I thought the premise of this would be great fun sadly there was a cultural divide as I simply didn't know the stickers that the author mentioned as a way of telling his story as I didn't have them here in the UK.

The premise is really good, as each sticker is associated with something in the author's life and if it was perhaps able to be more relatable to a broader audience in my opinion? It would be a non fiction book you could easily relax and connect with.

I wish I'd been aware of the divide prior to reading this otherwise perhaps I'd not accepted my copy of the book. C'est la vie.

Evocative and sticks with the reader long after they finish reading the book. Has tremendous re-readability, and I plan to return and reread multiple times

Twenty little meditative essays inspired by a ubiquitous part of 1980s and 1990s childhoods: Stickers. (GAWD how I hated the damned things. "Easy release" my lily-white one! I was still finding them on the undersides of chairs and backs of paintings in 2010.)

Author Hoke shines in these quick hits of memory, bringing the reader back into his world as it was and thinking about his various challenges...disabled mother in a wheelchair, absent father, being queer in Charlottesville, Virginia...and the roots his white self has in the South, with all the freight that implies.

He reckons with comparatively large parts of his ancestral racism; he states that, with all its contradictions, he intends this read to make his identity "...a little more tangible." Without being acquainted with the gentleman, I feel that I have a picture of him as a person that would never be obtainable through any more rigorous, structured look at what makes a person into the unique self they are. No, it's not autobiography, or even memoir, it's that rare thing : The reflective essay, the thoughtful, loosely organized look into the back corners of the closets and the darker recesses of the attic for the bright, shiny things once delighted in and now gathering patina and dust in unused parts of one's mind

I enjoyed myself as I wandered around with Author Hoke as he showed me his once-prized gewgaws and knick-knacks. Join us for a good old wander.

While I mildly enjoyed this collection of essays that inspired some sticker nostalgia, I can't think of who I would hand it to.

I didn't click with this. If I'm honest, I don't think I picked this up at the right time for me. I found it disjointed and I feel like I just didn't take it all in. Maybe I needed to look more into what the "Object Lessons" series aim is. This is very much a "it's not the book, it's me" situation but I don't see myself giving this a reread down the line to see if I get anything more from it to be able to say anything more substantial.

This is a very unique book, I loved the content and am looking forward to rereading it in the future. It is odd, but I loved the nostalgia of remembering the stickers of my youth and I enjoyed Henry's writings on the various icons he selected.

Some stories were interesting but overall, this book was not what I expected and I don't think it was right for me; it felt like there were no hooks and there was nothing to make me want to continue reading.

This was such an interesting way to write a memoir (if you could call it that). I love finding joy and meaning in small things, and boy do I love stickers, so this was really wonderful.

Really interesting take on a memoir. Loved seeing how the stickers interplayed with the short stories!

Writing a memoir (of sorts) using stickers is a unique way to do it, to say the least. I actually remembered some of the stickers mentioned and found myself remembering other stickers I had coveted and collected in my early years. I enjoyed all of the origin facts surrounding the different stickers, as well.

An extremely interesting and unique take on a memoir. Hoke details important moments in his own life and the history of his town/state through 20 short essays, each inspired by a sticker that stands out from different periods of his life.

The images that make a mark on us and linger are part of our own personal histories but also broader ones of the world around us, and Hoke does a good job capturing this.

At times it was hard to follow, as the essays do not seem to follow any chronological order, though Hoke does say this will be the case. It also gives a detailed look at historical and recent events in Charlottesville, but for non-Americans I think a lot of the references are unfamiliar (googling and flipping back to the endnotes helped a lot but we’re time consuming/ interrupted the flow )

Overall, this was really enjoyable !

This is the first book I’ve read of the Object Lessons series, but I admire what the author attempts to invoke with the use of stickers throughout the narrative. As the author begins each section with a specific sticker design, they continue into a memory of their life and how the environment of their home town of Charlottesville, Virginia, has changed since the neo-Nazi rally that resulted in one woman’s death in 2017.

"I was thinking about all the rubbish, the flopping plastic in the branches, the shoreline of odd stuff caught along the fencing, and I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up..."
Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let Me Go

Objects can hold great personal power. It could be a toy from your childhood, your first, car, for Henry Hoke it is stickers. As our personal artifacts become increasingly digital, the power of small objects can tell the story of a life. In Henry Hoke's book, Sticker, he uses a series of stickers to detail his life and the community of Charlottesville, Virginia leading up to the deadly Unite The Right Rally in 2017.

