2024 Reading Challenge

Bull Shannon said:
Book 12: There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, by Hanif Abdurraqib
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I was born in the 80s, and came into grade school during the height of Michael Jordan worship and the cultural dominance of basketball. I had parents whose instinct was to pull us kids away from anything popular for reasons they didn’t understand, but while the narrative at home was we shouldn’t worship people who “bounce a ball for a living” (my dad, a Black republican, had nothing but time for “pull your shorts up” respectability policing), I still understood the cachet the ball held on the schoolyard and to this day envy the constancy and drama of sports fandom.

With There’s Always This Year, Hanif Abdurriqib unravels the sport, its history and conventions, and threads it between the individual experience, the wider Black experience, and most importantly, the interchangeability of one’s identity with the identity of location. This is a book about accepting your hometown (a place inherently thrust upon us and a part of our identity that exists the furthest away from choice), leaving it, coming back, and what it means when others leave, whether pulled away by opportunity or force.
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I bought this one immediately upon release but I've yet to crack it open as I've been drowning in library books. Really looking forward to it though! Hanif is one of my absolute fabourite modern writers.
 
avecigrec said:
I bought this one immediately upon release but I've yet to crack it open as I've been drowning in library books. Really looking forward to it though! Hanif is one of my absolute fabourite modern writers.
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It's well worth one's time; I might recommend spacing out reading it, as the essay format allows it and the density of emotion and thought can be a little overwhelming. It's something to savor. I can't think of anyone else writing on this level right now.
 
Book #5: Let’s Pretend That Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson

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I needed a pick me up after the bummer of a book my last pick was so I googled “funniest books ever” and this was often mentioned on those lists so I went with it. Definitely an absurd story by a rather wacky person. Wasn’t laughing out loud as many reviewers were but I’d be lying if I said a smile was never not on my face while reading. What really got me though was the heart in this book. The best moment comes in a middle chapter that is really sad but she tells it in a great way that doesn’t ruin the flow of the “comedy” book but also just lets the sadness exist. My biggest problem with comedy tv is when they are afraid to let a sad moment just be sad, and I like that she lets sad moments sit, she’ll tell jokes but she doesn’t distract from that sadness.

Rating - 3.5/5
 
avecigrec said:
I've seen a few friends reading this series via Goodreads and been curious. Gonna have to check it out!
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I highly recommend it! All 5 are super quick reads but are all great and super heart warming. I also highly recommend the Netflix adaptation which i probably prefer as a whole
 
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