Book recommendation

I have been informed that the natives get restless without lots of postings, but I admit that I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I should blog about, so the etherworld needs to be patient with me while I get my act together.

Before my brain was totally consumed with reading bills at the Legislature, I actually read books, and the last one I read in January was Cane River by Lalita Tademy. This was loaned to me by a reading friend and since I love historical fiction and family history, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a multi-generational tale that begins with a slave woman and then follows her female descendants. The book is reminiscent of Roots, in that it is a fictional story of the author's real ancestors, and there are photographs of the real women. It is a fascinating story of strong black women and their white masters or partners and how the family's ideal is to get whiter each generation, but then the realizations of what it really means to be a person of color. I admired some of these women and their choices to survive, and yet some of the children grew up not knowing who they were and which world they really belonged in. It really caused me to think about our self-perceptions and what we do to ourselves. Since I live in the Beehive State which is predominantly white, it was interesting to read about the loss of self experienced by people wanting to be white.

Happy reading!