Cover Image: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

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Member Reviews

I really enjoyed this book, while it was long and i came back to it a few times, it was quite a profound book. While the book dealt with the multiple generations of one single family, I did not feel the different perspectives and lives to be overwhelming. It being a story of family, love and resilience as well as race, I will definitely be recommending (as I already have) this book to many people.

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Every 29 hours and 48 minutes of this book had my full attention.

This book was AH-MAZING!!! When it ended I wanted to begin all over again. The depth of material covered was so enlightening and extremely well researched that I had to question what I had learned in college.. The characters were so well developed that I felt like I was a part of the family and didn't want to let them go. The happiness, sadness, funny stories, family drama and trauma, the romances, the lust, and the struggles oh my! They all kept me pasted to the pages. This is a must-read!! 5 gigantic stars.

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A brilliantly narrated audiobook. Jeffers goes into so much detail about each of her characters; it's clear why this book is so long. It's because she's willing to delve into so many interior lives, to go down so many tangents. It's a mesmerizing, unforgettable reading experience.

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“We are the earth, the land. The tongue that speaks and trips on the names of the dead as it dares to tell these stories of a woman’s line. Her people and her dirt, her trees, her water.”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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From the moment I read the first sentence I knew I was in for an epic journey. Without question, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝗪.𝐄.𝐁. 𝐃𝐔 𝐁𝐎𝐈𝐒 by #HonoreeFanonneJeffers is one of my favorite books of the year. I LOVE HISTORICAL FICTION. One of my all-time favorites is 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 by Yaa Gyasi and I'm happy to add #TheLoveSongsofWEBDuBois to this list! I will be recommending this book to everyone. If you enjoy audiobooks like I do, this one is superb!! 🤩⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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DO NOT be intimidated by the length. This generational family saga has a multitude of layers and themes. The journey takes us from the appropriation of Native lands, to the African slave trade, through the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement to the early 2000's. Honorée knows how to tell a story! The characters are richly developed and the exploration of African American History is mind blowing. This is the coming of age story of Ailey Pearl Garfield, our protagonist, who is seeking to learn more about her ancestors and how they have shaped her. An memorable voyage that will stay with you. Honorée is deserving of all the good things that are coming her way. She's given us a MASTERPIECE!! I’m already jealous of everyone who will be reading it for the first time. I also see this as an awesome TV series!

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A powerful, beautifully written multigenerational narrative of an African American family. In this novel, "family" includes both blood kinship and the extended families that enslaved people made, a band of people of the Cree nation, and free people maintained through bonds of loving friendship. The women and men of the 18th to 20th century parts of this novel seek peace and freedom not only in the United States, but within themselves. Seeking both, they defend others, learn the risky terms of emotional and verbal self-defense, and tenaciously navigate an inescapable Black experience: being seen as a threat, no matter if one pursues education or a decent quality of life.

Yet life within Black communities does not guarantee freedom. Jeffers skillfully depicts the damage done by class prejudice, colorism, sexism, and sexual abuse. Her characters are believable, compelling, and may feel like people that you know. I especially liked her seamless inclusion of diasporic spiritual beliefs and practices that endure in altered forms to this day.

It's hard to do this notable work justice in a brief review, because there is so much here, communicated in the clear, graceful prose. Perhaps I couldn't answer a question about whether it's a short or long book; instead, THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DUBOIS is like meeting a remarkable, deceptively soft-spoken person whose lively and vibrant personality is revealed only after you spend more than a few minutes with them.

As a Librarian, I would recommend this for book groups; lovers of family sagas; readers interested in coming-of-age stories with complex female protagonists; and readers wishing to explore historical fiction with an emphasis on characters over specific places or incidents.

