I appreciated this look at the civil rights leader from my very own hometown. Growing up in highly conservative Christian/Republican circles often colored my view of many of these figures. In my many years of deconstruction, I have voraciously consumed works like this to gain a better understanding, a more realistic understanding of who these people, like to see Jackson, were. This author tells the story with diplomacy and realism. I enjoyed and appreciated getting a better perspective on this monumental figure.
(I do not rate memoirs.)
I did not expect when I started reading this book right after a biography of Jesse Jackson to encounter a story of yet another man who spent many of his formative years in my hometown. I always love seeing those sorts of connections. Brandon tells his story well and does not shy away from discussing many of the mistakes that he made. Having read about his upbringing, I definitely did a double take when he said he chose to attend Liberty University, not an institution that I thought he would be drawn towards. He attended Liberty at first because of a potential basketball scholarship, and then because, when the scholarship didn’t materialize due to injury, because he had already gotten admitted. I also loved hearing his passion about his students so vividly as he wrote.
(I do not rate memoirs.)
I have watched several of the authors interviews on the cults to consciousness podcast, so I knew a little bit of her story before finally reading the book which had been on my radar for a while. Tia writes beautifully and opens her heart far more than many others in her circumstances would be able to. It’s stories like these that we need to hear more of so we can keep more people from having stories like these to tell.
I mistakenly assumed when going into this book that it was a story of escaping North Korea. This is definitely not that. The author suffered tremendous trauma and inflicted by the hands of her father, and then, when she thought she’d finally gotten away, at the hands of a man, you deserve the right body, and ultimately also at the hands of a justice system that seems to go out of its way to suppress the voice of victims. I thought that the authors choice to intersperse fiction that explored the stages of grief was beautiful and was an excellent structuring device for her memoir.
Likely because I do not read a lot of collected works, I struggle with knowing how to write a review for this collection. I will say that, even though when I read that this is a collection of both non-fiction and fiction. I was a little nervous, this is one of my favorite collective works. I have read works by several of these authors, many of them the band works in question. And highly appreciated how they chose to contribute to this project.
(I do not rate memoirs.)
I absolutely loved learning more about Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary. She did not have the upbringing that would lead anyone to believe that she would end up serving in a presidential administration. I loved how she told her story, but wish that she had told more. She told a lot about her personal life in her early life, but once she becomes an adult, the focus shifts to her political work and her passions. I thoroughly appreciated learning about both and would have appreciated learning more. I respect the fact that this is her story to tell and she can tell as much of it as she chooses.
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