Writing with a robust and steady voice, this memoir, written by a grandmother to her granddaughter has a unique frame that is emotionally compelling. It will appeal to readers interested in personal accounts of immigration, particularly stories from the Philippines. Her sense of humor and love of the Philippines infuse the book with a sense of wonder. She writes about overcoming challenges in gender and racial discrimination, making it in America and the importance of believing in oneself. Her vivid description is enthralling as she takes the reader along to see, hear, smell and touch her world. She speaks eloquently of her late husband, of being in love, and of the displacement and pain of losing him. In the end she offers closure and continuation of her journey, dreaming new adventures and following a different road.
The book is a memoir about growing up Black in Cape Charles, Virginia on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake. It details the origin of the town as a railroad terminus and connecting to ferry barges across the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, through its golden age in the Jim Crow South and its decline with the ascendancy of automobiles and the building of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Its rise again as a tourist destination in the past decade and how the fortunes of the town is chronicled, without acknowledgment of the role of the Black community, which was a robust and thriving parallel community, that evolved in response to the segregation of the Jim Crow South. Now the town is rising again as a tourist destination and replacing the Black section with White weekend second home owners, and the Black presence has considerably diminished. Without a recording of its history, its entire memory will be gone, as if it was never there at all. The memoir details the life of one Black man who is the grandson of a slave but became the first elected Black member of the Town Council and the first Black member elected to the Northampton County Board of Supervisors. It addresses Black and White relations and the experience of being Black and how one navigates the Jim Crow racist era. By reading this account of a Black man's life one may develop a better understanding of why we are experiencing still racial injustice and inequality, after legal barriers had been abolished by the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Its target audience would be all who are interested, both Blacks and Whites, in learning how they still carry the legacy of slavery in their hearts and how it informs their behavior at present and how by acknowledging their racist beliefs, they can choose to correct them, with actions that help realize the dream of true equality of the races and fulfill the lofty promise of the Revolution: its declaration of the self- evident truth, that all men are created equal, with unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
**I HAVE NOT BEEN AS PROFOUNDLY MOVED BY A BOOK IN YEARS' JODI PICOULT**A brilliantly original memoir of a grandmother speaking to her granddaughter from beyond the grave, telling the story of her life with hilarious candor and love.Bess Kalb has saved every voicemail message her grandmother - her best friend, her confidante - ever left her until the day she died.In this wildly imaginative memoir, Bobby Bell's voice is still in Bess's head. Stubborn, glamorous, larger than life, she gives Bess critical advice on everything and tells the history that made them both. Beginning with her mother's escape from the pogroms of Belarus in the 1880s to the rambunctiously cramped Brooklyn apartment where Bobby was born, it swings through her loving marriage, blazes over the rebellious youth of her daughter and finally - falls madly in love with her granddaughter, Bess. NOBODY WILL TELL YOU THIS BUT ME are the truths - full of devotion, killer instincts and hard-won experience - that Bess's grandmother tells even when they hurt - and even though she's gone.This unusual love story celebrates the bond of women across generations and the personalities that live on through grief and love. Told through documents, photographs, and verbatim dialogue, it's a memoir like none you've ever read before.
Linda Olarin was inspired to write this book when she found out that she was having her first grandchild. She takes us on a heartwarming journey about their loving relationship from his birth until adulthood. She had the same worries and fears that all grandparents have. Knowing that there would be trials and tribulations throughout his lifetime she tried her best to always guide him and teach him the best that she could. She wanted him to know that he would always have her unconditional love and support. She writes a very relatable story that will bring a tear to your eye and a smile to our face. This is a beautifully written book with stunning illustrations.
An African American grandmother gives the gift of wisdom to her beloved granddaughter through Letters From My Grandmother: Wisdom of Ages. In this inspiring memoir, Dr. Sharona Johnson journals her journey through life's labyrinth with conceptualized letters in memory of her grandmother's teachings. This book is a powerful memoir rooted in adages and symbolic life lessons from A-Z evoking nostalgia and leads the reader on a journey of introspection and mindfulness. As each story unfolds, principles emerge to incite the reader's hope, perseverance, love, faith, and joy. Nina Gay is the wise sage guiding her granddaughter through the continuum of life with lessons of wisdom that cumulate into a life of purpose, prosperity, spirituality, and achievements.
Bringing the insight and wisdom that made her bestselling "Motherless Daughters" a critically acclaimed success, Edelman presents an equally evocative look at the relationships between grandmothers, mothers, and daughters.
