Tuesday, October 2, 2018

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race; Debby Irving



Each Tuesday, Vicki, from I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where  readers post the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book that they are reading or plan to read.

Elephant Room Press - 2014

1.
What Wasn't Said
"Lessons my mother couldn't teach me."

"WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALL THE INDIANS?" I asked my mother on a Friday morning ride home from the library. I was five years old.

The library's main draw for me had always been a large, colorful mural located high on the lobby wall.  It featured three feathered and fringed Indians standing with four colonial men on a lush, green lakeshore.  The colonists didn't hold much interest, perhaps because these were images familiar to me, a white New England girl with colonial ancestors.  The dark-skinned Indians and their "exotic" dress, on the other hand took my breath away.  The highlight of my library excursions was sitting in a chair and gazing up at the Indians on the wall while my mother chatted with the librarians checking out our family's weekly reading supply."

When I first read about this book on JoAnn's blog, I knew it was one I wanted to read. 

What do you think about the intro?

13 comments:

  1. Sounds good. I hope you are enjoying it. This week I have The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas from my review stack. Happy reading!

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  2. Oh, yes, I've been eyeing this book, too. As a child, I was fascinated by the nonwhite characters in my favorite books.

    Thanks for sharing, and for visiting my blog.

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  3. I wasn't sure when I first saw it but it does sound really good and a good intro!

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  4. Intriguing! I assume it's a memoir, but I'd be interested to know how the issue of race defines the book.

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  5. Oh, I like this beginning. I want to find this book. Will look at my library.

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  6. I also saw this book when JoAnn posted about it. I haven't made up my mind whether I want to read it or not. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.

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  7. This one is on my list. I like the opening paragraph a lot.

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  8. Children's questions are very revealing. Sounds like there's a good story in store.

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  9. Sounds good. I might not have picked this up from the cover, so looking forward to seeing what your thoughts are on it! :-)

    Here's my Tuesday post - thanks for sharing!

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  10. I wonder what the answer was to that question... ;-)

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  11. Diane,
    This does sound very, very interesting to me. I grew up white in New England with colonial ancestors...and with Irish Catholic ancestors. But I was confused about race. Will look it up.

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