What a sweeping, heartfelt and intellectually stimulating ode to Baltimore. Lawrence Burney conveys his love for his city through the lens of his experiences with different artists, and it is really powerful, eye-opening, and ultimately also informative to me as a person who’s not from Baltimore. I loved how the timeline jumped around, not only because it felt somehow emblematic of the eclecticism and diversity of the city itself but also because it was a book that I could pick up, read as little or as much as I had time and focus for, and circle back to when I had another window to dedicate some time to it. As a parent of three kiddos, that is a huge win! I truly feel like you could open the book to any chapter and read it and still understand the author, his family, the cultural icons he’s remembering encounters with, and the power of the city itself, and that is remarkable!

I loved No Sense in Wishing and feel like I will re-read this sweet collection of essays sooner rather than later. It’s part memoir, part cultural analysis, part essay, and almost poetic in its prose. I can’t wait to gift Burney’s work to all of the music, literature, and book lovers in my life. I don’t think anyone WON’T enjoy and get some meaning out of this book!

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for sharing this e-arc with me. This will end up being one of my favorite reads of 2025 for sure.

4 stars

Frequently, I come to a personal essay collection/memoir because I already have a solid working knowledge of the author. In this case, the collection came to me, and I had no incoming knowledge of the author. I'm so glad that I got to read this and now hope to read much more from Burney.

This collection includes personal experiences with travel, food, relationships, and music, which for me was the standout. Burney connects experiences to their deeper meanings and also does a particularly adept job of pointing out the ways in which we use cultural touch points to understand our identities and each other.

As noted, Burney is new to me but is so accessible and readable that I felt I could jump right in. This is a testament to the author's skill, audience awareness, and general relatability. I'll recommend this widely because I think so many folks of all levels of experience will connect with this perspective.

No Sense of Wishing by Lawrence Burney contains insights and stories that will appeal to everyone, but readers with an interest in music (particularly Black hip-hop and rap) will get the most out of this collection.

Lawrence Burney is a Black music and culture critic based in Baltimore, Maryland. In each essay in this collection, he focuses on a piece of artistic media that influenced his life and worldview. Burney mentions in the introduction that he wants the essay collection to feel like a conversation with a friend—a bid for authentic connection. In this aim he is successful. His forthright self-reflection is humble and casually vulnerable, and his enthusiasm for his community and the media he discusses is infectious. I found myself most engaged when he ties his artistic discussions to his personal experiences and reflections on masculinity, Blackness, and racism. His music geek takes over more in some essays than others; as someone with little musical interest in general, much less the genre of music he covers, I tended to glaze over a bit during these sections. Some of the essays are stronger than others in their analysis and conclusion.

I found much to gain out of the reading experience, and I would recommend this book to a general audience, but I recommend reading with a streaming service in-hand to look up the songs and artists he references. This book is a must-read for people into hip-hop, rap, and Black music.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an honest and raw book that I will be thinking about for a very long time. An incredible memoir that examines the power of music in culture.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

I should note that I hadn’t heard of every musician that Burney mentions in this essay collection, so I will not be commenting on most of the music criticism in this book.

I’m not quite sure why I accepted the invitation to read a digital ARC of this book. Maybe because it is largely about Baltimore, and the more I can see Baltimore that is a lens that is not Homicide or the Wire, the better.
While some of the essays are focused on music criticism, all the essay carry a strong memoir flavor to it. His essay about fatherhood and coming to terms with step-parents was particularly moving, and did what it set out to do – make me want to see a movie.
What comes across quite strongly, beside the love Burney has for his daughter and family, is how much Burney loves Baltimore. He writes about various aspects of the city – including crabs. In many ways, the essays are a love letter to his city.
There also is a good look at the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, which reading after the Superbowl Half Time show adds another layer to Lamar’s performance. More importantly though, Burney writes of growing up and the feeling of not fitting in – either in your own skin or with those around you.
The best essay is the one that is a book review of Tha Bloc, which expands the love of the city to the various artists, largely unsung outside of the city, as well.

Lawrence Burney’s "No Sense in Wishing" is a lively, heartfelt essay collection about the city of Baltimore and what it means to belong. Burney, a local journalist and founder of True Laurels magazine, writes about his own life and the people around him—family, friends, neighbours—using Baltimore as both setting and subject.

Instead of telling one story, the book jumps between personal memories, reflections on music and art, and honest looks at the city’s struggles and strengths. Burney’s style is direct and warm, mixing sharp observations with real emotion. He’s especially good at making readers care about overlooked people and places.

I love Burney’s honesty and his ability to tie his own experiences to bigger ideas about race, art, and community. The only real downside is that the book’s essay format can feel a little scattered, but it fits the messy, vibrant spirit of Baltimore.

