I made it half way. I really tried, I did. But there was zero continuity or even tenuous links between the essays. I found them stilled and didn't flow. The first essay I loved, but the rest did not live up to the hype.

The first essay describes her spiritual link with her ancestors and then it's never brought up again (in the half I read anyway). The rest of the essays felt very wordy and clunky, with no poetry to the writing. It felt like a what I did this weekend essay from school. It was definitely more a memoir than a collection of essays. I appreciate the author sharing her life we me, and I think some careful editing could have made this sing. I was interested in the themes of redemption, racism, and triumph over adversity.

This is a wonderful collection of essays. I found them so educational and eye-opening. The prose is sad but beautiful, and this is a book that will stick with me for a long time.

Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify is a collection of essays and a great anti-racist read. This wasn't a very dense read, unlike other anti-racist books.

In this memoir, Carolyn Holbrook discusses her life from when she was a teenager to becoming an outstanding member of the Minnesota literary community. She has led many students to believe that their stories are worth sharing. The essays did not always flow well together from one to another, which in some ways gives it an authentic feel, but can also be a little confusing.

This is a short, motivating piece of work!

Great read! I enjoyed the formate in which Carolyn wrote in. The essays really give insight into how she got where she is! A very powerful story!

I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. Carolyn is a clear and honest writer with interesting tales of her life. I didn’t realise at first it was a collection of various essays she has written over the years - in fact I didn’t realise until the very end. So instead of a straightforward sorry, note and more were revealed in each essay until by the end, I had a really clear view of how she got where she did and why. Her life is so interesting! I admire people (but especially women) who are so determined to get where they are going, despite any obstacle, domestic or systematic racism, in her way. I loved her children too. I continue to watch in awe of how people get up and keep on going. Highly recommended. Would read a thousand more pages of Ms Holbrook’s work.

Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify is a short collection of essays that were quick reading and a great resource for more anti-racist learning. I found the book to be easy to get through, and it didn't make me feel dumb as I read through it. While I've really enjoyed reading and listening to lots of books lately with deep ties into anti-racism (Just Mercy, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Stamped from the Beginning, Thick: and Other Essays to name a few), at times those books could feel a bit dense and were harder for me to understand at times. All of these books have been difficult in terms of content, but as a reader, I find I like things that are easy to understand and that I can actually absorb. Just Mercy and Thick were both books I found to be told in formats that were easier for me to comprehend. Tell Me Your Names was another of those.

In this collection of essays, Carolyn Holbrook shares about her life from being a teenager mother to becoming a prominent figure in the Minnesota literary community.

While I'm not one to thoroughly read synopses or reviews prior to reading a book, this one was nothing like what I expected it to be. The beginning of the book was enthralling. Holbrook shares her experiences communicating with her ancestors, and in the start of the book she actually shared one of those experiences. However, I kind of misunderstood the setup and thought the other essays would feel more connected to the initial setup, and I didn't feel that many of the stories really even touched on that again, except in instances where Holbrook referred to her "sight."

One thing to note: The essays in this collection seem to all have been written at certain times and then just compiled together for a book. At times, the essays flowed well from one to the next, but at other times that essays seemed so disconnected. I would've really enjoyed the book more if the essays had flowed better. I just didn't feel like they were intentionally connected. There's no doubt that Holbrook is a strong writer and very talented (obviously, she's won many awards in the field and teaches writing courses), but as a collection of essays, it would have made more sense for them to have been edited more thoroughly in terms of an actual collection, meaning that those essays could've changed a bit from their original formats for them to feel more connected and make more sense in a collective format. That was really my biggest issue with the book.

In terms of each essay's storytelling, and the actual experiences shared throughout the book, I really enjoyed learning about Holbrook, her family, and her accomplishments. While this book certainly shared experiences she's faced due to being Black in America, I felt the overall theme of this book was about Black joy and accomplishments. Holbrook has done a lot and each of her experiences has led her to so many wonderful things. I actually really liked the quote shared below because it felt like a good reminder that it's okay to do things that are important to you, it's okay to be selfish when you need to be because you are important, and that those things that you do for yourself have the potential to change the lives of others, too.

