Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me Audiobook

Quotes

• With candor and tenderness, Glory Edim gathers us as if welcoming us to her porch, or stoop, or kitchen table and in this sacred space she whispers her poignant testimony revealing to us her scars as proof that words—written and spoken—enlighten, restore, heal. This ode to Black scribes is a resting place, a balm.

  — Renée Watson, #1 New York Times bestselling author

• Glory Edim’s Gather Me is a moving memoir and a powerful testament to Black literature’s capacity to heal, guide, and help us become the best women, mothers, lovers, and daughters we can be and offer ourselves grace in the journey of becoming. Readers will benefit from Glory’s clear-eyed witness to the struggles and triumphs of her life and her rendering of the wreckage and refuge that family and love provide.

  — Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

• Glory Edim’s Gather Me is a moving memoir and a powerful testament to Black literature’s capacity to heal, guide, and help us become the best women, mothers, lovers, and daughters we can be and offer ourselves grace in the journey of becoming. Readers will benefit from Glory’s clear-eyed witness to the struggles and triumphs of her life and her rendering of the wreckage and refuge that family and love provide.

  — Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill“Gather Me is a full and beautiful portrait of a full life that has been buoyed by an expansive, and ever-growing love for words, and for language. What a gift, to have that love reflected outwards.

• Gather Me is a beautiful portrait of a full life that has been buoyed by an expansive and ever-growing love for words and for language. What a gift, to have that love reflected outward.

  — Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year

• With candor and tenderness, Glory Edim gathers us as if welcoming us to her porch or stoop or kitchen table, a sacred space where she whispers her poignant testimony and reveals her scars. It’s proof that words—written and spoken—enlighten, restore, heal. This ode to Black scribes is a resting place and a balm.

  — #1 New York Times bestselling author Renée Watson

• Glory Edim’s Gather Me is a moving memoir and a powerful testament to Black literature’s capacity to heal, guide, and help us become the best women, mothers, lovers, and daughters we can be—and a reminder to offer ourselves grace in the journey. Readers will benefit from Glory’s clear-eyed witness to her own struggles and triumphs, and her rendering of the journey through wreckage and to refuge that family and love can provide.

  — Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

• Glory Edim’s memoir in praise is more than just a legend of storytellers to study, it’s a gorgeous guide to a life full of empathy and healing. In Gather Me, Edim reflects literary voices that are often lost in the margins. She reveals how Jordan, Morrison, Hurston, and Walker became some of the lyrical wind workers that saved her, and helped her to understand what it means to grow up a Black daughter and become a Black woman who will birth a Black son. Edim has written a profound testimony of how to re-emerge and soar in the wake of life’s storms.

  — Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley

• In this endearing debut ode to literary figures ranging from bell hooks to the Berenstain Bears, Edim, founder of the Well Read Black Girl network, eloquently explores the transformative power of literature in her life . . . Edim beautifully illuminates how discovering or revisiting formative texts can confer all the warmth and wisdom of chatting with a clutch of aunties. This moving autobiography—complete with a reading list—will make a deep impression on book lovers.

  — Publishers Weekly

• Edim beautifully illuminates how discovering or revisiting formative texts can confer all the warmth and wisdom of chatting with a clutch of aunties.

  — Publishers Weekly

• Gather Me is a beautiful, deeply introspective, and tender journey. Edim is one of the most important nurturers of the Black literary tradition, and now she stands elegantly within it as a writer.

  — Imani Perry, National Book Award winning author of South to America

• Glory Edim’s Gather Me is a moving memoir and a powerful testament to Black literature’s capacity to heal, guide, and help us become the best women, mothers, lovers, and daughters we can be—and a reminder to offer ourselves grace in the journey.

  — Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

• Glory Edim’s memoir in praise is more than just a legend of storytellers to study, it’s a gorgeous guide to a life full of empathy and healing. In Gather Me, Edim has written a profound testimony of how to re-emerge and soar in the wake of life’s storms.

  — Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley

• Gather Me is a beautiful, deeply introspective, and tender journey. Edim is one of the most important nurturers of the Black literary tradition, and now she stands elegantly within it as a writer.

  — Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America

• “Gather Me is a beautiful portrait of a full life that has been buoyed by an expansive, and ever-growing love for words and for language. What a gift, to have that love reflected outward.

  — Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year

• With candor and tenderness, Glory Edim gathers us as if welcoming us to her porch or stoop or kitchen table, a sacred space where she whispers her poignant testimony and reveals her scars. It’s proof that words—written and spoken—enlighten, restore, heal. This ode to Black scribes is a resting place and a balm.

