Three Excellent Books

wedding cake by cupcaketastic

Recently I finished reading Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin. We are having a lively discussion about it at a small group that is part of goodreads dot com. Very fun. The book is sweet, funny, and simple, on its surface. But it's not a simple book. It is about healing and re-building lives after the genocide in Rwanda. The main character bakes cakes for a living. She is sweet and kind and strong, and she encourages other women to be survivors and to build on their strength. Through this process she learns to do so herself. It's an excellent book, and I loved the characters.

The other book I just finished is Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History by Thomas N. DeWolf. Fascinating book! I learned so much! This family's ancestors were heavily involved in the slave trade out of Bristol, Rhode Island. They travel to Bristol, also to Ghana and to Cuba to study the history of slavery and to learn about its implications from those old days up to modern times. This is a great book to get us thinking about racism in the U.S. and to confront our legacy as a nation. I highly recommend this book!

While I was in Georgia my local book group met and discussed Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza. That was another great book; I was glad I read that and learned more about what happened in Rwanda so that I had that background when I read Baking Cakes...

I sure love to read!!! What are some good books you've read recently?