From Compton to Congress: His Grace For My Race is Walter R. Tucker III’s autobiography about his political rise and fall in the 1990s. The book introduces us to Tucker when he was sworn into Congress, a great achievement at 35 since he was the youngest African-American to hold a congressional seat. Unfortunately, during his first term, Tucker became the focus of an FBI bribery investigation and indictment! The narration pauses on the scandal to trace Walter’s upbringing while slowly revealing the court case. Tucker comes […]
Laugh, Learn and Cry with Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah’s autobiography, Born a Crime: Stories from A South African Childhood, was my first audio book. I was determined to hear his narration and found the CD version at my local library. My car still has a cd player, so Trevor kept me company during my first week commuting to a new job. All I knew of Trevor Noah was he replaced Jon Stewart, grew up in South Africa and was a comedian. I had no idea what to expect from his book to be honest. […]
I sat there listening to “We Shall Overcome,” looking out of the window at the passing Mississippi landscape
Anne Moody’s The Coming of Age in Mississippi is not an easy book to read and certainly Ms. Moody did not have an easy life. She captures it with a somewhat ramshackle approach, which I appreciated because it read like someone recounting memories and impressions, rather than a carefully plotted reflection. Her parents were tenant farmers in Mississippi and she grew up in extreme poverty. They regularly ate just bread or just beans and her hunger throughout childhood certainly is a driver in her decisions […]
Where you lead, I will follow
I don’t know how I missed reading Wild when it came out five years ago. I certainly remember it coming out, and was aware of its popularity, particularly once it became a Reese Witherspoon vehicle. I saw the movie and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until moving to the PNW that I felt the inclination to pick it up. This is my first Cannonball review of the year and, it being October now, I’ve given up on the possibility of reaching a full Cannonball. But […]