Color of Water

Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
by
James McBride
adult memoir

This book was published in 1996 and every year since then a librarian or website or patron has recommended it. I think Oprah recommended it as well. I finally decided to check it out and see what all the hype was about.
James McBride is the son of an African American minister and a woman who described herself as light skinned. While saying she was light skinned is technically the truth, the truth is also that she was not at all African American, but a Polish Jewish immigrant (She passed away in 2010). Life was tough for his mother, Ruth, and tough for James McBride as well. His mother grew up under the very strict discipline of her rabbi father and her disabled mother. James grew up very poor and had to live with the social stigma of being a mixed raced child in the 1960's and 1970's. His father passed away before he was born, and although he had a step father this man did not even live with his wife and children. Ruth had a total of 12 children.
This is not a warm, cuddly book. Life was HARD! His mother was not particularly affectionate and took a get-tough attitude toward life. She was convinced that regardless of the color of her skin, her children's skin, etc. if someone prays hard, studies hard and works hard in America, by the grace of God, they will succeed.
The author titled this as a tribute, but it is not an affectionate tribute. It is a hardscrambled tribute.
One librarian that I talked to about this book said that this is more relevant than ever as evidenced in the life of our President. Barack Obama, the child of a White mother and a Black father studied hard and prayed hard and look where he is today! Mom McBride was right.
There are only a few photographs and these are intentionally faded out and shown in black and white. I understand the effect they were going for, but I was curious to see more photographs of these remarkable people and places.

Overall this is a very good book, but I was a bit disappointed. I had hoped for more joy and humor. It is pretty serious book.

Here is a link to the New York Times article on her life and death:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/arts/16jordan.html

Big Read Funny in Farsi

If You Liked Funny in Farsi, try

Books on Iran, Iraq, Pakistan

Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar Nafisi

*Kite Runner. Kahid Husseini

*Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Marjane Satrapi

*Three Cups of Tea. Greg Morgensen. A mountain climbing nurse wishes to repay the kindness of the Afghan and Pakistani people by building schools.

*Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. Suzanne Fisher Staples

Books on First Generation Americans

Becoming American : Personal Essays by First Generation Immigrant Women. Meri Nana-Ama Danquah.

Babylon Sisters : a Novel. Pearl Cleage.

Growing up Ethnic in America : Contemporary Fiction about Learning to Be American. Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan.

*Memoirs of a Geisha. Arthur Golden.

Rain of Gold. Victor Villaseñor.

*Dreams from my Father. Barack Obama

Some Movies featuring life in Iran or Iraq
Children of Heaven

Cafe Setareh

Donya

Dokhtari ba kafsh-haye-katani = The Girl in the Sneakers

Dokhtaran khorshid [videorecording] = Daughters of the Sun

Bānū-yi Urdībihisht [videorecording] = The May Lady

One Night with the King – story of Esther/Hadassah and King Xerxes

*Not without My Daughter

*Thief and the Cobbler – cartoon, an ancient tale retold. Extraordinary modern artwork nodding to the traditional art of the region.

Some Movies featuring immigrants to America
*American Tale

*West Side Story

Real Women Have Curves

Moscow on the Hudson

*My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Family

*Coming to America

I have not read or watched all of these. Those that I have are marked with a *.

What's on My Desk March 2008

Funny in Farsi is the annual Big Read Title. Adult nonfiction. DONE.
I enjoyed this book very much. It was much lighter and easier to read than I had anticipated. I would recommend comparing and contrasting with the Kite Runner, although Kite Runner does not have a Bowling for Dollars reference.
http://www.bigread.org/br/index.php

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Young adult fiction/nonfiction. Recommended supplementary material to the Big Read title Funny in Farsi. Firoozeh left Iran, but this author stayed and experienced the Iranian Revolution events of 1979. This graphic novel is her account of the events as perceived as an Iranian child. It is now a movie playing in the theatres.

Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan. MOPS book discussion book.

