bunnyreads2's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.75
I really love Henry Louis Gates’ work on the show Finding Your Roots and this book provides the same quality of research-explanations and discussion of the result. The nuance and intellectual quality of it all really makes me wish we could have that kind of program in France. Discussing genealogy can be so easily a gateway into classism or bigotry that I find it so important to have people like him doing the work of popularizing genealogy while adressing the big issues of the past it unveils, like colonialism and slavery. He always tends to emotional moments and discoveries in a humane and soft way without it turning into extreme pathos for drama’s sake. I also love the fact that he adresses the fact that celebrities and power personalities like Oprah Winfrey didn’t come out of thin air, they also have a history and esp a family history that gave them the tools or hinderances they had. I took off 0.25 star just because it would have been even better to have it read in his own voice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Rape
traceyfromkc's review
3.0
for the information about Oprah's ancestors -- what they did, how they lived, how they contributed to their communities -- i really liked this book. however, i was a little disappointed in how the steps taken to get the information were briefly discussed or quickly glossed over. i'll need to look to other resources for that. otherwise, this was an entertaining read.
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