"I never dreamed that my efforts to create something that was primarily for me would affect so many people." - Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify, Carolyn Holbrook

Overall, the writing and storytelling were very strong in this collection of essays. I enjoyed what I read about and what I learned. I wasn't a huge fan of the formatting of this book and felt that the essays did not have a flow between them that made sense.

I loved this essay collection which led me through the life of Carolyn Holbrook. In the prologue, she writes, “What parts of my family’s story want to be told, need to be told? Which will demand to be told? Who will be hurt by what I write? Who will be healed?”

She is fearless is her writing. It’s honest and well written. I loved reading about her children and how she built her career. It’s a beautiful collection of essays with wonderful storytelling. I think writers will particularly love this collection and learning about her career and craft.

This is a memoir more than anything. Some of it is quite good. Other parts were pretty boring. I like what she was trying to do here, but some of it fell pretty flat. It is definitely well written, it's just that most of it isn't too compelling. The intro doesn't match up with the rest of the book. Some of the chapters felt like filler. Like there was a minimum word requirement or something. It's really short. That was my favorite part. Probably not a great sign.

Carolyn's tale is an inspiring one but one that underlines the uphill battle people of color need to fight each and every day to get ahead, be heard and find peace and happiness in this world. She begins by describing her childhood which was marred by divorce and an entanglement as a teenager that left her pregnant and in juvenile detention. Not the most auspicious start! But Carolyn pulls herself up by her bootstraps and starts her own secretarial business which leads to teaching and writing which leads to awards and ultimately lives made better by her good influence. She talks a lot about her drive to get off foodstamps and out of poverty and just how hard it truly was even though she was working unbelievably hard. There are several hard sections that detail domestic abuse for both her and her daughter.

Memoirs are always hard to rate as there is a fine line between constructive criticism and judging how a person chooses to tell their story. The content within this story is nothing if not motivating for all who read it. It is also enlightening about the challenges BIPOC people face even when they are working their hardest for the same education and job opportunities as white people. I think that essays didn't quite flow in a way that was intuitive to me but that just may be my preference since I don't read essays compilations a lot.

Thanks to Netgalley and University of Minnesota Press for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify is a memoir written in essay style by Carolyn Holbrook, not only did I absolutely love this book but it also helped me realize that this is my preferred memoir format however, I've never read one that I liked this much.

I was all-in immediately, Holbrook does such a great job of catching and maintaining your attention as well as your emotions. Hold on tight, because you will be experiencing a variety of feelings throughout this book. Carolyn tells her stories so well that you start to feel like you've known her for years and she's recounting parts of her life to you personally. The way she writes and tells stories is nothing short of magical. I cannot wait to read more from her.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy to review!

I was a bit disappointed by this book, and I'm not sure if it was the format of it. I understand that it is supposed to be a collection of stories/essays, but I did not feel as though there was any connection at all between them and I was often confused as to the timeline of her life. The events jumped around, quite a bit. The amazing thing about this book is Carolyn's tenacity. She is strong and resilient and very inspirational.

In Tell Me Your Name and I’ll Testify, Carolyn Holbrook shares her life journey as a black woman in the Twin Cities and how the literary community was the stepping stone of personal growth, redemption, and a success.

I loved how Carolyn’s memoir shared life stories that will inspire the reader. Her drive to persevere is relentless. When faced with many trails and tribulations, including poverty racism, teen pregnancy, an abusive spouse, and single parenthood, Carolyn not only found a way to overcome but rise above whatever tried to pull her down.

I loved how Carolyn gave the reader an opportunity to see life through her lens. I always find seeing the world and how society treats those within it from multiple perspectives is not only very important in personal growth but in ensuring our society continues a progressive growth of acceptance and equality. I thank Carolyn for this opportunity.

What I found most difficult about this memoir was it’s format. It was made up of short essays of sorts, and had little fluidity. So it felt like she was all over the place. I’d liked to have had a little more tying her stories together. Especially the beginning of the book where she talks about a diseased relative visiting her and telling her to share her story. I would have liked to see this thread continue throughout the story by concluding each section with a “life’s takeaway”, as I feel it would make the story more meaningful in the sense of why it was being shared, especially since as is, there is little closure for the reader.

With that being said, this is a powerful and touching story that could be very impactful on those who need to hear it.

