To characterize Elizabeth Alexander's raw, elegantly drawn memoir "The Light of the World" as an elegy would be far too narrow a classification — not just of its breadth but its intentions.Alexander — the poet and essayist who stood before the world to deliver her poem of celebration "Praise Song for the Day" for President Obama's 2009 inauguration — led a life that had the loft and lushness of a fairy tale. There was the loving, intuitive partner, the Ivy League teaching position, her busy creative endeavors and the lively collection of friends whose names traced the spines of books or museum gallery walls. All that, then one spring day her husband of nearly 15 years, Ficre Ghebreyesus — an artist and chef, the father of her two sons — collapsed on the treadmill in the basement of their New Haven, Conn., home. Dead, four days after his 50th birthday. It isn't simply the shock of the death itself — or the spreading stain of grief — that Alexander finds herself wading through but the landscape shifts that death initiates inside her head and heart;

a survivor's new place in an upturned world — when religion or ritual or easy platitudes aren't the balm one can reach for.To try to regain her internal compass, Alexander sorts through a series of fading after-images: vignettes, sensations, snatches of conversation, even Ficre's recipes, laying each memory rough edge to rough edge. In so doing she tries to quantify the weight of emptiness and measure the breadth of absence: "The story seems to begin with catastrophe" or "It begins on a beautiful morning in April" or perhaps "It began when I met him, sixteen years before." Reaching back becomes an inventory of beginnings, recalling promise — not endings. How does one usher someone — their very meaning — back from the ether? How does one make the unreal real? These are the urgent rhetorical questions that loom over Alexander's narrative: "Lost implies we are looking, he might be found," she writes, "I lost my husband. Where is he I often wonder?"Line by line, she begins to sketch a new path.

The narrative evolves as a collage of memory — not chronological but associative. A jagged succession of asides, poems, fragments lie juxtaposed against heart-rending exclamations: "Do you see why I miss him?" Some chapters run pages long, others a mere sentence. Each memory jolt reveals a heart in tumult.Much of the book's vitality springs from Alexander's early discursiveness, her effort of circling back from the wilds. S Fold CurtainsThe effect is not an unburdening as much as a recognition that each precise noun or verb is an act of reassurance; Standard Bathroom Size Philippinesthat what is now a void once had shape and meaning. Auto Repair 100 Mile HouseA sunny East African man, Ficre survived the nightmare of Eritrea's Red Terror, "literally walked across his country through killing fields to escape, when he was sixteen" — and decades later, in his hot pink shirts and orange tams, embodied the phrase "pop of color."

His bright canvases affirmed his embrace of life.The specifics of discord we don't hear here. "In all marriages there are struggles and ours was no different in that regard. But we always came to the other shore," she writes. Love wins: The irony, not lost on the poet, is that his big heart is what gave out.To call the book a riff would underplay its craft and exactitude. However, the power of Alexander's narrative is in its volubility and the very vividness of her presence — unvarnished and vulnerable. Her voice lingers: Its haunting cadence pulls you through wreckage you may not want to see close up but must to — like her — get to the other side.Alexander's memoir doesn't dole out reflexive aphorisms, nor does it pretend to prescribe a "follow me to wholeness" path. It isn't stoic or stiff-upper-lip. Rather it deals with loss in a blunt, aching way. Her fragility is what's most reassuring."The Light of the World" is Alexander's travelogue back to herself. Art, she begins to understand, is a north star, it is as well "certainly my religion."

That fairy-tale life she was building wasn't mere chimera; it has true heft and deep, sustaining roots — and so too her husband's memory."Is the goal to no longer see him there? Or to always see him there?" she wonders late in her grieving. Is this act of remembering like trying to catch light — a spirit — in a bottle? Pen to paper, like his brush to canvas, she's crossing toward something.The comfort in her own sacred ritual — writing about him — is insurance, its own celebration. "Ficre did not paint what he saw. He saw in his mind and then he painted how he wanted the world to look," she reflects. "He painted to fix something in place and so, I write to fix him in place, to pass time in his company, to make sure I remember even though I know I will never forget."George is an L.A.-based writer and a columnist at KCET Artbound.The Light of the WorldA MemoirElizabeth AlexanderGrand Central, 209 pp., $26 It Was Me All Along: A Memoir Andie Mitchell|write a reviewNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA heartbreakingly honest, endearing memoir of incredible weight loss by a young food blogger who battles body image issues and overcomes food addiction to find self-acceptance.+ read more

Pricing and Purchase Info ® why? Praise For This BookAbout the AuthorDetails & SpecsFrom the PublisherNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA heartbreakingly honest, endearing memoir of incredible weight loss by a young food blogger who battles body image issues and overcomes food addiction to find self-acceptance. All her life, Andie Mitchell had eaten lustily and mindlessly. Food was her babysitter, her best friend, her confidant, and it provided...The following ISBNs are associated with this title:ISBN - 10:0770433251ISBN - 13:9780770433253Look for similar items by category:BooksBiography and Memoir Extra ContentRead from the BookEditorial ReviewsBlack women authors dominated 2015. Emerging and renowned Black women writers penned relatable fictional and non-fiction stories about everything from dysfunctional families to the myriad ways class privilege shapes Black childhood. Many of these writers were bestowed with worthy accolades, from a National Book Award nomination to a writing role on Empire.

