I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

I'm not usually one to immediately jump on the bandwagon and read a celebrity book club selection right out of the gate. However, when I saw this memoir was picked for Reese Witherspoon's book club, I thought I'd read an excerpt. I was hooked from those few paragraphs, and immediately bought the ebook for my Nook. I knew, based on bestseller lists, and my library's holdings, that any book I wanted to read regarding racial issues would be hard to come by because of demand. 

I'm still processing all that Austin had to say. I'm still thinking about all the things I say, do, and think that have a basis in racist thinking that goes so deep I'm not even aware of it. That is comes from simply being born and growing up white in middle-class Midwest America in the 1970's and 1980's. And that, I believe, is what white people struggle with-those people who want change, that is. I struggle to comprehend the enormity of the road we have ahead of us, and the road that has lead us here, today. 

Austin says many things that hit home. The struggle of just going to work every day as the only black person on a staff that promotes diversity but does anything but. That she has to keep a file on her computer of all the good emails she gets, to have her armor ready when she's called out for her "attitude" that makes others uncomfortable--when it's the others who should be called out. The worry about bringing her son into the world, and how she and her husband will explain the world to him while also bringing him up with joy and love for who he is. 

This was a powerful book to read, and I would definitely ask others to read it, as well. I am thinking, taking it all in, and yes, struggling a bit with some hard truths. And that's okay. I should be looking within and asking myself some hard questions.

While the whole memoir was an important and impactful read, I will always think of the last few pages, when Austin discusses hope. Knowing that you're in the middle of a long road, where you can't see the end. You have to keep the hope up, you have to keep fighting, even knowing you may not see the changes happen in your lifetime. You keep the fight moving for those who come after. 

This book is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook. 

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I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Review: The Girl Who Slept with God and Winner of the Giveaway!

In the right hands, this novel would make a very good movie.  It is the story of Jory and her sisters Grace and Frances in the summer and fall of 1970, living in the small town of Arco, Idaho.  It is at times funny, poignant, and heartbreaking.  

Jory is 13 going on 14, and Grace is 17.  Their father is a Harvard educated astronomer who is a very strict Christian.  They go to a Christian school, aren't allowed to wear makeup or dance; must wear very modest clothes, and eat a lot of lentil loaf.  Their mother is deeply unhappy and pretty much spends all of her time on tranquilizers, sleeping in her bedroom.  Grace believes it is her destiny to serve as a witness to Jesus; to do this, she wants to go on a mission to Mexico.  Off she goes for a few months, but is sent back home when she's taken ill.  Her illness is actually a pregnancy.  Her parents are just besides themselves at this turn of events.  It gets even more strange when Grace announces that this child is a gift from God, and yep, God got her pregnant.  

To save face and keep the scandal to a minimum, Grace's father Oren buys a house outside of town and moves Jory and Grace there.  Jory's furious at this turn of events.  She's forced to go to the public high school, where kids wear bell bottoms, smoke lots of weed, and have a life completely different than Jory's.  Befriending the ice cream truck driver Grip is part of Jory's rebellion.  She is on the fence; does she keep to her religious upbringing, or does she step into a different life, away from her parents?  It's a lot for a 14 year old to handle.  Grace is very fragile, and Jory is both frightened for her sister and angry at where her sister's actions have brought her.  Not having her parents and sister Frances around much makes things very difficult.  Yes, Jory's Dad moves a 14 and 17 year old to a house by themselves, with only an elderly neighbor to keep an eye on them.

There are moments that brought a smile to my face.  The culture of 1970 is everywhere in this novel:  the clothes, the attitudes of youth, the food,  the feeling that our country was on the cusp of great change.  Jory's growing pains mirror the culture she's reluctantly witnessing.  

Will Jory and Grace make it through this trying time?  I can't tell you.  This is a powerful novel, and I felt for every awkward, uncomfortable moment Jory experiences.  Her uncertainty, her anger, her feelings of abandonment.  That sister  love/hate relationship that only those who have sisters can ever possibly understand.  This would make an excellent book club pick.  There is much to this novel, and I'm so glad I received a copy from Penguin/Random House to review.  I would have skipped over this title otherwise, and that would have been a shame.  

The winner of a copy of The Girl Who Slept with God is:

 

Rating:  8/10 for a novel that really grew on me.  Jory is a very well written character, and her growing pains are both beautiful and poignant.  

Available in paperback and e-book.

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Review: The Girl Who Slept with God and Winner of the Giveaway!