A Long Way Gone
by Ishmael Beah · first published 2007
8mentions
4recommended by
8HN commenters
2010–2024first – last mentioned
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007) is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah, an author from Sierra Leone. The book is a firsthand account of Beah's time as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone (1990s). Beah was 12 years old when he fled his village after it was attacked by rebels, and he wandered the war-filled country until brainwashed by an army unit that forced him to use guns and drugs. By 13, he had perpetrated and witnessed numerous acts of violence. Three years later, UNICEF rescued him from the unit and put him into a rehabilitation program that helped him find
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A Long Way Gone [0] is an amazing (and harrowing) first-person account of a child soldier in Sierra Leone. It's not too long of a book, and I highly recommend it. [0] https://smile.amazon.com/Long-Way-Gone-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/03...
on “Absolution: The long odyssey of a child soldier” ↗…Happiness (sounds self helpy but is actually a great book on our inability to predict how we will feel about situations in the future) * A Brief History of Everything - one cool story after another * A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - hard to bear, but eye-opening * Getting Unstuck - buddhist talk by Pema Chodron * Born to Run - great, exciting story. Sometimes I would sit in the parking lot or the driveway…
on “How can I keep learning on my 1.5 hr commute?” ↗I'm not familiar with the other items, but "A Long Way Gone" is plenty sophisticated enough from a thematic point of view. Violent, gritty, complicated, it portrays an ugly piece of the world and has some serious perspective. Just because it doesn't have flowery…
on “The Atlantic Did Me Dirty” ↗…books made me change my attitude towards life: - mans search for meaning by victor frankl, book about holocaust written by a psychiatrist. Quite well known, I guess I do not need to say too much. - A Long Way Gone, written by an ex child soldier, quite fascinating to me what these people had to endure. - "SOS" Emotions-Lexikon (apparently only in german) I got this for christmas and its quite a cool book to help…
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you read in 2024?” ↗…points out, I am just “one public-high school teacher in Illinois,” but while professors at elite universities sound the alarm over Gen Z undergrads not finishing Les Miserables [...] Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Ibi Zoboi’s American Street, and David Bowles’s The Prince and the Coyote, are all complex, challenging, and substantial texts that speak to the interests and experiences of my students, so it’s not…
on “The Atlantic Did Me Dirty” ↗> Passing references to Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, and even my unit about The Odyssey >Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Ibi Zoboi’s American Street, and David Bowles’s The Prince and the Coyote, are all complex, challenging, and substantial texts Yes, some literature is better than other literature. Some literature should…
on “The Atlantic Did Me Dirty” ↗…> Parents and teachers will want kids to read books that challenge them. You say "challenge" them but you really mean "belong to the tribe." Classical Russian Literature is a tribe. "Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Ibi Zoboi’s American Street, and David Bowles’s The Prince and the Coyote" are also a tribe, I will not make up a name for that tribe, but it is one. Playing in the orchestra is a tribe. LISP is Paul…
on “The Atlantic Did Me Dirty” ↗The rising young generations want texts that matter to them, that reflect their lives and experiences....Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Ibi Zoboi’s American Street, and David Bowles’s The Prince and the Coyote, are all complex, challenging, and substantial texts that speak to the interests and experiences of my students, so it’s not…
on “The Atlantic Did Me Dirty” ↗