Book of the Week: You Can’t Touch My Hair

Two non-fiction books in a row as BotWs?  This is unprecedented I hear you say.  Well yes, given that I read (on average) 1 non-fiction book a month, this is quite unusual.  But both these books were very, very good and truly deserve their spots as my Books of the Week.

Phoebe Robinson is an actress and comedian, and one half of the Two Dope Girls podcast (the other half is former Daily Show star Jessica Williams)  – which I need to add to my ever growing list of podcast subscriptions.  Her book of essays, You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain takes a look at the daily life of a young black woman in America today. As a stand-up comedian she’s used to finding the funny side of things and looking for humour in situations, and she is very, very good at that – so good in fact that at times I found myself sitting back and thinking “hang on, she’s being funny, but this is seriously bad”.

This book deals with serious and sensitive issues – stereotypes, bigotry, coded language and more – and it does it directly, apologetically but with such an engaging voice that you never feel like you’re being shouted at or lectured.  Robinson writes at length about the “Angry Black Woman” trope – and the difficulties that it creates in her life, in trying to get her voice and her opinions heard and valued, but she also discusses – at some length – her ranking of U2 in the order she’d like to sleep with them and how a female president would change the world.

I’ve thought long and hard about how to describe this book and its effect on me.  I finished it a week ago and I’m still digesting it. This whole book is measured, articulate, affecting and thought provoking.  And on top of all that, its so, so funny. It should be compulsory reading  – particularly at a time when the world seems so divided and divisive.

My copy came via NetGalley, but you can get one from Amazon, Waterstones (who have it mislabelled as by Jessica Williams who wrote the foreword) and Foyles (mislabelled again) and on Kindle and Kobo. You can even have Phoebe herself reading it on Audible.  And I suspect it may even make it in to the non fiction sections at some of the bigger WH Smiths and supermarkets.  It certainly deserves to.

Happy reading!