Saturday 25 January 2014

Twelve Years A Slave

Twelve Years A Slave is an autobiography written by Solomon Northup. This novel recounts his journey through life from freedom to slavery and back to freedom again. We had a difficult time deciding how many wine glasses to give this book, but eventually decided on two. The writing style felt like a clinical account of his life and we had a hard time connecting emotionally to this book. It was as if Solomon Northup's aim was to tell readers what happened rather than trying to get readers to really connect with the story.

This was a tragic, heartbreaking story of courage and survival. We were all amazed at Northup's ability to share the events of his 12 years in captivity with such detail. This book gave us unique insight into the world of slavery and mental fortitude it would take to survive this period in history.

As we reflected on the impact that this book had on our lives, we had to agree that the main message for us is that now that we are free from the physical chains of slavery, our black community needs to be motivated to strive for excellence. Though the mental and psychological chains still exist, we have an obligation to our children and ourselves to use our history to fuel our journey into our destiny and our future. 

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In 2010, our book club, Women Wine and Word, started out as a brilliant idea from one of our members (we call her the queen). We meet once a month to discuss our books, eat some food, drink a little wine, and have a great time with our friends.

We invite you to check out our monthly blogs, browse through our reading list, or take a peek at our book reviews (FYI- only a few books have received 5/5 wine glasses).

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