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2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (Hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


33 / 30 bookish books. 110% done!

2024 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (9)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (2)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (2)
- Georgia (2)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois (4)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (3)
- Michigan (1)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (2)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (9)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (3)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (4)
- Utah (2)
- Vermont (2)
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- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (2)
- Washington, D.C.* (2)

International:
- Argentina (1)
- Australia (3)
- Bolivia (1)
- Canada (3)
- China (2)
- England (22)
- France (1)
- Ghana (1)
- India (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (4)
- Italy (1)
- Poland (1)
- Russia (1)
- Scotland (3)
- The Netherlands (1)

My Progress:


51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


50 / 50 books. 100% done!

2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge


36 / 50 books. 72% done!

Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

2024 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


50 / 52 books. 96% done!

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


36 / 40 books. 90% done!

2024 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge


18 / 40 books. 45% done!

2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


26 / 25 cozies. 104% done!

2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge

2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


23 / 26.2 miles (3rd lap). 88% done!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


42 / 100 books. 42% done!

2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


97 / 109 books. 89% done!

Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge

My Progress


136 / 165 books. 82% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


83 / 100 names. 83% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


14 / 80 skills. 18% done!
Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Fascinating Family History Memoir Asks Thought-Provoking Questions About Family, Identity, Heritage, and More

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

"All my life I had known there was a secret.  What I hadn't known—that secret was me."

For her entire life, Dani Shapiro has watched people puzzle over her looks.  Unlike the rest of her family, she has blonde hair and blue eyes.  More than one person has observed that she looks more Aryan than Jewish.  This stings a little because although she is not observant, Shapiro has always felt a strong connection to her Jewish past.  Of her stalwart forbears, she says:
These ancestors are the foundation upon which I have built my life.  I have dreamt of them, wrestled with them, longed for them.  I have tried to understand them.  In my writing, they have been my territory—my obsession, you might even say.  They are the tangled roots—thick, rich, and dark—that bind me to the turning earth.  During younger years when I was lost—particularly after my dad's death—I used them as my inner compass.  I would ask what to do, which way to turn.  I would listen intently, and hear them answer ... I can say with certainty that I've felt the presence of this long-gone crowd whenever I've sought them. (12)
It was with great shock, then, that Shapiro received startling results after taking a DNA test on a whim.  At 54 years old, she stumbled upon a stunning truth—her beloved dad was not, in fact, her biological father.  The more she dug into her own beginning, the more incredulous she became.  Her discoveries launched her on a quest—one that would prove frustrating, disturbing, enlightening, and ultimately, reassuring—to discover her truest self in all its bewildering complexity.

Inheritance, Shapiro's newest book, tells the story of the journey she undertook to find herself.  Again.  Despite its deep, thought-provoking subject matter, the volume is actually very readable.  It's quick but fascinating.  Throughout, Shapiro asks sharp, impactful questions about family, identity, medical ethics, and the sometimes huge effects that can come from small, "inconsequential" acts.  I found her story absorbing, her questions compelling, and her observations on point.  Inheritance gets high marks from me as I found it to be an enjoyable read on many different levels.

(Readalikes:  Hm, nothing is coming to mind.  You?)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (2 F-bombs, plus occasional, milder expletives), and non-graphic references to sex

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find
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Reading

<i>Reading</i>
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

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<i>Listening</i>
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth



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