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Reply To: Sundown Towns

Marsha Rutherford — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:42:40 +0000

I first learned about sundown towns in West With Giraffes, although I have lived in the south my entire life. What a shameful practice!

Reply To: A Note About the Publication Date for Call Me Home

Gayle Green — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 22:59:53 +0000

I appreciate all of the “due diligence” you ladies do when compiling the reading lists! ❤️

Reply To: Starting this one this afternoon

Dolores Ferrero — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:58:00 +0000

I finished it this evening and… wow. I found this in a little free library almost a year ago, pulled it because the blurb on the cover was interesting, and it sat in a growing “to read” pile. I’m really glad I decided to participate in your backlist challenge — and that this one made your list.

In our nation’s pledge of allegiance, we assert “one nation… with liberty, and justice for all.” That wasn’t true in much of the country in 1939 — and as we’ve seen in the last five years, it’s still not true today. I was impressed by the author’s ability to tell Isabelle’s story, without sugar coating it or apologizing for it — and to challenge her readers to be the change going forward. This was her debut… I’m looking forward to checking out what else she’s written.

Reply To: The Funeral

Dolores Ferrero — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:51:53 +0000

I thought it was going to be Nell’s funeral, and that it would be a reunion of sorts for Robert and Isabelle. I found the actual end far more compelling than what I had come up with. I was quite surprised, and it’s going to be with me for a while…

Reply To: Friendship

Dolores Ferrero — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:49:30 +0000

I think both of them found things in the other that they’d been missing, in their lives.

Reply To: Sundown Towns

Dolores Ferrero — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:47:51 +0000

I hadn’t heard that term, and I found it an interesting way to describe them. I had seen signs (from as recently as the 1950’s, as far north as south suburban Chicago) suggesting that Blacks should be out of town before dark, in some old photographs from my grandmother’s collection.

The Funeral

Patty O’Connor — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 22:10:08 +0000

Whose funeral did you think it was that Isabelle was so determined to attend? Were you surprised by who it was?

Friendship

Patty O’Connor — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 22:07:09 +0000

What do you think made it possible for Isabelle (a 90-year-old white woman) and Dorrie (a 30-something black woman) to become so close to each other? They both described their friendship as something close to a mother-daughter relationship.

Sundown Towns

Patty O’Connor — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 21:44:35 +0000

Had you heard of sundown towns before reading Calling Me Home?

Starting this one this afternoon

Dolores Ferrero — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:31:10 +0000

I’m excited about reading my first book in my first of your challenges. I’ll be back with my thoughts when I’m done.