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Showing posts from June, 2017

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Purple Hibiscus  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie                 Kambili lives within the walls of her family’s compound. She follows the schedule provided to her by her father, tries to accomplish first in her class every term and ignores the sounds of her mother being beaten. Kambili has felt her father’s anger before too. Her brother JaJa is also no stranger to her father’s hands and the belt. Her father wants them to be as close to God as possible and when they fail, he punishes them out of love. Her father is a very wealthy, very well-known man and depended on by the people of his home village. Whenever they return he brings food and money to the village and shuns his own father, Kambili’s grandfather, accusing him of being a heathen for not converting to Catholicism like he has. When the government begins to fall around them he allows Kambili and JaJa to travel away for the first time, spending a week with his sister and her children. It is there Kambili learns what it’s

Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps

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Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps                 There are so many aspects about Black hair and the culture surrounding it that people simply aren’t aware of. With Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America , Byrd and Tharps attempt to make that information as accessible as possible. This book begins where African American history begins, the tribes of Africa and the pride that was once held in black hair. It continues with how the pride and care put into Black hair was demolished during the middle passage and the beginnings of slavery. It expands on the idea of Black hair with examining the beauty standards of the day in America and how enslaved Black people had no luxuries and none of the oils and tools they used in Africa were available to them to properly care for their hair. Issues of race and colorism also weighed heavily throughout the history of Black culture and still has an effect on how Blac

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead                 Cora had never planned on running. But after the beating she received on behave of Terrance Randall, she knew the time had come. Only weeks had passed since Ceasar had asked her to go with him. Now she was ready. The train sat on the tracks underground. She had no idea whose hands had dug these tunnels. Cora only knew that they needed to get away from Georgia. Ridgeway had hunted Cora’s mother, Mabel, who ran when Cora was a young girl. He was never able to find her and Cora was his next big target.                 I’m not sure what I expected when I first picked up this novel. There was so much hype regarding the story and so much praise lauded on that I was scared I would be disappointed. Needless to say that within minutes of starting this novel I was hooked. Whitehead begins this story with one woman’s journey across an ocean to slavery and it’s endearing and heartbreaking and honest. Cora’s story follows di