The Warmth of Other Suns

You know how there are a lot of people in Chicago with Mississippi roots? Cali folks with Louisiana roots? People in New York with a lot of family in Florida? 

Important to a bookworm is a community of bookworms that supports your bookworm habit! One of my favorite book buddies is a librarian, so not only does she hook me up with awesome advanced reader copies of books, she gives me great book recommendations.

A few years ago, she recommended Isabel Wilkerson's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Because I completely trust her book judgment, I ordered it. It sat on my bookshelf for about 2 years because it is over 500 pages and weighs two pounds!

January 2018, I finally decided to dive in. The Warmth of Other Suns explains the Great Migration, the period of time following the first World War until the 70's whereby blacks left the south for a chance at a better life. This book is epic!

It centers on 3 migrants: Ida Mae, who left Mississippi with her sharecropper husband; George, who escaped a possible lynching in Florida after rallying citrus pickers for better pay; Robert, a doctor who left Louisiana for an opportunity to practice medicine with dignity.

The author weaves in civil rights events of the times; things I’d never heard of, leading me to do more research—Harry T. Moore, Arrington High, Cicero race riot, Willis McCall and the Groveland Four...

This book is so amazing that I carried it around to coffee shops and restaurants because I was completely engaged from page 1! Incredible reading!