Reviewed by Bev Scott Riveting from beginning to end, The Vanishing Half tells the story of identical twins who grow up in a small southern black community, called Mallard. Mallard is such a small town that it is not even on the map. However, it is a town founded for light-skinned African Americans. After running away together at […]
How Do We Care For Our Elderly?
After writing my novel Sarah’s Secret, inspired by the lives of my paternal grandparents, I recently decided to delve into a treasure trove of old family letters. I found several packets and files of letters that my mother left me. Members on the maternal side of my family had exchanged letters during different eras. I hoped to […]
Book Review: “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo
Reviewed by Bev Scott Bernardine Evaristo writes about the African diaspora in her unique voice. Thus, she wrote this unusual novel about twelve British black women whose lives interconnect. Each chapter intensely portrays one of the women’s life stories. Plus, each chapter also introduces other women who become central characters in future chapters. The characters have […]
Our Divided Country
We are a country divided. Not just between red and blue but within those gross divisions we are divided by demographic labels and caricature stereotypes: rural mid-westerners, suburban women, LatinX men, Black women, young people and seniors, college degree liberals and high school graduate Trumpers, whites and people of color, coastal progressives and fly-over conservatives and many […]
Book Review: “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
Reviewed by Bev Scott I began learning to become an antiracist in the early 1970s. Living in Detroit then, I worked with a black and white team of facilitators. They were conducting antiracism workshops and education in organizations and neighborhoods. The City of Detroit still reeled from the 1967 “Rebellions.” I and other white facilitators immersed […]
Book Review: “Never Caught, the Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge” by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Reviewed by Bev Scott Erica Armstrong Dunbar utilizes the details of history to create an engaging story of the life of a runaway slave owned by Martha Washington. Betty, Ona Judge’s mother, came to Mt. Vernon as a slave, when Martha accepted the hand of George Washington to marry him as her second husband in 1759. Betty […]
I Haven’t Left Yet…Facebook, That Is
I wrote several weeks ago about my dilemma with leaving Facebook. I shared with you that I had concerns that were both political and values-based. Several of you responded that you were having similar thoughts and considering leaving as well. Many of you have stayed with Facebook because it provides a way to connect to non-local […]
Book Review: “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi
Reviewed by Bev Scott Homegoing is an amazing book! It is an incredible example of how much we can learn from well-written fiction about culture, family dynamics, human emotions, history and so much more. Author YaaGyasi tells stories drawn from the lives of two ancestral family lines beginning in Ghana in the eighteenth century. The path of […]
Book Review: “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson
Reviewed by Bev Scott Just Mercy indicts our “impartial” judicial system. It provokes us to reconsider exactly what is “just punishment” for crime. The author tells how the system often condemns the innocent, passes inhumane sentences for petty crimes and convicts suspects despite contrary evidence. For example, children as young as thirteen are condemned to […]
Leaving Facebook
I am considering leaving Facebook. I have wrestled with the decision for a few months now. Some of my issues are values-based and some are political. Overall, I am unhappy that Facebook allows extremist groups to post hate speech and lies to promote racism and divisiveness. Worse, Facebook allowed its platform to be used to manipulate our last […]
