and sleek, tricked out with every kind of innovation, a White City on the high seas. And hunting it was an ever sly and furtive machine of the deep, a nautical sociopath with an unquenchable thirst for bringing down tonnage. When it comes to the story of the sociopath, the Larson magic is very much on display in Dead Wake.
Hampton Sides - New York Times Book Review
[A] riveting account of one of the most tragic events of WWI.... Larson crafts the story as historical suspense by weaving information about the war and the development of submarine technology with an interesting cast of characters.... [B]y the end, we care about the individual passengers we’ve come to know.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Using archives on both sides of the Atlantic, Larson describes the Lusitania's ominous delayed departure and its distressing reduced speed. He vividly illustrates how these foreboding factors led to terror, tragedy, and ultimately the Great War. VERDICT Once again, Larson transforms a complex event into a thrilling human interest story. —Stephanie Sendaula
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Factual and personal to a high degree, the narrative reads like a grade-A thriller.
Booklist
[Larson] has always shown a brilliant ability to unearth the telling details of a story and has the narrative chops to bring a historical moment vividly alive. But in his new book, Larson simply outdoes himself... What is most compelling about Dead Wake is that, through astonishing research, Larson gives us a strong sense of the individuals—passengers and crew—aboard the Lusitania, heightening our sense of anxiety as we realize that some of the people we have come to know will go down with the ship. A story full of ironies and "what-ifs," Dead Wake is a tour de force of narrative history (Top Pick).
BookPage
(Starred review.) Larson once again demonstrates his expert researching skills and writing abilities, this time shedding light on nagging questions about the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915.... An intriguing, entirely engrossing investigation into a legendary disaster. Compared to Greg King and Penny Wilson's Lusitania (2014)..., Larson's is the superior account.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In his Note to Readers, Erik Larson writes that before researching Dead Wake, he thought he knew "everything there was to know" about the sinking of the Lusitania, but soon realized "how wrong [he] was." What did you know about the Lusitania before reading the book? Did any of Larson’s revelations surprise you?
2. After reading Dead Wake, what was your impression of Captain Turner? Was he cautious enough? How did you react to the Admiralty’s attempts to place the blame for the Lusitania’s sinking squarely on his shoulders?
3. Erik Larson deftly weaves accounts of glamorous first-class passengers such as Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt with compelling images of middle-class families and of the ship’s crew. Whose personal story resonated the most with you?
4. Charles Lauriat went to extraordinary measures to protect his Thackeray drawings and his rare edition of A Christmas Carol, but eventually both were lost. In Lauriat’s position, which possessions would you have tried to save? Why does Larson write in such great detail about the objects people brought aboard the Lusitania?
5. Edith Galt Wilson would come to play a significant role in the White House after Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke in 1919. What made her a good match for Wilson? What other aspects of Wilson’s personal life did you find intriguing?
6. Why was Wilson so insistent on maintaining neutrality even as German U-boat attacks claimed American lives? Was his reluctance to go to war justified?
7. How did you respond to the many what-ifs that Larson raises about U.S. involvement in the Great War? Would Wilson have abandoned his isolationist stance without the Lusitania tragedy? Could Germany and Mexico have succeeded in conquering the American Southwest?
8. By attacking civilian ships, were Captain Schwieger and his U-20 crew committing acts of terrorism? Does it matter that Germany ran advertisements declaring the waters around Great Britain to be a war zone?
9. How did Captain Schwieger’s leadership style compare with that of Captain Turner? Did you feel sympathy for
Schwieger and his crew?
10. Though the British Navy was tracking U-20’s location, it didn’t alert the Lusitania, nor did it provide a military escort. Why not? Do you consider Churchill and Room 40 partly to blame for the sinking? How should countries balance the integrity of their intelligence operations with their duty to protect civilians?
11. Some have argued that Churchill deliberately chose not to protect the Lusitania in hopes that the sinking of such a prominent ship would draw the United States into the war. After reading Larson’s account, what do you think of this theory?