Snag these 12 best books before 2016. The Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes On Thanksgiving 2013, television showrunner and writer, Shonda Rhimes was inadvertently challenged to change her life. Rhimes’ sister told her “You never say yes to anything.” Instead of bristling at the comment, Rhimes became proactive. She began accepting invitations that she would’ve ordinarily declined. The result was significant weight loss, happiness, and the humorous memoir, The Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person. In this inspirational book, Rhimes reveals how she channeled the confidence she infuses her television characters with to embark on a year that completely revolutionized her life. At heart, Rhimes is a writer, and it shows in this book. The Year of Yes is comedic and engaging and full of gems that all Black women can take with them into 2016 and beyond. Pleasantville by Attica Locke

Pleasantville is the second book in Attica Locke’s Jay Porter series. Locke, a writer and producer for FOX’s Empire, spins a masterful tale about her environmental lawyer protagonist, who is broke and struggling after winning a major case against Cole Oil 15 years ago. In this sequel, Porter is representing the town of Pleasantville after a chemical fire devastates the upwardly-mobile Black community. Soon, the court case elevates into a murder case after a female campaign volunteer disappears from Pleasantville on the night of the mayoral election. Pleasantville evokes multiple twists and turns that paces the plot well and keeps readers engaged. Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson Acclaimed theater critic, Margo Jefferson, is a master wordsmith. After winning the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Jefferson decided to turn her lens away from cultural analysis to focus on her own childhood. In Negroland: A Memoir, Jefferson explores how class privilege shaped her upbringing in an elite Black community in Chicago.

With sharp wit and a masterful use of language, Jefferson explores the upper crust of Negroland, which she describes as “a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty.” Offering a unique perspective on the classic coming-of-age tale, Jefferson’s Negroland explores upper middle class Black life during the Civil Rights Movement and the rise of second-wave feminism. This book is a New York Times bestseller for a reason. Jam on the Vine by LaShonda Katrice Barnett Ivoe Williams is the brave, fierce, and uncompromising protagonist in LaShonda Katrice Barnett’s Jam on the Vine. Williams’ lifelong passion for speaking truth to power through journalism is ignited in central-east Texas as she witnesses multiple atrocities committed against her neighbors in the name of white supremacy. After settling in Kansas City after graduating from college, Williams and her partner and former professor, Ona, launch Jam! On the Vine, an African-American newspaper that documents race riots, lynchings, and jailhouse conditions.

Lovers of Ida B. Wells will cherish this book. The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander Losing a spouse is unimaginable. For Elizabeth Alexander, a distinguished poet and professor at Yale University, it was Earth shattering. After the death of her husband, Alexander penned a memoir as a way of archiving her marriage. The Light of the World: A Memoir is Alexander’s tribute to her husband. She uses words to keep from forgetting the minute details that make relationships grand. Alexander’s deceased husband, Ficre, escaped the civil war in Eritrea, migrated to America, and established himself as a chef. In this book, Alexander remembers him lovingly and paints a portrait of a man whose spirit will live forever. The Light of the World is a New York Times bestseller described by First Lady Michelle Obama as a book that “simply took my breath away.” The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae In 2015, television visionary, Issa Rae, added author to her impressive resume.

In The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, which shares a name with her popular web series, Rae offers 18 humorous essays about how Blackness and awkwardness shaped her identity. She covers topics ranging from self-acceptance to weight gain in a relatable voice that many young Black girls and women will identify with and embrace. Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez Dolen Perkins-Valdez creates compelling stories from historical periods that are often thought of integral to the shaping of America. In Balm, Perkins-Valdez explores Reconstruction, the time period after the Civil War, when free Black American men and women were attempting to find their footing after decades of enslavement. Madge, Sadie, and Hemp are Perkins-Valdez’s muses in Balm. These characters – all from diverse backgrounds – arrive in Chicago, hoping to start anew. Their histories as well as their desires are at the center of this novel as the background of Reconstruction provides a fascinating structure. Perkins-Valdez wins again with Balm.

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy The Turner House is Angela Flournoy’s debut novel. Yet, her voice feels like it’s been here forever. In The Turner House, Flournoy explores the complicated Turner family, a clan of siblings who are attempting to navigate life crises as their ailing mother, Viola, nears death. As the eldest of the brood battles demons, literally, he is also attempting to save his parent’s home on Yarrow Street while also keeping his brothers and sisters in line. Big families full of drama will appreciate The Turner House for what it offers and also what it doesn’t – a clean and understandable resolution. God Help the Child by Toni Morrison Bibliophiles rejoiced when Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, released her latest novel. God Help the Child explores the impact of childhood trauma, a theme that Morrison often returns to in her works. At the center of this narrative is Blue, a young, confident, and abrasive Black woman who crosses paths with multiple characters who shape her into a classic Morrison protagonist.

In particular, the relationship between Blue and her mother, Sweetness, is compelling as they both tiptoe around the childhood abuse that effectively wrecked Blue’s sense of safety. With Morrison’s prose, abuse against children is brought to life in a way that evokes immense emotion. God Help the Child is a welcomed and important addition to Morrison’s canon of iconic work. The Sisters are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America by Tamara Winfrey-Harris Clutch Magazine alumna, Tamara Winfrey-Harris, spent 2015 telling the world that Black women are alright. In her debut book, The Sisters are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, Winfrey-Harris uses her distinctive voice to explore how Black women are thriving despite the odds stacked against us. She explores everything from marriage to sexuality in a way that will definitely cause affirmative head nods as reading. The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson Phaedra and Dionne are two polar opposite sisters finding themselves after being moved to Bird Hill in Barbados from Brooklyn.