Title: Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify
Author: Carolyn Holbrook
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

Carolyn Holbrook’s life is peopled with ghosts—of the girl she was, the selves she shed and those who have caught up to her, the wounded and kind and malevolent spirits she’s encountered, and also the beloved souls she’s lost and those she never knew who beg to have their stories told. “Now don’t you go stirring things up,” one ghostly aunt counsels. Another smiles encouragingly: “Don’t hold back, child. Someone out there needs to hear what you have to say.”

Once a pregnant sixteen-year-old incarcerated in the Minnesota juvenile justice system, now a celebrated writer, arts activist, and teacher who helps others unlock their creative power, Holbrook has heeded the call to tell the story of her life, and to find among its chapters—the horrific and the holy, the wild and the charmed—the lessons and necessary truths of those who have come before. In a memoir woven of moments of reckoning, she summons stories born of silence, stories held inside, untold stories stifled by pain or prejudice or ignorance. A child’s trauma recalls her own. An abusive marriage returns to haunt her family. She builds a career while raising five children as a single mother; she struggles with depression and grapples with crises immediate and historical, all while countenancing the subtle racism lurking under “Minnesota nice.”

Here Holbrook poignantly traces the path from her troubled childhood to her leadership positions in the Twin Cities literary community, showing how creative writing can be a powerful tool for challenging racism and the healing ways of the storyteller’s art.

Carolyn Holbrook has accomplished wonderful and amazing things—not the least of which is raising five children on her own and earning a doctorate. She encountered obstacles, prejudice, and sexism, and overcame them all, and her story is empowering, uplifting, and inspiring.

Some parts of the book bogged me down a bit, as they seemed repetitive or jumped around in time and/or subject. I felt that lessened the impact of Holbrook’s message as it allowed the reader to become distracted. I know this is an essay collection ranging over 25 years, so to an extent it’s understandable, but it’s still a distraction for the reader—and some people stop reading as soon as the author loses their interest.

Carolyn Holbrook created SASE: The Write Place; she’s a professor of creative writing and has won awards in her work for the arts. Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify is her newest book.

(Galley courtesy of University of Minnesota Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify is a fantastic collection of essays by Carolyn Holbrook. It's a very timely and relevant read that discusses her experience with racism, poverty, and other issues. This is a great way to gain insight into another's struggle and is definitely worth the read.
The writing is great and really help the reader to see beyond our preconceptions.
Many thanks to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Carolyn Holbrook shares the struggles she has faced as a Black woman in America while raising her five children. The essays were poignant and well written and really gave me a new perspective on the challenges she had to endure. As each chapter focussed on a different story from her life, it made it very easy to feel a connection with her, and even though at times it was hard to read, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to learn a little bit about her life. This is a book I will definitely be recommending.

I very much enjoyed this book. I was looking for a book that would help me broaden my perspective of what other races go through in the U.S. This book was perfect for that! I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick read that will make them think.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot is unique and it made me feel many things all together. I loved the narration style and stories that the Author chose to share with us. Overall a beautiful read and I totally recommend it to everyone.

Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify // by Carolyn Holbrook

From the NetGalley description: "The compassionate and redemptive story of a prominent Black woman in the Twin Cities literary community."

Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify is Carolyn Holbrook's story about her trials and tribulations as she grows up and then raises her own children in and out of poverty. There are many examples of the everyday racism she had to endure as well as topics, such as sexual assault, poverty, and generational curses.

I want to start by saying this book was not what I expected based on the title and the beginning chapter. Throughout the whole book, I was waiting to learn about the woman that appeared to her and was surprised when I reached the end without finding out more. Having said that though, this has still been very eye-opening and kept me drawn in the entire time. I enjoyed the way Holbrook told her story and am awed by her accomplishments. She is a strong woman that worked with what she had and showed what can be accomplished when you set your mind to it.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read this book. It offers a view into a life different than mine that needs to be read. This book was written well and flows between all the different stories as the recollections deviate from the main timeline. I love how it was all put together.

Just wow! One more book that has taught me that I have a lot to learn.

Carolyn uses essays to take you thru her life. Her heartaches, her triumphs, her losses, and her joy. I wonder if she knows just how strong she is. What rang true for me throughout this book, is that she was made not to see her own self worth and that is truly heartbreaking.

Thank you Carolyn for giving the world this book. May we all learn from it and share it with others.

Thank you to Netgalley and the University of Minnesota Press for the copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest review.