Book

       This was not a book I was tempted to quit in the middle like the last one. A few months ago I read James McBride's autobiography The Color of Water. It's been around awhile, selling something like two million copies. It's often used in academic settings to teach about diversity. McBride's mother was Jewish and his father African American.

      When the Parnassus First Edition Book Club sent McBride's The Heaven And  Earth Grocery Store I expected it to be good and it was. It was engaging from the first sentence. Set in a factious city in Pennsylvania in the mid-1930s, the characters share an undesirable area of town in which is the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store run by a Jewish couple. Many residents are Jewish refugees from Europe. More are African American refugees from the deep south. They share the suspicion and prejudice of the WASP majority and thereby hangs a tale. That tale is told by a master storyteller. McBride's status as an Jewish/African American is key as he portrays both the immigrant Americans and refugees from the South in a sympathetic light as they contend with the WASP majority.

     This is one of the best books I've read in a long time so I recommend it.

Takk for alt,

Al

This picture of the pond (puddle) across the street was taken this morning. By afternoon the water was gone.