If you like essays about identity, culture, or just want to see a city through a new lens, this is worth your time.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

I think this will end of being one of my top reads of the year. I knew I would love it, but I didn't realize how much I would LOVE it.

This was a wonderful collection of essays that also read like a memoir journeying Burney's life in Baltimore, but also his experiences in places like New York, South Africa, and Nigeria. These stories felt very introspective and thought provoking. and it was so great reading Burney's stories as grew up and the ways in which his mindset on life grew overtime. I especially loved this book because I grew up in the Baltimore area myself, so reading his stories felt so nostalgic and relatable. It's always a joy for me to read a book and be like "yes I know what they're talking about!" and even think back to moments and memories too. I also loved all the stories connecting to music (which was most of them LOL.) It was a bonus when essays brought music and Baltimore together.

I loved the picture that Burney painted of Baltimore as well. Although it is not without flaws, it is truly a great city with so much character and culture.I think that by reading a book like this one people could see really see that.

I think if you're from Baltimore (or even the DMV) you will really enjoy this book. I think that if you are from neither of these places you will still really enjoy this book.

Thank you so much to Atria for this e-arc.

Thank you so much to Lawrence Burney and Netgalley for sending over the advanced reader copy!

This essay collection made me discover my love for a new literary genre. Burney’s cultural critiques and ideas framed through snapshots into his life were truly impactful, and wonderfully written.

I eagerly await his future writing projects, and again appreciate the ARC offer!

This book is the beautiful journey of Lawrence Burney's experience growing up in Baltimore.

I loved the thread of music throughout his essays and rawness he brings to his life situations.

I've followed Lawrence Burney's writing (and personality, via social media) online for nearly a decade now. Though we've never met, he has always felt like a friend in the ways that people would make genuine friendships via online communities in the early aughts. But when I saw he was writing this book, I genuinely didn't know what to expect.

No Sense in Wishing is a fresh take on memoir that probably won't but should come with a soundtrack (or playlist). It is a collection of personal essays that ultimately reveal how the music he's listened to has shaped him—whether he loved it or not. But it's also a really unique spin on a coming-of-age tale. And I think this work might be just as engaging for young Black boys growing up in Baltimore or the DMV as people like me: middle-aged Black women from the Bay Area.

Burney laces the pages with a blend of prose and slang through sentence structures that prove his journalistic merits are well deserved. While so much of this book is Burney recollecting on the role music has played throughout his life, there are elements of it that feel like an investigative journalist report. It's not just that Burney *felt* a particularly way about a song or artist, he digs deeper to understand what the rest of the world was feeling about that same song or artist at the same time. It's a memoir, it's personal, but it also can be seen as a history lesson.

And just like what made me follow him all those years ago, there's great song recommendations in here too. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I enjoyed this collection. I liked getting to read about Burney's experiences and broader experiences of cultural moments and societal experiences. Overall, reading this book felt very nostalgic, and I think the writing was beautiful.

Overall I really enjoyed this collection of personal essays. I felt it really shined when Burney was at his most introspective and tied his experiences with music to significant moments in his life. I wasn't as drawn in to the essays that covered broader scopes or were more analytical of cultural movements. He excels at giving a look at life growing up in Baltimore that relates to the familiar cultural references but gives a fuller more "real" picture. There is a lot of beautiful nostalgia and appreciation for where he grew up and as a reader it made me do the same. 4 stars, would recommend!

No Sense in Wishing is a collection of essays by journalist Lawrence Burney about his home town of Baltimore.

Lawrence reflects on his upbringing, with a heavy influence of music throughout. He writes about black culture in Baltimore. He details about his visit to Africa, significant to his story because of both his roots & his passion for music. He talks about the fond memories he associates with the smell of a seafood boil.

He also discusses deliberate systematic changes intended to further the socioeconomic gap, and other struggles that Black Americans face due to the racism weaved into the fabric that the United States was founded on.

No Sense in Wishing invites the reader to witness Baltimore from Burney’s perspective, using both his personal and journalistic experience. His passion for music is palpable throughout the book. For me, a person of pallor, his essays opened my eyes to a perspective other than my own privileged lived experiences.

As a music lover, and a somewhat recent dweller of the DMV, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. Lawrence is someone I have followed for years through his publication True Laurels and that great and visual writing that he captures is shown throughout this book. I loved learning about Baltimore through his lens, loved seeing how much of the same music I love has shaped him, and more. I think this book would be great for anyone who loves music--and hip hop specifically, and also anyone who wants to be touched by what they read. I loved it!

wow i started this last night and could not stop reading. such a touching, gut wrenching collection of essays. absolutely heartbreaking. while some were uplifting, most were so relatable and so upsetting because of how the world works. i'm so happy i picked this up randomly. thank you netgalley for the arc!