Bloganuary #18 – “Our Kind of People”

Last year I joined a book club with nine other women, “The Revelation Reading Circle,” not because I am an avid reader or anything, but because I had started reading a little more frequently thanks to extra time on my hands and a friend of mine who keeps me informed on the “latest and greatest” books, in her opinion of course. Therefore, when I got the invitation to join “The Revelation Reading Circle”, I happily did. Now, if the name of a book club is supposed to reflect the book club’s main objective, honestly, I must apologize I don’t know what that is. The name pre-dated my arrival to the club, and I guess I never cared enough to ask. However, I strayed off the topic, we’re here to talk about books.

All the books we have read so far have been by black authors and my reviews have been mixed.

Island Queen – Historical fiction about a black woman who rose from slavery to become the wealthiest woman landowner in the early 1800’s Caribbean.
Good inspiring book, though fiction, is based on the life of an actual woman name Dorothy Kirwan Thomas. 👍🏾👍🏾

The Other Black Girl – Strange book about some secret underground society brainwashing minorities with hair grease to make them de-sensitized to issues of race. Three letters WTH! 👎🏾👎🏾

Seven Days in June – Story of two tormented souls who spent seven days together as teens comforting each other and another seven days fifteen years later doing pretty much the same. Okay story if you’re into love stories. Side story, I missed the day we discussed this book because I was busy building this blog site and forgot all about it. 👍🏾

Which brings me to the topic of today’s prompt, “What Book is Next on Your Reading List?
“Our Kind of People” by Lawrence Otis Graham is a book that describes the lives of privileged, elite, “upper-class” African Americans. Now, speaking about judging a book by its cover, just based on the title of the book alone, it was not one of my choices. I don’t know a lot about the lives of privileged upper-class Americans, black or white, but I knew enough to know it was not a topic I cared to read about. Still, I was a member of a club and the books we read were derived by a consensus of the entire group, so of course I started reading the book. This book has sixteen chapters and after being five chapters in, all I can say is this, this book is exhausting!

I must say, and let me state this is just my opinion, I can’t help but feel some pity about the pressures placed on the kids to fit into society at a very young age and “the hoops” of cotillions, jack and jills, “right” schools, “right” connections and color, and homes on Martha’s Vineyards that these people have to “jump” through to be “our kind of people.” In my opinion, the author too, in this book, though somewhat critical of some of the lifestyles, biases and prejudices held by this group towards their own people of color, is a proud member of this clique and seizes every opportunity to show off his “good’ breeding, “good” education and “good” fortune.

As you may have guessed by now, no I am not enjoying my next read. I have to say this again though, these are strictly my opinions, and I am only five chapters in with eleven still unread. This book has also been critically acclaimed, whatever that means, and there are many people who really enjoy this book and find it very enlightening. I’m just not “one of those kinds of people.”

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