Miss Mary Mack by Mary Ann Hobermann and Nadine Bernard Westcott. Children's fiction. DONE.
Since I heard the children's librarian read this to a group of preschoolers the song has been stuck in my head and won't go away! I think I might have heard the song some time before, but not on any recording. Someone told me it was by a famous female African American folk singer and she saw the singer on Mr. Rogers some time. I don't know if she meant that the song came out in the 1970's or it was re-recorded by this artist then. It isn't one I learned in the playground. Maybe I will see if the library has a recording of this.
FOOTNOTE: I think she meant Ella Jenkins. Yes, our library has some of her CD's.
http://www.ellajenkins.com/
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
From virtually the outset of her folksinging career, Ella Jenkins stood at the forefront of children's music, establishing herself as one of the few musicians in the genre whose charms extended beyond her young target audience into the realm of adults and educators. Born in St. Louis but raised in Chicago, Jenkins began singing professionally in 1956. Over the course of two books, several videos, and numerous albums, she educated children about everything from reading to geography to dance, and over time she even began teaching their instructors as well — through her famous Adventures in Rhythm workshops, Jenkins demonstrated new group-vocalizing and rhythm-building methods to music teachers. And as the times changed, Jenkins changed with them; by the 1990s, her repertoire included up-to-the-minute songs on topics like multi-culturalism and the environment.

Little Dog and Duncan by Kristine O'Connell George and June Otani. Children's fiction. DONE.
A nice, sappy set of poems about two dogs. Enjoyable, but not memorable. This book could be used to show how very short poems can still be effective.

Letting Go of Anger and Frustration by Pam and John Vredevelt. Adult nonfiction. DONE. This brief self-help book shows Biblical principles that people can live by. It is part of a large series of books that this husband and wife team has written. They use the CEV and the Message Bible in their quotes, so readers that are not comfortable with King James language don't feel left out. It is written at a pretty basic reading level, so most adult or teen readers should be able to read this. The word I would use to describe this book, and probably others by these authors is "accessible".

Caring for the Dead by Jonathan P. Vasko. Adult fiction. DONE.

A divorced couple deals with the ex-wife's excruciating cancer ordeal. I would probably not have picked up this thoughtful, quiet book on my own, but the author was a childhood friend of mine so I had to try it out before donating a copy to our hometown library. It is self-published and put out by PublishAmerica. I did find a few typographical errors, which is understandable.

The use of prose means this is not a book to zoom quickly through, but to savor. Have a box of tissues nearby. I have not read very many books told from a Catholic perspective, so that makes it unusual. Many Northeast Ohio places, roads, and destinations are mentioned throughout the book.

Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman, David Clemesha and Dan Yaccarino. Children's fiction. DONE.

Mr. Gilly loves his job as a trash truck driver. It is good to have an appreciation of all the jobs people have that affect our everyday life, so this is a good companion to books like Vicky the Vet and Sam the Chef. What kid doesn't love to hear the rumble of a big truck coming down the street? This was a pretty good book, but I think that the Scholastic video of the book really brought it to life. I know it is blasphemy, but hearing the narrator of the DVD read it, enhanced my reading of it. I got a better appreciation for the rhythm of the words after seeing the video.

Meq by Steve Cash. Young Adult/Adult fantasy fiction. DONE. The author is some country and western singer I have never heard of, but based on this book, maybe I will listen to one of his songs.

In some ways it reminds me of The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme. http://www.venpolypheme.com/home.htm

This was an excellent book! I neglected my family time to read it. I can see this becoming a series, or even a movie or television series since the concept of the main character living for a very long time and seeing many generations of humans come and go during his lifetime can lead to a lot of historical dramas. One reviewer called it a vampire book without the vampires. Someone else said it was like Highlander, except less violent. I don't think Highlander was a book series, though.

Spiderwick Chronicles #1 The Field Guide and # 2 Seeing Stone by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. Children's Fantasy Fiction. DONE. Action-packed adventure all the way, with no boring philosophical stops. I would have preferred to read volumes 1 - 5 in a one-book format since now I have to get on hold at the library for #3, then #4, then #5 before I see the movie. I read # 1 as regular type and # 2 as large type since there was a shorter wait for the LT version. I assume publishing separately was a marketing tactic to sell more books and I see that the publisher was quick to put out a short movie synopsis, some early reader junior versions, guides, etc. like the marketing of the Harry Potter books. Hey, more power to them, that's how free enterprise works.

The Pilgrims Are Marching by Carol Greene and Tom Dunnington. Children's Fiction/Nonfiction. DONE. This is part of a series called Sing-Along Holiday Stories. It was well researched and historically accurate. The pictures are by a Highlights artist and look like they would be featured in this classic children's magazine. The story itself, however, and the rhyming are not too great. I tried to make the words go to the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home or When the Saints Go Marching In, but the words just didn't work. The repeating line "in the land of the brave and the free" was plainly annoying as was the main character, Johnny B. who was based on a real boy who, apparently had a death wish. After reading this one I am not planning to pick up others in the series.