Growing up in Virginia can make you unaware of the dark history within. This can be represented in how local holidays are celebrated. Lee-Jackson-King Day was celebrated (Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson, both Confederate War Generals celebrated on the same day as Martin Luther King Day from 1984 to 2000) instead of Martin Luther King Day. Hoke blends this local history and symbolism with his own. Hoke focuses on objects from his childhood. A constellation on the ceiling of his room or an anarchy sticker during a rebellious phase. Finally the Charlottesville sticker, a C-HEART-Ville to commemorate the community's resistance to the deadly White Suppremicist rally that led to violent clashes and death on August 12, 2017.

Each chapter focuses on a sticker with a story that follows, much like a writer's prompt. I liked this technique. It makes the experience very visceral. Some aspects felt very nostalgic for me (video stories, music choices, etc.) It is a very moving series of essays that are inspired by very small objects. Objects like these can carry powerful symbols for both evil and for good.

Hoke takes aim at nostalgia, but gets stuck on stereotypes and middle-class discontent. I unfortunately found myself sighing "ugh, shut up already".

Henry Hoke writes a memoir through 20 stickers that is part nostalgia - for video stores, for summer camp - but also a reckoning. As a white boy growing up in Charlottesville, that identity came into a clearer focus in recent years and the negative attention his city received. I also felt like he was skirting some discussion of queer identity but maybe he shared what he wanted to share. He also included topics like having a parent with a disability (still his primary parent) and going through parents' divorce as a kid.

Were you a sticker person as a child? I'm guilty. I remember my giant bright pink sticker book of elementary school years...probably why I'm drawn as an adult to paper planners. But the stickers profiled here are not all that variety, some are the type that warn a child about poison, brag about an honor roll student, or warn parents of explicit content. So now you're getting a sense of the range of these essays.

“You’re experiencing my second chance. A memoir in 20 stickers, randomly arranged and full of contradictions.”

<i>sticker</i> by Henry Hoke is a memoir of growing up different in the American South. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia, the author recounts snippets of his life from boyhood to adult, each tied together by a sticker. Sometimes the sticker smells like death-wish, sometimes the sticker smells like, “fresh asphalt, paved over something green that was trying to grow.”

The book explores themes of racism and white supremacy (Charlottesville was the scene of a now-infamous “Unite the Right” rally) and growing up queer/different.

I particularly enjoyed how the author wrote—the prose reads almost like poetry. Memoirs are not something I am generally interested in, but this book spoke to me, as I also grew up queer in the American South. Much of the casual racism and homophobia that the book explores were endemic in my childhood and adolescence, as well.

This was a cute concept! An autobiography told through the nostalgia of stickers. Many of the stories but up my own nostalgia attached to the stickers that were described. A nice, short read!

I’ve always felt a little weird about reviewing memoirs, but this was such clever conceit, a memoir centered around 20 stickers that represent specific moments in the writer’s life. I ended up requesting this book while not actually knowing anything about Hoke. At the end of each chapter, I found myself thinking about what stickers I would choose for myself.

It’s not really in any kind of chronological order, so that took some getting used to. Although the non linear structure did give it a very informal feel. Like when you’re sitting down with a friend who’s starts to tell one story, jumps to another, then another. It’s intimate. The personal connections to each sticker feel almost confessional in nature. And I appreciated that.

Where this book really shines though, is in the last quarter. Other than an early chapter, most of this book is thoroughly personal and intimate. Toward the end, however, Hoke’s personal clashes with the national in a deeply moving essay about his experiences of living in Charlottesville at the time of the white supremacist rally in 2017. There is a weight here that was less present in the majority of the rest of the book.

I’ll definitely be looking for more by Hoke after this!

A well-rounded exploration of the LGBTQI+ community, it's formation and how exactly it pertains to Hoke’s formative years as he understands himself to be a member of said community. Through a selection of stickers, vignettes are created that flesh out Hoke’s life story. An interesting read, but I would have preferred more on stickers than on the author.

This is actually a 3.5 star read for me. I can’t exactly say I enjoyed it, and I really didn’t like the first 20% or so because of the segmented style (which may just be a symptom of the Object Lessons books, generally, as I have never read one before now).

That said, the last half of this book really spoke to me. I got an eerie sense of deja vu reading reflections on Hoke growing up in—and in some ways, growing out of—Charlottesville, VA.

Charlottesville has always kind of given me that sense, of being in an in-between place. It’s only two hours outside of D.C., which I have called home since 2017, but driving through Charlottesville gives me the creepy feeling of driving through an inverted image of Oxford, MS, where I went to college. This book gave me the exact same slightly off sense of familiarity as driving past the UVA campus for the first time and thinking, “I could actually be at Ole Miss right now.”

Some books aren’t fun to read, but they do resonate. I won’t forget Sticker anytime soon.