The question "Why have so many children?" kept popping into my head while reading this fascinating memoir. James answers the question towards the end 'Mommy has created her own nation, a rainbow coalition ...' p.227, makes sense when ou take into account her lonely, traumatic young life and the reality of not belonging. Worth reading.

Posting to the winner of the Happy Smile Day draw.

Sounds good. Adding to Mt TBR.

The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.

Chosen on the Yummy VBB

This has arrived safely in BC with me. I'm looking forward to reading this. Thank you for sharing it in the VBB :-)