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Blog Extraordinaire

The Vanishing Half

8/19/2020

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I recently read an  interesting book titled The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. It is a Good Morning America Book Club Pick and a New York Times Best Seller. It is set in Mallard, Louisiana, a small ideological community of light skinned blacks. Dark skinned blacks are not welcome in this small town. The book focuses on the lives of two twin sisters, Desiree and Stella. As the girls grow up they are stiffed in the small town and as soon as they are old enough they run away to New Orleans. Their paths part, one sister moves to DC and married an abusive dark skinned man and the other passes herself off as white and marries a white man. 

From the June 3, 2020 NPR review by Heller McAlpin, The Vanishing Half, Counts the Terrible Costs of Bigotry and Secrecy. 
"In Mallard, nobody married dark," Bennett writes starkly. Over time, its prejudices deepened as its population became lighter and lighter, "like a cup of coffee steadily diluted with cream." The twins, with their "creamy skin, hazel eyes, wavy hair," would have delighted the town's founder.

It is an intriguing story of secrets, identity, racism, and family ties. 


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Airplane Crash and its Aftermath

8/12/2020

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Here I go again reading a book about an airplane crash when flying.  Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano is an amazing book about a 12 year old boy, Eddie who is the only survivor of an airplane crash. He is now the "Miracle Boy." The story is told in chapters alternating between the time during the flight and after the devastating crash. The characters are vivid and honest. The novel grapples with the heartbreak and healing and the human spirit. I highly recommend this incredible read. 

Favorite quote: The air between us is not empty space. 

From NPR review written by Helen McAlpin 
Dear Edward is in part a tale of survivor guilt, which is fueled by the weight of oppressive, often bizarre expectations on the miracle boy, especially from the families of victims who want him to fulfill their loved ones' dreams and plans. "Stop expecting me to have hidden powers, okay? I'm not a freaking wizard," he explodes at one point. It takes Edward years to learn to live with the aftershocks of the tragedy and absorb the liberating fact that, far from being chosen for a special purpose, his survival was just "dumb luck."



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    Kathy Corey
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