12. While Germany’s advertisement scared away some would-be Lusitania passengers, most placed their faith in the British Navy to protect the ship, and some laughed off the risk altogether. In their position, would you have cancelled your ticket?
13. What lessons does the sinking of the Lusitania have for us in the twenty-first century?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought
David Adam, 2015
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374223953
Summary
An intimate look at the power of intrusive thoughts, how our brains can turn against us, and living with obsessive compulsive disorder
Have you ever had a strange urge to jump from a tall building or steer your car into oncoming traffic? You are not alone. In this captivating fusion of science, history, and personal memoir, David Adam explores the weird thoughts that exist within every mind, and how they drive millions of us toward obsession and compulsion.
Adam, an editor at Nature and an accomplished science writer, has suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder for twenty years, and The Man Who Couldn’t Stop is his unflinchingly honest attempt to understand the condition and his experiences. What might lead an Ethiopian schoolgirl to eat a wall of her house, piece by piece, or a pair of brothers to die beneath an avalanche of household junk that they had compulsively hoarded?
At what point does a harmless idea, a snowflake in a clear summer sky, become a blinding blizzard of unwanted thoughts? Drawing on the latest research on the brain, as well as historical accounts of patients and their treatments, this is a book that will challenge the way you think about what is normal and what is mental illness.
Told with fierce clarity, humor, and urgent lyricism, this extraordinary book is both the haunting story of a personal nightmare and a fascinating doorway into the darkest corners of our minds. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Dr. David Adam is a writer and editor at Nature, the world’s leading scientific journal. Before that he was a specialist correspondent for The Guardian for several years, writing on science, medicine, and the environment. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Leeds University in the UK. Named feature writer of the year by the Association of British Science Writers, Adam has reported from Antarctica, the Arctic, China, and the depths of the Amazon jungle.
In 2015 Adam published The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought. The book is more than an objective study of a brain disorder. Although not a memoir, the book draws from the author's own life experiences with OCD, the first symptoms of which he experienced as a college student in 1991. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Adam's case history conveys a palpable sense of what it's like to live in a brain possessed by obsessive thoughts, but it mainly serves as the launching point for a broad-ranging odyssey across the history and science of O.C.D.… Adam is a companionable Virgil, guiding the reader through the hellish circles of the disorder, explaining scientific concepts in clear, nontechnical prose…. For sufferers, the thirst for relief from intrusive thoughts and compulsions can be unending and, ultimately, unquenchable. David Adam's book should provide them with consolation (you are not alone) and hope (he's much better now)—and it provides all readers with a fascinating glimpse of an unusual but enduring form of psychopathology that sheds light on how our elegantly evolutionarily designed brains can give rise to minds that sometimes work in painful, maladaptive ways.
Scott Stossel - New York Times Book Review
[A] searing account.... The mental-disorder memoir...has become its own genre, and works such as Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation, Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon and most recently Scott Stossel’s My Age of Anxiety set a high standard. In The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, Adam more than meets it, writing with honesty, compassion and even humor about a malady so often stigmatized and caricatured.
Washington Post
A compelling portrait.... This is the most comprehensive and compassionate book on OCD to date, and it offers hope that our thinking and behavior—both individual and collective—can change.
Los Angeles Times
Adam provides a compelling, often frightening, description of the havoc OCD can wreak. He also provides hope that while OCD can derail even the most placid life, it can be overcome.
USA Today
[A] fascinating study of the living nightmare that is obsessive compulsive disorder . . . [David Adam] has written one of the best and most readable studies of a mental illness to have emerged in recent years.... [The Man Who Couldn’t Stop is] a wide-ranging exploration of the illness, looking at possible causes and cures. It takes in traditional psychiatry..., evolutionary psychology, genetics, aversion therapy, philosophy, social history, religion, neuroscience, anthropology and even zoology.... An honest and open and, yes, maybe life-changing work.
