Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood

Stitching together girlhood memories with the finest threads of innocence, feminist intellectual bell hooks presents a powerfully intimate account of growing up in the South

A memoir of ideas and perceptions, Bone Black shows the unfolding of female creativity and one strong-spirited child’s journey toward becoming a writer

She learns early on the roles women and men play in society, as well as the emotional vulnerability of children

She sheds new light on a society that beholds the joys of marriage for men and condemns anything more than silence for women

In this world, too, black is a woman’s color—worn when earned—daughters and daddies are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about

hooks finds good company in solitude, good company in books

She also discovers, in the motionless body of misunderstanding, that writing is her most vital breath.