The Color of Water ebook download James McBride

The Color of Water

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all-black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self-realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

Share your thoughts on the The Color of Water ebook with other internet viewers!

Title of ebook: The Color of Water
ISBN: 9781436262071
parent-ISBN: 9781573220224
Publisher: Riverhead
Published: 01-1996
Released online for download: 01-23-1996
Author of eBook: McBride, James

Format

Encrypted

Sku

ISBN

File size

Security

Printing

Copying

Read aloud

Devices

Digital Editions

Yes

5551897265

9781436262088

7209 KB

n/a

Not allowed

No

Sys Requirments

Download reader

Mobipocket

Yes

9781436262118

688 KB

n/a

Not allowed

No

Sys Requirements

Download reader

Microsoft

Yes

1436262089

9781436262088

2986 KB

n/a

Not allowed

No

Sys Requirments

Download reader

Microsoft

Yes

1436262070

9781436262071

2986 KB

n/a

Not allowed

No

Sys Requirments

Download reader

Contents

1. Dead..............................................................1 2. The Bicycle.......................................................5 3. Kosher...........................................................15 4. Black Power......................................................21 5. The Old Testament................................................37 6. The New Testament................................................45 7. Sam..............................................................57 8. Brothers and Sisters.............................................65 9. Shul.............................................................79 10. School..........................................................85 11. Boys...........................................................107 12. Daddy..........................................................117 13. New York.......................................................129 14. Chicken Man....................................................137 15. Graduation.....................................................153 16. Driving........................................................159 17. Lost in Harlem.................................... ... read full excerpt from: The Color of Water ebook

Other James McBride ebooks:

receive alert on new James McBride ebooks

Miracle at St. Anna (Movie Tie-in)

The acclaimed novel is now a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee, coming to theaters Sept. 28. For more information, click here. Four soldiers from the army's Negro ...more

Best price: $15.00

Song Yet Sung

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Color of Water comes a powerful page-turner about a runaway slave and a determined slave catcher. Nowhere has the drama of ...more

Best price: $15.00

Top eBooks in "People of Color"

A Personal Odyssey

by Sowell, Thomas

This is the powerful story of Thomas Sowell's life-long education in the school of hard knocks, as the journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a ...more

Best price: $13.16

A Call to Conscience

by Carson, Clayborne

A Call to Conscience...more

Best price: $13.12

A Mighty Long Way

by Lanier, Carlotta Walls / Page, Lisa Frazier

“This hindsight account suggests that the nation still has not achieved closure about the painful events at Little Rock….Keenly observed and moving.” &#...more

Best price: $22.82

A Horn for Louis

by Kimmel, Eric

eric Kimmel grew up in Brooklyn, New York, loving the music of Louis Armstrong, who lived a few miles away in Queens. He is the award-winning
author of the Caldecott Honor ...more

Best price: $3.50

A Song Flung Up To Heaven

by Angelou, Maya

Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 'I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I ...more

Best price: $9.39

A George Washington Carver Handbook

A George Washington Carver Handbook is a chronological account of the life and works of the famous inventor. edited by Dr. B. D. Mayberry, this book includes a brief biography...more

Best price: $7.74

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY STUDENT UNION INTERNATIONAL 2003-2004: INTERNATION

by Kim, Christian

This new book (CAMBRIDGe UNIVeRSITY STUDeNT UNION INTeRNATIONAL 2003-2004: INTeRNATIONAL STUDeNTS' STRUGGLe FOR RePReSeNTATION IN THe UNITeD KINGDOM) by Christian Kim is very...more

Best price: $12.99

Black Titan

by Jenkins, Carol

The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business ...more

Best price: $13.12

A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win

by Steele, Shelby

In Shelby Steele's beautifully wrought and thought provoking new book, A Bound Man, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Content of Our Character attests that ...more

Best price: $19.31

Other Biography eBooks Categories

Biography General (1414)

Regional Subjects (78)

Specific Groups (131)

Adventurers & Explorers (52)

Artists & Architects (243)

Business (75)

Childhood Memoir (28)

Criminals & Outlaws (37)

Editors, Journalists, Publishers (40)

Entertainers (336)