bell hooks’ Bone Black was a concise and poetic remembrance of a childhood spent being Black and poor and female and an outsider in many senses in a family that expected her to be Black and poor and female and an insider in the sense of being domestic, and obedient, and subservient to the desires of men. Balanced to the point of every chapter being exactly three pages in length, hooks explored her great loves and her great traumas with an enduring sense of survival and a deeply held belief that

4.5 stars. I underlined many sentences in this book - not a traditional memoir but instead vignettes of memories from her childhood. The memories of integrating a school and the loss of the feeling of community she had at her all Black school were really powerful. Within her descriptions you see how she found books and began to develop her opinions.

It is like reading a quilt.

This short memoir is a series of vignettes, each about 3 pages written as prose poems. The language is simple but powerful. There's a recounting of dreams, and sometimes there's a blurring of the lines between dreams and reality. It is not your typical chronological memoir but we do learn a lot about bell hooks' childhood in Kentucky, living with her mother and father, five sisters, and a brother. There are wonderful portraits of of extended family and the elders in her community. Her grandmothe...

This memoir speaks simply, eloquently, to my heart. These scattered snatches of bell hooks's childhood cohere readily in my mind, because she embeds them in emotions and sensibilities that resonate with mine. (Although the concrete details of *my* childhood, on the outside, looked quite different.) While reading this book, I began to write more poetically, imagistically, and I think humanely. I don't presume that this book will be or do the same for you. Check it out yourself.

If you’re familiar with bell hooks, this memoir is an intriguing look at her childhood and how she was raised. She covers issues like racism, homophobia, gender expectations, domestic violence, death, and sexuality. There are 61 chapters, snippets of memory or commentary about her childhood. Each chapter is exactly 2.5 pages long, so there’s consistency in the presentation, but that meant that each vignette was incredibly short, and, as a result, felt undeveloped. She alternates between the 1st

A slender and poetic memoir by African American feminist and intellectual bell hooks. In sparse, three-paged chapters, hooks details her experience growing up as a poor black girl in an era of racial segregation. You can see her budding feminist roots in Bone Black, as she shares poignant memories such as the joy and shame of discovering her sexuality, how people labeled queer and gender nonconforming folk as "funny," and the complex feelings she experienced whenever she saw the ways women made

A testament to the power of memoir. Trusting the reader. The fluctuating point of view technique explained in the forward of Bone Black was used effortlessly, though if you have ever tried to do this as a writer, it is so difficult. And the open vision, hooks' prose poetic lines, her short versed chapters, like lightening storm flashes. Like archery. And a testament to bravery, to dare to tell the outsider story of a black girl growing up in rural Kentucky, never quite fitting in, even among her...

I don't know how to take this book. Her experiences are so different from mine that I don't know how to understand them or whether I'm meant to understand them (being white, being priviledged). I know the joy of books, but not the struggle of integration, of fighting for those books. I can't know what it is like to be black. Will have to reread.

This is a fantastic autobiography from feminist activist and theorist bell hooks. As all her work, it is witty and engaging and insightful. A must in our current race-baiting and woman-hating rhetoric of Drumpfism, the TV evangelist psychos and Fox&Friends.

Bone Black is the first complete work I have read from bell hooks, although at the time of this review I am in the midst of one of her other books. I'm glad that this is the first book of hers I finished, as I feel it has given me a glimpse of where the perspective of her other works lies. Regardless of the reading order, this was an incredibly well done memoir.As hooks mentions a quilt from her grandmother in the opening chapter, this book quickly forms into a quilt of its own. It is a glorious...

This book should be part of every high school reading curriculum, especially in these worrisome times. At the highest level, writing should stimulate empathy, and this memoir, told in carefully rendered vignette chapters, is not only beautiful on a visceral level but on a teaching level. hooks opens up her heart and mind and allows us to FEEL her upbringing in a black community in the south. We feel her pain when she is beaten, cry with her in her solitude, nod with her when she gets a sentence

bell hooks sure can write! This book is short but powerful. It's not told in the typical autobiographical format (first person, unfolding story) but rather small vignettes with shifting perspectives. Original, smart, and touching.

Bone Black was the most inspiring book I have ever read. It was a memoir but it was not the typical memoir. The book was written in a more poetic kind of way. She did not have sentences be she have phrases. Simple phrases that came together to tell about her childhood of being a black girl.She grew up in the Jim Crow era. there were white only places that she wanted to go in but she could not. She also was the black sheep of the family. No one understood her she was not your average of little gi...

Poignant and vivid. Takes me back. Even though bell hooks and I are from a different generation, our experience as a black girl living in the south are the same. Bone Black is going down as one of my all time favorites.

I would say this is the best book I've read this year so far! This memoir is basically a collection of memories that bell hooks has about her childhood. They seem to be in a vaguely chronological order leading up to her senior year of high school. The chapters are all quite short- usually 3 pages long. Because of this I found it was a very easy book to read quite quickly! I also enjoyed the writing, and found it interesting how most sections were told in first person narrative, and some in third...

hooks experiments with her writing in this book. I wonder if this book is like her poetry. There are a lot of interesting things happening here but it can be challenging (and sometimes boring) to get through it. BUT, I think it's a serious must-read if you're interested in Black families, Black women's lives etc.

bell hooks is a pretty famous feminist, writer, speaker, and activist. Unfortunately because of my upbringing, I didn't actually know she existed until my sister took a women's studies class and bought a bunch of bell hooks' books. Ever since then, my sister has been pestering me to read them. Since this is Black History Month, I thought now was the perfect time to acquiesce to my sister.The best way to describe this book is a photo album. You go to your parent's bookshelves (or coffee table) an...

WOW! Okay, so this is an unparalleled memoir. This is a memoir in flash. This is a memoir of the youngest daughter on fire. She is black. She gives her life to us in short, concise sentences that bust through the macro and micro of life in every paragraph. She gives us unforgettable similes. Hooks is brilliant! We watch through her eyes. We see the injustices, the horror, and the beauty. Read this! I'm sorry I came so late to it! It will be with me always! Here are some quotes:"She could see the...

As bell hooks says in the Foreword, Bone Black “is autobiography as truth and myth—as poetic witness.” In other words, it’s not a full-blown autobiography, but more a reflection upon key moments from and influences during her upbringing in rural Kentucky. The book moves in short chapters—3 pages each—zeroing in on these moments and influences, sometimes told in first person, sometimes in third person narration. This shift in narrative position is an unusual and striking tactic, and with it hooks...