Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

Here’s a peek at my TBR for the Appalachian Summer Reading Challenge!

I bought this memoir a few weeks back when I was visiting Charleston, South Carolina.

I plan on reading PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS for the prompts
🍃LGBTQ+ Author
🍃Nonfiction
🍃Northern Appalachia
🍃Author of Color

It could count for more, but I don’t know yet and will report back when I’ve finished the book. 🤓

Publisher’s Description:

“PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS introduces a powerful new talent in Brian Broome, whose early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy harboring crushes on other boys propel forward this gorgeous, aching, and unforgettable debut. Brian’s recounting of his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in. Indiscriminate sex and escalating drug use help to soothe his hurt, young psyche, usually to uproarious and devastating effect. A no-nonsense mother and broken father play crucial roles in our misfit’s origin story. But it is Brian’s voice in the retelling that shows the true depth of vulnerability for young Black boys that is often quietly near to bursting at the seams.

“Cleverly framed around Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool,” the iconic and loving ode to Black boyhood, Punch Me Up to the Gods is at once playful, poignant, and wholly original. Broome’s writing brims with swagger and sensitivity, bringing an exquisite and fresh voice to ongoing cultural conversations about Blackness in America.”