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D. Watkins is beautifully unusual. Having lived the horrors within the heart of our inner city Baltimore first-hand and having acquired the heights of collegiate achievement, D. Watkins is uniquely equipped to communicate our political and social challenges of urban America not only through the lens of academia but through empirical knowledge as well. He is the voice of the future seamlessly blending the wisdom of the streets and intellectual prowess in a way I have never experienced before.
— Jada Pinkett Smith
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THE COOK UP delivers a raw and honest account of life in East Baltimore and a narrative of incredible strength and redemption. D. Watkins is truly an artist.
— King Mez, hip-hop artist
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D. Watkins is his generation's David Simon. Another brilliant storyteller who takes you into the heart of East Baltimore and never flinches as he shows you the real.
— Touré, author of Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now
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Amazing storytelling that brings us deep into the reality of East Baltimore. A moving and important piece of contemporary memoir.
— Wes Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The Work and The Other Wes Moore
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THE COOK UP is an important story for both black and white America, as well as this country's political leadership, to read, if we're truly going to tackle the challenges that are facing our communities all across the country.
— Chuck Todd, correspondent on NBC's Meet the Press
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THE COOK UP is classic and cinematic, told with an observational acuity that hits you where it hurts.
— Frannie Kelley, host of NPR's Microphone Check
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THE COOK UP is an unflinching, raw, coming-of-age account of the personal impact of the drug trade. Simply a must-read.
— DeRay Mckesson, activist and organizer
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D. Watkins' THE COOK UP is a bold, necessary dispatch from the streets, where a kid born into a hustler's life must fight for survival-and his soul. Watkins may have been a drug dealer, but he was caught up in his own addictions: To rampant consumerism, the numbness of Percocets, and a fantasy of the high-flying American dream. His book shows the astonishing evolution of a man who traded cheap fixes for the mighty power of the written word.
— Sarah Hepola, New York Times bestselling author of Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
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Bleakly humorous, original prose, which pinballs between stoned, brand-focused, hip-hop excess and a more contemplative tone...Watkins provides a gritty, vivid first-person document of a desperate demographic.
— Kirkus Reviews
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In the tradition of James Baldwin's "Letter From a Region in My Mind," THE COOK UP is a personal history that complicates racial stereotypes...Watkins knows his readers live in different Americas. THE COOK UP is their invitation to notice one another standing in the same line.
— TheAtlantic.com
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Stunning.
— Baltimore City Paper, Best Memoir 2016