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You can forever remember the wrongs done to you as long as you live... But if you forget ’em and go on living, it’s almost as good as forgiving.

James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

#literature #quotes #James McBride #The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store #quote #books #lit

#literature #quotes #James McBride #Song Yet Sung #quote #lit #books #words

"Violence isn't the answer"

I beg you, go and read The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (or watch the miniseries with the same title, it's really good and starring Ethan Hawke as John Brown).

it's from the perspective of a slave boy who was freed by abolitionist John Brown and the following years as they travel the country and kill slavers. it ultimately ends in the infamous 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, which was a failure and Brown was hanged as a result but it ultimately served as a catalyst for the Civil War.

the question "will all this violence even be worth it in the end?" is constantly lingering around.

and by the end of the book, it grabs you by the shoulders, shakes you, and screams, "THIS WILL BE WORTH IT!! I KNOW IT MAY SEEM LIKE THERE IS NO HOPE AND NO FREEDOM IN SIGHT, BUT IF WE DONT TRY WE WILL NEVER FIND OUT IF THAT FREEDOM EXISTS!!! WE WILL KILL AND STEAL BECAUSE THE ONLY LANGUAGE THESE PEOPLE SPEAK IS VIOLENCE, SO WHY ASK FOR MERCY WHEN THAT IS AN UNKNOWN WORD ON THEIR TONGUES?"

My favorite quotes are these;

#my thoughts on this charlie kirk situation #charlie kirk #us politics #american politics #politics #on violence #violence #the good lord bird #james mcbride #ethan hawke #naja talks #my thoughts

I feel a little like I'm having an "ah so this is what they mean about Goodreads reviews," looking at the heavily upvoted one-star reviews for The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. And really, I think all the complaints come from the fact it's a challenging book to read. It feels like most of the books I've read so far have been like. 500 piece puzzles, 750 piece puzzles, and I just stumbled into a 3,000 piece puzzle of a book, and yeah. It required active reading skills. I'm grateful for it, honestly! Some complaints I saw:

"There are too many characters and too many plot points to keep track of!" This is a feature, not a bug, and the decision to give so many characters strong narrative presence helps drive home the central themes about the importance of community. It doesn't just tell you community is good and important; it lets you feel it. The whole book honestly feels like a prime example of what it actually means to show, don't tell. "There is no plot!" Blatantly false, it's just that the story is like 70% character, 30% plot. And that's okay, some books are like that. Doesn't mean it's bad. I actually think it works in the narrative's favor, for the same reasons I described above. "It's not even a mystery!" Just because there's not a focus on literal detectives doesn't mean that it's not structured in a way that it feeds you clues over the course of the novel, allowing you to piece together the exact string of events that led to the question posed at the beginning of the book for yourself before the grand reveal and extremely satisfying payoff.

#i really love this book and i will defend it #to be clear i don't think most people who read it hate it - it had more 4-star ratings than any other star rating #i just it drives me up a WALL when people slander a book for doing the things it's supposed to do #the heaven and earth grocery store #james mcbride #booklr #books #literature

I just finished the heaven and earth grocery store by james mcbride today, if you want a recommendation for another good Life Book i'd highly recommend it! Community and love for the people around you are huge themes. I would check tw's for it first though!

waittt omg i was looking at this at the bookstoree.. on my list:)

#asks #book talk #book recs #james mcbride