{{Short description|2023 book by Christina Sharpe}} {{Infobox book | name = Ordinary Notes | title_orig = | translator = | image = Ordinary_Notes_Cover.jpg | caption = First edition | author = Christina Sharpe | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = {{hlist|Essay|criticism}} | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | release_date = April 25, 2023 | media_type = {{hlist|Print (hardcover and paperback)|digital|audiobook}} | pages = 392 | isbn = 978-0374604486 | oclc = 1376023460 | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} {{italic title}} '''''Ordinary Notes''''' is a book by American academic Christina Sharpe, published in April 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.<ref name=libraryjournal>{{cite web |last=Kati |first=Rebekah |title=''Ordinary Notes'' |work=Library Journal |date=1 March 2023 |url=https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/ordinary-notes-1794367 |access-date=26 April 2023}}</ref> The book is a collection of 248 notes about black life in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-05 |title=National Book Award finalists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/10/05/238866/national-book-award-finalists-announced-3/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}</ref>
''Ordinary Notes'' received positive reviews by writers for ''Kirkus Reviews'', ''The New York Times'', and others. It was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Sharpe previously published ''In the Wake: On Blackness and Being'' in 2016.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |last=Szalai |first=Jennifer |author-link=Jennifer Szalai |title=In 'Ordinary Notes', a radical reading of black life |work=The New York Times |date=19 April 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/books/review/ordinary-notes-christina-sharpe.html |access-date=26 April 2023}}</ref><ref name=kirkus>{{cite magazine |title=''Ordinary Notes'' |magazine=Kirkus Reviews |date=19 January 2023 |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/christina-sharpe/ordinary-notes/ |access-date=26 April 2023}}</ref>
== Contents == Among its 248 notes are recollections of the presidency of Barack Obama, a discussion of Obama's response to the 2015 Charleston church shooting, an anecdote at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a discussion of Roland Barthes's book ''Camera Lucida'', and an analysis of a character in Toni Morrison's ''Beloved''.<ref name="libraryjournal"/><ref name=NYT /><ref name= "kirkus" />
== Reception== ''Ordinary Notes'' received a positive review by Brendan Buck in ''Newcity'', who praised Sharpe's writing as "not just personal or academic" but using an "inventive form" to discuss personal, academic, historical, and other facets of black identity.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Buck |first=Brendan |title=More than the sum of its parts: A review of Christina Sharpe's ''Ordinary Notes'' |magazine=Newcity |date=24 April 2023 |url=https://lit.newcity.com/2023/04/24/more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-a-review-of-christina-sharpes-ordinary-notes/ |access-date=26 April 2023}}</ref> ''Kirkus Reviews'' praised Sharpe's writing as "exquisitely original" and "artistry",<ref name= "kirkus" /> while Jennifer Szalai, writing for ''The New York Times'' views her collection of notes "as a rejoinder" to popular conceptions to black life.<ref name=NYT /> A review by CBC Books labeled the book "a singular achievement" in writing about "the ordinary-extraordinary dimensions of Black life".<ref>{{cite web |title=''Ordinary Notes'' by Christina Sharpe |work=CBC |date=6 April 2023 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/ordinary-notes-by-christina-sharpe-1.6804499 |access-date=26 April 2023}}</ref>
''Kirkus Reviews'' named ''Ordinary Notes'' one of the best non-fiction books of 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liebetrau |first=Eric |date=2023-11-19 |title=Best of 2023: Our Favorite Nonfiction |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/best-of-2023-our-favorite-nonfiction/ |access-date=2023-11-21 |website=Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:2023 non-fiction books Category:Literature by African-American women Category:Works about race and ethnicity Category:Farrar, Straus and Giroux books