Matt Haig - Observer (UK)
Adam, an award-winning science writer and editor at the journal Nature, is uniquely placed to examine the genetic, evolutionary, psychological, medical and "just plain unfortunate" possible causes of OCD. He does so with vigour, sharp analysis, compassion and occasional humor.... A clear-sighted and eminently accessible account.... The Man Who Couldn’t Stop is a fundamentally important book.
Helen Davis - Sunday Times (UK)
[An] engaging, exhaustively researched neuro memoir, a blend of brain science and personal history.
Melanie McGrath - Evening Standard (UK)
A captivating first-person account of how a blizzard of unwanted thoughts can become a personal nightmare. At times shocking, at times tragic, at times unbelievably funny, it is a wonderful read.
James Lloyd - BBC Focus (UK)
This blew me away. Stunning.
Ian Sample - Guardian (UK)
The greatest strength of his book—part memoir, part scientific treatise on obsessive-compulsive disorder—is that it meets [people who call themselves "a little OCD"] on their level: "Imagine you can never turn it off." Adam's personal insights, and case studies from the famous (Winston Churchill, Nikola Tesla) to the obscure (an Ethiopian schoolgirl who ate a wall of mud bricks), make that feat of imagination both possible and painful.
Mother Jones
In a wide-reaching discussion that spans the spectrum of obsession, Nature editor David Adam strikes an impressive balance between humor and poignancy, and between entertaining and informing. Adam seamlessly moves between personal stories of his own struggles with OCD and case studies of other people with the disorder...while his smooth prose ensures an enjoyable read.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Riveting, at times disturbing, but always enlightening.... For all the impressive marshaling of information, it is Adam’s own story of his struggles with the condition...that is the most captivating aspect of this impressive work. Adam clearly shows both the devastating impact our thoughts can have when they turn against us, and how science is helping us fight back.
Booklist
(Starred review.) An engrossing first-person study of obsessive-compulsive disorder from within and without."... Adam delves deeply into OCD's possible causes, its varieties...and treatments, breaking down this complex condition in easily accessible layman's terms. Well-researched, witty, honest and irreverent, Adam's account proves as irresistible as his subject.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
Issa Rae, 2015
Atria / 37 Ink
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476749051
Summary
In the bestselling tradition of Sloane Crosley’s I Was Told There’d Be Cake and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, a collection of humorous essays on what it’s like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits, and black as cool.
My name is "J" and I’m awkward—and black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be. That someone was right. Where do I start?
Being an introvert in a world that glorifies cool isn’t easy. But when Issa Rae, the creator of the Shorty Award–winning hit series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, is that introvert—whether she’s navigating love, work, friendships, or "rapping"—it sure is entertaining. Now, in this debut collection of essays written in her witty and self-deprecating voice, Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.
A reflection on her own unique experiences as a cyber pioneer yet universally appealing, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is a book no one—awkward or cool, black, white, or other—will want to miss. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 12, 1985
• Raised—Potomac, Maryland, and Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Stanford University
• Awards—Shorty Award, Best Web Show
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Issa Rae is an American actress and writer. She is the creator of the YouTube workplace-comedy series Awkward Black Girl as well as Ratchet Piece Theater, The "F" Word, and The Choir. Since the premiere of Awkward Black Girl in 2011, Rae’s shows have garnered over 20 million views and over 180,000 subscribers on YouTube. She is also the author of a 2015 collection of personal essays, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.
Personal life
As a child, Rae lived in Potomac, Maryland, where she grew up with "things that aren't considered 'black,' like the swim team and street hockey and Passover dinners with Jewish best friends."[2] When she was in sixth grade, her family moved to Los Angeles and enrolled her in a predominantly black middle school where she was “berated for ‘acting white'" and initially found it difficult to "fit into this ‘blackness’ I was supposed to be."
Rae attended Stanford University and graduated in 2007. As a college student, she made music videos, wrote and directed plays, and created a mock reality series called Dorm Diaries for fun. It was at Stanford that she met Tracy Oliver, who helped produce Awkward Black Girl and starred on the show as Nina. The two started taking classes together at the New York Film Academy.
