Another Word for Love

by Carvell Wallace
Another Word for Love cover
Good Books rating 4.5
Buy online
Amazon
Format/Price Check
Technical
  • ID: 488
  • Added: 2025-09-12
  • Updated: 2025-09-12
  • Reviews: 4
Reviews
bookmarks.reviews · Unknown · 2025-09-18
brilliant 4.50

Carvell Wallace's memoir is praised for its beauty, vulnerability, and powerful storytelling. The book is described as funny, heartbreaking, and religiously vivid, with poetic language that captivates readers.

Carvell Wallace's memoir, Another Word for Love, is celebrated for its profound exploration of healing through the lenses of justice, sex, love, family, and death. Reviewers highlight the book's great beauty, vulnerability, and the author's ability to connect with readers through moving anecdotes. The prose is described as sharp, witty, and honest, with a poetic appreciation of language that creates a powerful and evocative reading experience. The memoir is both heartbreaking and funny, offering a religiously vivid and lovingly open perspective. It is seen as a promising start, with hopes for more work from Wallace in the future.

Quick quotes

    Carvell Wallace’s new memoir, _Another Word for Love,_ arrives with great beauty, teeth and vulnerability ... Each anecdote continues to move the reader and implore us all to remember to connect.

    Wallace’s aesthetic appreciation of language echoes in poetic sentences that craft metaphor with ease and wrap the reader in an evocative cocoon of powerful witnessing.

    Wallace is a brilliant storyteller and masterful student in the language of love ... Wallace’s prose is always sharp, witty and honest.

kirkusreviews.com · Unknown · 2025-09-18
profound 4.50

Carvell Wallace's memoir, 'Another Word for Love,' explores the complex relationship between a mother and son, delving into themes of race, identity, and family. The narrative is raw and introspective, offering a poignant reflection on love and forgiveness.

Carvell Wallace's 'Another Word for Love' is a deeply personal memoir that examines the intricate dynamics of a mother and son's relationship. The book is a powerful exploration of race, identity, and the enduring bonds of family. Wallace's writing is both raw and introspective, providing a poignant reflection on love, forgiveness, and the complexities of human connection. The narrative is compelling and thought-provoking, offering readers a profound look into the author's journey and the universal themes that resonate within it.

Quick quotes

    The love between a mother and son is both a blessing and a burden

    It is a story of resilience and redemption, of the ways we are shaped by those who love us and the ways we, in turn, shape them

    Wallace's prose is both lyrical and unflinching, a testament to the power of truth-telling.

blackbooks.substack.com · Unknown · 2025-09-18
admirable 4.50

Carvell Wallace's memoir, Another Word for Love, is praised for its honest and specific exploration of love, self-love, and personal growth. The reviewer appreciates Wallace's unique perspective as a Black man sharing his journey of loving himself and others, highlighting his honesty and commitment to genuine love.

Carvell Wallace's memoir, Another Word for Love, stands out for its raw honesty and unique perspective on love and self-love. The reviewer admires Wallace's ability to write about his journey with a combination of distance and specificity, focusing on his triumphs and failures without making excuses. The memoir is celebrated for its beautiful prose and the author's commitment to genuine love, making it a powerful and relatable read. The reviewer particularly appreciates Wallace's use of 'I' language and his honesty about his mistakes, which adds to the memoir's authenticity. The book is compared to a field of beautiful flowers, symbolizing the beauty and impact of Wallace's writing.

Quick quotes

    …I don’t want to write about the people who have hurt me. They are among the dying. You are among the dying. To be among the dying, and to know it, the feeling that gives you, that is another word for love.

    Whenever you see a clump of daffodils standing alone in a field, it is a sign that someone once tried to make something beautiful there.

    Wallace is a journalist who writes with a unique combination of distance and specificity about his journey to loving himself and others.

time.com · Unknown · 2024-11-13
moving 4.50

Carvell Wallace's memoir 'Another Word for Love' is praised for its raw vulnerability and poetic sensitivity, offering a deeply personal account of his journey from homelessness to parenthood. The book is structured in three sections, each exploring themes of loss, faith, and reunion, with Wallace's candid storytelling making it a powerful and moving read.

Carvell Wallace's memoir 'Another Word for Love' is a beautifully written and deeply personal account of his life, filled with raw vulnerability and poetic sensitivity. The book is divided into three sections—'Loss,' 'God,' and 'Reunion'—each serving as a sacrament of sorts, exploring themes of separation, faith, and reconnection. Wallace's storytelling is candid and unflinching, detailing his struggles with homelessness, substance abuse, and the complexities of his relationship with his mother. His ability to find beauty in the chaos and to reflect on his experiences with such honesty makes this memoir a powerful and moving read. The reviewer highlights Wallace's unique voice and the emotional depth of his writing, making it a standout in the genre of Black memoirs.

Quick quotes

    Wallace, now 49, has spent his late-blooming journalism career writing bold and intimate profiles of artists like Michael B. Jordan and Viola Davis, as well as more personal pieces, such as one on the cultural significance of Black horror that I think about and carry with me daily.

    He now turns his pen to his own life with the same poetic sensitivity and complexity.

    The secret is that I was slowly rotting from the inside. … I didn’t want anyone around me to know that secret because it was mine, it made me who I was, and so I sealed the secret in, spackled it shut inside me with weed, acid, red wine, white wine, Pacifico, mushrooms and whatever else I could get my hands on.

Appears in Lists