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Don’t let the 800 pages of this book or the nearly 30 hours of the audiobook deter you from being immersed in the over 200-year-old story of a Black Georgia family. Beginning with the child of a Creek Indian woman, this is the story of strong women who kept overcoming challenge after challenge. Going back and forth in time, Jeffers tells the history of the family and centers her story around Ailey, the child of a medical doctor and a teacher, who is stubborn, curious, and opinionated. Jeffer’s skillful writing never lets us get lost in the details of the history stretching back to the 1700’s. The ancestors are as interesting and fleshed out as Ailey and her family are. The book is filled with interesting characters, and I suspect that many like me, will place Uncle Root as their favorite. His getting to meet both Dubois and Booker T Washington adds to the texture of the book as Professor Root tells stories about them and his own past. Yes, it’s a book of Black feminism. Ailey, her two sisters and her mother went to Black colleges. They are well aware of how Black women are expected to be towers of strength, but quiet in their power. W.E.B. Dubois’s writings interspersed between the chapters come alive in meaning as the family’s history comes alive. The best part of the 30 hours I spent listening to the story it never lagged. It built upon what had been before and when Ailey is ready to do her doctoral dissertation, you the reader are as immersed in what she is doing as she is.

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I am not a fan of epic dramas.

I am not a fan of epic family dramas.

But I could not get enough of this book.

An 800+ page poem about the love of family, tradition, and history written so beautifully that you are carried away, nearly transfixed, with each character's story.

The audiobook is 30+ hours and the time flew by. Narrators are very well chosen for the characters, giving each a believable voice. So very well done.

Do not be discouraged by the length of this book, you will be wishing for more. One of the few 5 star books I've read this year.

Sensitive readers may be advised that there are scenes of abuse that are hard to get through, but are important to the story.

I cannot wait to recommend this book to my patrons.

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Honorée Fanonne Jeffers speaks briefly in her reader’s note that she isn’t a gardner, but says “But in my own way, I do tend to the land of my people,” stating this is how she came to write her debut fiction novel 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗪.𝗘.𝗕. 𝗗𝘂𝗕𝗼𝗶𝘀. Jeffers tends to the land of her people by writing “the Great American Novel” that sings to you. Jeffers’ novel bellows the hymns of America’s soul to us through epic journey of Ailey Pearl Garfield. In Ailey’s search for identity, she uncovers, in this intergenerational tale, her family’s heritage, past, and secrets that span from the slave trade to the present day: “But it's important to know what the truth is, even if you only say it to yourself.”

While Jeffers still claims she is not a gardner, I feel that she tends to the shame, the degradation, and the pain that circumvents the life of the southern, Black girl/woman, making her feel seen, loved, and nurtured on. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀 pulls you in for a tight squeeze, hugs you with the warmest embrace, and declares sweet southern colloquials your way! Jeffers’ love for Black women in this novel is unmatched. Several times we are reminded: “The Negro woman is the best our race has to offer. My children, we must always cherish and love this woman. We must never leave her behind.” In this regard, Jeffers knows that to garden means to nurture something to life. And “to find this kind of love, you have to enter deep country.”

We can all become the Ailey Pearl Garfields of our families—we can tend to our own histories and uncover the beauty of who and what we are. Through its portal of home and legacy, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗪.𝗘.𝗕. 𝗗𝘂𝗕𝗼𝗶𝘀 shows readers how our stories combine and connect through our lived and shared histories on this land together as Indigenous, Black, and white. I believe Jeffers’ novel is a mighty harvest that bears a great bounty for a multitude of readers. As Jeffers begins her epic novel: “We are the earth, the land.”

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This book is a true undertaking. When I received the advanced listening copy from the publisher I was shocked to see that the listening time was over one whole day of audio. <strong>It was worth it.</strong> The narrative covers the perspective and history of many of the ancestors of the main character, Ailey Pearl Garfield. The story unfolds in a back and forth pull between the past and present in a way kept the story from losing steam. Oddly, even though I didn't love any of the characters on their own, I grew quite attached to their combination as an entire family. I would highly recommend this book for its skilled, nuanced, and loving depiction of the bonds of family over time and all manners of adversity.

The narration was also extremely well done and maintained my attention. I loved the Black and Southern dialogue and felt engrossed in the particular people and places.

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Ailey Pearl Garfield spends her life in two places, and seemingly infinite times as a Black woman and descendent of enslaved Africans. Sweeping, poignant, tragic, and beautiful.

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