After graduation, Rae worked odd jobs and at one point was struggling between business school and law school, but abandoned both ideas when Awkward Black Girl started taking off.
Early career
Rae created Awkward Black Girl out of the belief Hollywood stereotypes of African-American women were limiting: "I felt like my voice was missing, and the voices of other people that I really respect and admire and wanna see in the mainstream are missing." Her other show—Ratchet Piece Theater, The "F" Word, Roomieloverfriends, and The Choir—also focus on African-American experiences that are often not portrayed in the mainstream media.
In 2012, Rae made it to the Forbes "30 Under 30" Entertainment list, and Awkward Black Girl won the Shorty Award for Best Web Show. In 2013, she began working on a pilot for the show I Hate LA Dudes. She has also teamed up with Larry Wilmore to co-write Non-Prophet, an HBO comedy series about the awkward experiences of a contemporary African-American woman, in which she will be starring. Rae is currently signed with UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/22/2015.)
Book Reviews
[Rae's] unwavering candidness, the sheer energy of her voice and the fact that she clearly finds herself to be terrific material make her a charismatic, if occasionally exasperating, narrator worth rooting for.... Some readers...may be offended but laugh out loud anyway.... An authentic and fresh extension of the author's successful Web series
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Rae writes candidly about her family in nearly all of her essays. How does she use humor to write about very private family stories in a very public way?
2. The anonymity of the internet, particularly in its early days, when it was difficult to upload pictures and find out who was friends with whom, allowed Issa to project a personality different from her own. Was that the internet’s "age of innocence," or the beginning of so many troubles we now associate with hook up culture?
3. Like so many, Issa struggles with weight, sometimes putting on thirty pounds more than what she deems optimal. After successfully completing the Master Cleanse she writes, "once the compliments come in, you're totally seduced into equating self-worth with skinniness....The compliments were the most addictive drug of all." Can you relate? Do you, too, "live for that validation that accompanies weight loss"?
4. Issa writes amusingly of the apprehension she felt as a young girl when she thought she might be expected to fulfill stereotypes associated with being black: to either know the latest hit rap lyrics by heart or to be able to dance like she came straight from a video shoot. She felt as if she were expected to "put my hands on my knees, pop my booty, and do the Tootsie Roll." How does she use humor to deflect the anxiety? What stereotypes have people projected onto you, and how do you deflect their assumptions?
5. Race is a central issue in the book, but Rae describes her frustration at people who make it a central point in their lives. How does she walk this line herself in the book?
6. In "Leading Lady," Rae writes, "You could say I have an entertainment complex. It stems from growing up during the golden age of nineties television. I look back and realize what a huge and amazing influence it was to have an array of diverse options to watch almost every night of the week." She then laments how the subsequent decade offered fewer options. What about now? Are our choices more diverse? Does the internet, with YouTube and the like, level the playing field in a substantive way?
7. The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is about learning to accept yourself. In Rae’s case she had to accept that she was typically the most awkward girl in the room. How did being an introvert limit her? If you are an introvert, how does it limit you? Is the world easier for extroverts?
8. How is Rae’s life and artistry unique to the internet age?
9. Is it okay to use humor to talk about difficult subjects? Are there any taboo subjects, i.e. those that simply can't be approached with anything approaching humor or satire?
10. In "The Struggle" Rae writes, "I love being black; that's not a problem. The problem is that I don't want to always talk about it" Does being a card-carrying member of one group mean you always have to represent that group in public? What group do you represent, and are you expected to always speak for that group? (Gay, Asian, single mom, Latin, trust-fund baby, Jewish, geek, metrosexual, big girls, skinny girls, for example).
11. The topic of infidelity is a difficult one to approach with cool-headed nuance. How does Rae come to terms with this difficult topic in her life?
12. In what ways does Issa’s unique background—half African, half African-American, one half of her childhood spent on the East Coast, the other on the West Coast—position her to see the world in a unique way? If your life is also composed of interesting cultures, how has your perspective on life been influenced? Is it empowering? Or more fractious?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)