Review: Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A history of black-owned bookstores, starting with the very beginning in the 1830s with David Ruggles and his pushcart selling books at a time when many blacks were enslaved and forbidden to read. Then the turbulent 60's and 70's, and through the decades to today. There are only a few people and stores profiled. The book could not be comprehensive for all stores that existed at one time

In the late 60s there weren’t many black-owned stores, and the FBI kept tabs on those that did exist. Unfortunately, they were also targeted. Drum and Spear was one such store and worker Ralph Featherstone was killed in a car bomb likely planted by the FBI. Another store, Liberation, had been sent a package of dynamite that killed a bookstore employee and injured the owner Una Mulzac.
Later, in the aughts Karibu Bookstore was profiled as the chain of stores didn’t last long. Among other problems, it also was up against what all bookstores have a problem with, the big box stores and the online giant amazon.

More recently black-owned bookstores had a surge of sales for a while when the Black Lives Matter protests and movement was started. That surge has since eased off back to the usual level of bookselling and activity.

Listed in the back of the book are over 50 black-owned bookstores by state and around 40 online stores that were once brick and mortar stores. This type of list can only be a snapshot in time. Likely more stable is the list of 10 books black booksellers want everyone to read.


View all my reviews

Review: Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Review: Buckeye

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A moving fictional account of several people, two families really, over several decades. It starts with Margaret, a baby abandoned at an orphanage and ends with her child Thomas Salt.

The book’s title comes from the nickname of the child - Thomas Aquinas Salt, so perhaps the book is more about him than anyone else, but the book starts with his parents and stays there nearly for the entirety.

A good portion of the book takes place during WWII, but the war is not front and center. We remain mostly stateside, in the small town of Bonhomie, Ohio.

Another long section is later, during the Vietnam war era. Some years are glossed over, described in quick sentences, but with such a long time frame all can't be detailed out. The book is well written, engaging and very moving.

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated quite well, with emotion and emphasis that adds a little extra to the story

Book rating: 3.75

View all my reviews

Review: Pale Fire

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The format of the book is unusual, not your typical novel. All of it is fiction, where the form is a critical analysis book of a long poem. The long 99 line poem is called Pale Fire, by fictional American author John Shade. The bulk of the book is the commentary by Charles Kinbote, author of the foreword and editor of the poem. The commentary dissects the poem by lines, or sometimes just a word.

Kinbote was the neighbor, and “close friend” of the author in the last months of his life. Shade had just finished the poem when he died. Kinbote expected the poem to be about his country Zembla, where the king was overthrown, but escaped while being held captive.

The details of all this comes out in the commentary, which is not what the poem is about, but Kinbote misinterprets it, or adds all of his own details. It ends up being quite entertaining.

I even read the index entirely since there was humor found in those referenced notes. Nabokov writes so incredibly well. I love all the unique words he uses in his writing, makes for delightful reading.


View all my reviews

Review: Pale Fire

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



View all my reviews