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There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib is, as so many said it would be, a transcendent experience. Abdurraqib is a poet and it shows — he brings lyrical writing and linguistic study to his reflections on home, poverty, survival, pop culture, and basketball. There’s Always This Year can appear meandering or even disjointed at times, but every tangent is stitched together by a common thread. Coming of age at the same time and in the same state as LeBron James, Abdurraqib reflects on the rise and fall of an American King and in doing so, presents a counternarrative to the idea that just because a person can “make it out” of a place doesn’t mean they want to. The audiobook recorded by the author was such a phenomenal experience — highly recommend. 📸: I’m holding up a kindle displaying the ebook cover of There’s Always This Year. via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C9muz0MgBL2/