I thought I knew what to expect when I picked up “Homegoing” the debut novel by Yaa Gyasi – a novel of emigration and immigration, of loss and the search for a new and better life.

I did get that, but I also found myself quickly turning the pages of a novel set in the fascinating historical and cultural context of Ghana, a country I knew little about.

“Homegoing” opens with the heartbreaking, chilling stories of the African slavetrade, of wars fought between the Asante and Fante tribes with British and American slavetraders waiting in the wings ready to exploit the situation. The novel follows two half-sisters Effia and Esi born in two different villages and into two very different futures. We follow their families from 18th century Ghana to present day as some stay in Africa and some travel to America destined to a life in slavery.

The novel covers a lot of ground in its 300 pages, leaving some historical periods, especially the development and growing independence of Ghana, unexplored or at least not fully explored. In spite of each chapter’s focus on a different family member the novel never feels disjointed, as Yaa Gyasi succeeds in making each story utterly personal, intimate and relevant, willing the reader to move forward at a quick pace to discover their fates.

With “Homegoing” we are once again reminded that where we come from is an inextricable part of who we are and that – if we allow it to – it can determine who we become, for better or for worse.

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Marie Laure and Werner are young adults during World War II. One blind, the other an orphan; one a young French girl, the other a young German radio operator. Both find themselves in the small town of Saint Melo during the German occupation of France.

The book is a beautifully crafted tale of two people caught in situations beyond their control trying to find their way, literally through their senses. All the Light we Cannot See is full of detailed description as if Doerr is attempting to feel his way through the simple, yet multi-layered stories of kind, generous people whose lives are turned upside down by war.

Although set in the 1930s and 1940s of Germany and France, it is difficult not to read the story and its descriptions of shattering windows, basement shelters and thousands of people, families, parents, grandparents, crazy uncles and frightened children on the run without thinking of the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and devestation in Syria.

We read books like these and are moved by the plight of the characters, silently grateful that we don’t have to experience the same horrors, that the war ended and a peaceful Europe rose from the ashes.

I recently re-read passages of Anthony Doerr’s book – and once again was struck by the shortness of our collective memories. The generation that experienced the horrors of that war are still alive to bear witness to the atrocities committed and the years and reasons that led to them.
Yet, here we are, making similar mistakes, accepting – if not applauding – similar rhetoric, giving in to similar fears, one group of scapegoats exchanged for another, watching a generation of Europeans leaders who cannot agree on letting in the Marie Laures of our time.

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Is there a better way to tackle a grey Monday than by diving into the world of Harry Potter? Thank you for another great review, Sofia!!

“I love reading books, but none as intriguing as the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rolling. I just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book in the series. I would not suggest this book for children under seven years old. This book was a mystery yet an adventure, you thought you had the plot figured out but things twist and turn and it turns out you don’t.
I enjoyed the character choices that J.K. Rolling has in this series. Some of my favorites characters were the thirteen year old wizards, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and last but not least Buckbeak the playful hippogriff.

Like all of her books J.K. Rolling made this a real page turner. Whenever I had a free moment, I would dash to my backpack to grab my Harry Potter book. I completely tuned out the whole world while I read this book.

When I asked my classmates who had read Harry Potter only 51% of the class had read it! So don’t end up like them, because they are missing out on a great book experience.”

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I had a very different beginning – and ending – in mind for this book review. Because Hillary was supposed to win! Right? Well, that didn’t happen and now I am more grateful than ever for having read this week’s Book of the Week, Hillbilly Elegy – A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

The book is a memoir of a young man who has made his way from a poor white community of Jackson, Kentucky (the land emboldened by the words of Donald Trump) through the dreams of middle class America in Middletown, Ohio to the hallowed halls of Silicon Valley. But this is not your typical memoir depicting the classic American dream; it is more than anything an analysis of a country and culture in crisis.

J.D. Vance’s journey from a poor Appalachian town via the Marines and Yale Law School to success in California is a journey filled with fear, pain and hard work, but it is also a journey made possible by the love of a grandmother who in any other setting would be reported to Social Services. On the face of it this might seem like your ordinary rags to riches story. However, What makes J. D. Vance’s book so powerful and moving is the recognition that for the vast majority of children growing up in poor white America there is very little hope, if any, of making it to even the periphery of what the rest of us would call a comfortable life. It seems at times as if there is conspiracy of circumstance and coincidence that sets up hurdle after hurdle for these kids and that only a stroke of luck, a single devoted teacher or a tough as nails family member can play the role of superhero. But this surely cannot be what the children of the wealthiest nation in the world (and their parents) should have to rely on in 2016?

Hillbilly Elegy has no racial component. It does not set white communities up against African Americans and it does not address the black experience in America today (many other great books are doing that.) Yet, interestingly, many of the experiences of Vance’s family members mirror those of the poor black community in the south.

The book also describes the historic migration of entire communities from the South to the North in search of post war middle class dreams of homes, white picket fences, security and education for their children. It opens the reader’s eyes to what happened to these large communities once the dream disappeared due to globalization and financial crisis and how many of the members of these communities had nowhere to go and not much to lose.
And in an additionally interesting “twist” Vance does not blame one or the other, the system or the individual, rather describes how the downfall of this very large group of people (voters!) is due not only to an, at times, unfair society but also to the inability of individuals to understand the role they could play in their own lives.

It only took a chapter or two to realize that I had met the people (millions it turns out) who voted for Donald Trump. It wasn’t all a huge surprise – I had peered through my bubble and thought I had seen them, but really I hadn’t.

In this week of Thanksgiving I am grateful to J.D. Vance for broadening my horizon and adding color to the default “black and white”. I fear Trump and all the ugliness he embodies but thanks to Hillbilly Elegy I am less angry at the people who voted and more angry at the politicians who took advantage of them, lied to them and will without a doubt let them down.

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