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nickscoby's review against another edition
4.0
I read the reviews before I read this book, and they made me wary. Thankfully, I moved ahead anyway and was pleasantly surprised. Tharps reminds me of Angela Nissel, author of Mixed and The Broke Girl Diaries. Hilarious writers documenting the Black Middle Class Girl world. Here, the author hones in on her international experiences, particularly while she was in college. I didn't like the last 1/3 of the book where Lori looks for blackness in Spain. I'm just not interested in authenticity narratives and I wanted to smack her some times. Nevertheless, an entertaining read. A must for any black female college student thinking about Study Abroad.
ralovesbooks's review
3.0
The most interesting parts of this book were the author's experiences and reflections on race in a different country. I thought it was so thought-provoking, and I'm still tumbling it around in my mind. I think it's worth reading if only to pose those questions in your own mind and consider how it would feel to be in her shoes. But I am not very into romance, so the various adolescent crushes and other romantic relationships prompted me to skim, and the ending was strange and abrupt for me.
anikav's review against another edition
4.0
This was an interesting and fun memoir of a young woman's multicultural background. I love Ms. Tharps' blog (http://www.myamericanmeltingpot.blogspot.com/).
er_bear_20's review against another edition
5.0
I am in love with Lori Tharps and "Kinky Gazpacho". This book is Tharp's coming of age story her memoir, and this is the first time I have seen myself in a character.
Tharps happens to have gone through a number of similar situations growing up, and I enjoy reading her retrospection of those situations and how they impacted her and her choices growing up.
I am thoroughly enjoying this book, and can't seem to put it down.
Tharps happens to have gone through a number of similar situations growing up, and I enjoy reading her retrospection of those situations and how they impacted her and her choices growing up.
I am thoroughly enjoying this book, and can't seem to put it down.
mkat303's review against another edition
2.0
2 stars or 3? Something about the tone of the book bothered me, and I felt that the author spent so much time on her childhood that I almost gave up. Not a bad book overall, although I hate the title. It makes me think of hair in my soup. I guess I would've also liked more writing about living in Spain, but the author really only lived in Spain during her junior year abroad and then just spent time visiting there.
tuliptrees37's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely love this book. As a black woman who loves to travel it was like going back and having a much needed friend along my own study abroad journey. And then the historical and personal examinations and discoveries around race and love and being in other countries was so ahhh needed and cathartic for me to read. It is so so so rare to find a book like this that speaks to my experiences and my own journeys and sensibilities so deeply.
Being a black girl in an almost all white suburb, going to a liberal women’s college, studying abroad in a Spanish speaking country, travel as a black woman, interracial, intercultural relationships. Never have I seen so many of my identities and experiences on the page.
I only wish I had learned about this book earlier. This will be forever a book I come back to.
Thank you so much, Lori L. Tharps.
Publishing world we need more black woman memoirs! Thank you!
Being a black girl in an almost all white suburb, going to a liberal women’s college, studying abroad in a Spanish speaking country, travel as a black woman, interracial, intercultural relationships. Never have I seen so many of my identities and experiences on the page.
I only wish I had learned about this book earlier. This will be forever a book I come back to.
Thank you so much, Lori L. Tharps.
Publishing world we need more black woman memoirs! Thank you!
arisbookcorner's review against another edition
4.0
IQ "I felt like even though I hadn't yet opened my mouth everyone could tell I didn't belong here. I wasn't the right kind of Black girl. It was like my eighteen years of close contact with the WPs[white people] had marked me. Maybe my treachery was seeping out of my pores and creating a stinky, wet-dog smelling cloud of Whiteness over my head, making these girls tread a wide path around me" (52).
If I could write, I would have written that quote to explain how I felt upon attending a Black Student group meeting (I forgot the exact name, I think it was something awful like Middle Passage) in high school. It wasn't as bad once I got to college but I still felt some unease just like the author does when she describes her attendance at the Black Students Association meeting at Smith. While I was expecting grand insights on Spain and Spanish culture but I was pleased that there was also a grappling with the feelings of disconnect one can feel from your race. I think most token Black people, Black private school kids, etc. can relate to this observation the author makes after her friend's sister makes a racist joke about Black people while the author is in the car. "Maybe she forgot I was Black since I was so good at fitting in with all the Whiteness around me. I decided that was it. I must be so good at blending in, because people all around me seemed to forget that I was Black. So I probably shouldn't hold it against them. I guess people really could be colorblind if they really, really tried" (19). Even in college I've had to choose my battles, I've lost the energy to remind my friends and acquaintances as to why they can't say what they just said, they seem to not realize or forget my Blackness just as Tharps notes..
I began reading this book during my family trip to Madrid/Barcelona and finished on the plane ride back. It was breezy and relatable and I was drawn to it because there are not many books about Black women abroad. I was surprised at the lack of knowledge about Spain and slavery displayed by the author however I did not much know about how Spaniards treated Black today not having noticed any issues during my week-and-a-half-long vacation with my family (plus my mother Latino, my Latino father probably looked 'Spanish' until one heard his Central American accent when he spoke Spanish). As the product of bicultural marriage I found Tharps' observations and thoughts on a Black/Spanish relationship quite interesting as she identified some struggles that my family has gone through, or at least my siblings and I (we've never actually asked my parents if it was hard bridging the differences in culture or anything like that...maybe I should inquire). The story is funny and while the author isn't always as self-aware as I would expect in a memoir I found it very enjoyable. More more!
If I could write, I would have written that quote to explain how I felt upon attending a Black Student group meeting (I forgot the exact name, I think it was something awful like Middle Passage) in high school. It wasn't as bad once I got to college but I still felt some unease just like the author does when she describes her attendance at the Black Students Association meeting at Smith. While I was expecting grand insights on Spain and Spanish culture but I was pleased that there was also a grappling with the feelings of disconnect one can feel from your race. I think most token Black people, Black private school kids, etc. can relate to this observation the author makes after her friend's sister makes a racist joke about Black people while the author is in the car. "Maybe she forgot I was Black since I was so good at fitting in with all the Whiteness around me. I decided that was it. I must be so good at blending in, because people all around me seemed to forget that I was Black. So I probably shouldn't hold it against them. I guess people really could be colorblind if they really, really tried" (19). Even in college I've had to choose my battles, I've lost the energy to remind my friends and acquaintances as to why they can't say what they just said, they seem to not realize or forget my Blackness just as Tharps notes..
I began reading this book during my family trip to Madrid/Barcelona and finished on the plane ride back. It was breezy and relatable and I was drawn to it because there are not many books about Black women abroad. I was surprised at the lack of knowledge about Spain and slavery displayed by the author however I did not much know about how Spaniards treated Black today not having noticed any issues during my week-and-a-half-long vacation with my family (plus my mother Latino, my Latino father probably looked 'Spanish' until one heard his Central American accent when he spoke Spanish). As the product of bicultural marriage I found Tharps' observations and thoughts on a Black/Spanish relationship quite interesting as she identified some struggles that my family has gone through, or at least my siblings and I (we've never actually asked my parents if it was hard bridging the differences in culture or anything like that...maybe I should inquire). The story is funny and while the author isn't always as self-aware as I would expect in a memoir I found it very enjoyable. More more!
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