Book Review: Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu

[ID: a teal book with an illustration of a Black man in a wheelchair with a champagne bottle spraying behind him. The book sits on a white shelf in front of a rainbow array of disability reads in shades of yellow and blue. Light yellow carnations line the top of the row of books and to the left of the book. A glass champagne glass filled with yellow petals sits to the right with a champagne cork at its base. In front of the book is an acrylic bookmark with gold and black moon shapes on it.]

Happy release day to SIPPING DOM PÉRIGNON THROUGH A STRAW!⁣

Thank you so much to @LegacyLitBooks for reaching out to me with a review copy of disability activist Eddie Ndopu’s new memoir. When I sat down to read “just a few pages”, I became completely immersed and read over half of the book. I couldn’t put it down even if my sleep schedule suffered! 😂 [laughing emoji]⁣
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The memoir primarily deals with Eddie’s experience attending Oxford University with small snippets of flashbacks to his younger life. Eddie is a master at painting a literary picture and you feel like you’re sitting right next to him as he experiences horrific ableism, fights for his rights, laughs with his friends, dreams of love, and continues to break barriers. ⁣
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However, at times I wished the memoir was more chronological with more details about Eddie’s early life and teen years. The jumping back and forth in time was sometimes hard to follow. I also craved more descriptions of Eddie’s work. I imagine it was cut down for publication reasons but I would’ve been happy to read a detailed, immersive, and fully fleshed out narrative of his earlier life and career even if it meant the book had to be twice as long!⁣
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Eddie brings a charming sense of humor to his writing that makes this memoir addictively readable. I hope that this book is only the beginning of Eddie’s publishing journey and he goes on to write a part 2 (and maybe even a part 3) to this engaging memoir!⁣