  — #1 New York Times bestselling author Renée Watson

• Gather Me offers a tender homage to the books that have cradled Glory Edim through life's storms, stitching together pieces of her identity with the delicate thread of story. This memoir pulses with the quiet strength of a woman who, through the pages of literature, finds not just solace but a fierce sense of belonging and purpose.

  — Frederick Joseph, New York Times bestselling author of Patriarchy Blues

• Edim etches a wholly specific route into the story of literary longing that necessarily invites readers to be carried. If ever there was a piece of art that ritualized the transgressive wonder of tender hand-holding and show and tell, it is Gather Me.

  — Kiese Laymon, award-winning author of Heavy

• Glory Edim’s Gather Me is a moving memoir and a powerful testament to Black literature’s capacity to heal, guide, and help us become the best women, mothers, lovers, and daughters we can be—and a reminder to offer ourselves grace in the journey.

  — Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

• Glory Edim’s memoir in praise is more than just a legend of storytellers to study, it’s a gorgeous guide to a life full of empathy and healing. In Gather Me, Edim has written a profound testimony of how to re-emerge and soar in the wake of life’s storms.

  — Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley

• Gather Me is a book-lover’s memoir. It’s for those of us who have been nourished, challenged, comforted, emboldened, and transformed by books; those of us who have found ourselves, our communities, and our purpose through books.

  — Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

• Heartfelt and absorbing . . . Readers who enjoy coming-of-age memoirs will find much to love.

  — Booklist, starred review

• A highly person memoir . . . [Edim] shares how books became an escape and a classroom. Her book is most compelling when she describes her interactions with these books, including the ways she interpreted them initially and reinterpreted them upon subsequent readings. . . . This title is a strong and welcome addition to the genre of biblio-memoirs.

  — Library Journal

• Professional bibliophile pays tribute to the books that made her…. Edim rose to prominence as the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, an influential and far-reaching literary organization. In Gather Me, she reflects on a lifetime of devoted reading. From childhood on, whatever was going on in Edim’s life, books were a constant presence in her survival and self-development. . . . Gather Me is a book for anyone who has ever loved books. A love story that attests to the power of literature.

  — Kirkus Reviews

• Gather Me offers a tender homage to the books that have cradled Glory Edim through life’s storms, stitching together pieces of her identity with the delicate thread of story. This memoir pulses with the quiet strength of a woman who, through the pages of literature, finds not just solace but a fierce sense of belonging and purpose.

  — Frederick Joseph, New York Times bestselling author of Patriarchy Blues

• Edim etches a wholly specific route into the story of literary longing that necessarily invites readers to be carried. If ever there was a piece of art that ritualized the transgressive wonder of tender hand-holding and show-and-tell, it is Gather Me.

  — Kiese Laymon, award-winning author of Heavy: An American Memoir

• A dramatic life story full of hairpin turns and interwoven leitmotifs that might seem ingeniously crafted if it weren’t all true.

  — The Los Angeles Times

• This is the ultimate book for book lovers. If you aren’t familiar with Glory Edim, you should be.

  — theSkimm

• Gather Me offers a tender homage to the books that have cradled Glory Edim through life’s storms, stitching together pieces of her identity with the delicate thread of story.

  — Frederick Joseph, New York Times bestselling author of Patriarchy Blues

• If ever there was a piece of art that ritualized the transgressive wonder of tender hand-holding and show-and-tell, it is Gather Me.

  — Kiese Laymon, award-winning author of Heavy: An American Memoir

• Glory Edim’s Gather Me is a moving memoir and a powerful testament to Black literature’s capacity to heal, guide, and help us become the best women, mothers, lovers, and daughters we can be.

  — Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

• In Gather Me, Edim has written a profound testimony of how to re-emerge and soar in the wake of life’s storms.

  — Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley

• Gather Me is a book-lover’s memoir. It’s for those of us who have been nourished, challenged, comforted, emboldened, and transformed by books.

  — Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

• In her plucky, intimate memoir, Glory Edim, the creator of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, tethers the books and authors she has found and loved to her own rocky journey of self-discovery—it’s reader catnip.

  — BookPage, starred review

• This title is a strong and welcome addition to the genre of biblio-memoirs.

  — Library Journal

• A love story that attests to the power of literature.

  — Kirkus Reviews

• A dramatic life story full of hairpin turns and interwoven leitmotifs that might seem ingeniously crafted if it weren’t all true.

  — Los Angeles Times