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Reviews
Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins
_geminigenres's review against another edition
I think Morgan Jenkins is not for me. Her audience isn't geared toward me.
floderten's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
bluebirdsongs's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
A really powerful look at how the last half-millennium of systemic racism on America's shores has excluded so much of black history from the "official record". Using the threads in her family's oral histories as a starting off point, researcher Morgan Jerkins explores the gaps in where she and others like her came from and unburies a tapestry of interconnectivity that centuries of exclusion and oppression tried to discredit and erase. But those stories live on as her people live on, and those narratives have always needed to be heard and respected.
phoebemurtagh's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Police brutality
emmah45's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Such a gorgeous story, at once sprawling and intimate. I learned so much through reading this book. I do feel that the pacing was a bit off in some sections, and I wanted more from others, but I overall adored this read. I think I would have preferred it as a physical book rather than an audiobook.
ryner's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Having grown up in suburban New Jersey, Jerkins realizes as an adult that she has little connection to her family's roots and knows next to nothing about their past in the American South, so she sets out on a quest to discover her forgotten heritage. Her journey spans from Creole Louisiana and the coastal islands off the eastern seaboard to California and connections to Native American tribes in Oklahoma.
My appreciation for this book was augmented by (unintentionally) having read it nearly simultaneously with Twitty's The Cooking Gene and Four Hundred Souls. There is a significant amount of overlap among the three works, and many of the themes, events and histories became more familiar through this repetition. As a student of genealogy myself, I reveled in Jerkins' research into her family history, but I was a little concerned about the conclusions she drew regarding Carry Love. Maybe she could find a descendant of a DeBlanc to confirm via DNA testing? I delighted in Jerkins' curiosity, empathized with her disappointments and appreciated her willingness to talk about difficult and painful aspects of her family's history. Overall, an interesting read on a theme I hadn't thought much about: those who participated in The Great Migration to leave behind the places which and people who had caused their families misery and suffering for so long wished to cut ties and make a fresh start. Understandably, they often didn't wish to speak of their ancestral homes in the South, which has left subsequent generations rather in the dark about their own family histories.
My appreciation for this book was augmented by (unintentionally) having read it nearly simultaneously with Twitty's The Cooking Gene and Four Hundred Souls. There is a significant amount of overlap among the three works, and many of the themes, events and histories became more familiar through this repetition. As a student of genealogy myself, I reveled in Jerkins' research into her family history, but I was a little concerned about the conclusions she drew regarding Carry Love. Maybe she could find a descendant of a DeBlanc to confirm via DNA testing? I delighted in Jerkins' curiosity, empathized with her disappointments and appreciated her willingness to talk about difficult and painful aspects of her family's history. Overall, an interesting read on a theme I hadn't thought much about: those who participated in The Great Migration to leave behind the places which and people who had caused their families misery and suffering for so long wished to cut ties and make a fresh start. Understandably, they often didn't wish to speak of their ancestral homes in the South, which has left subsequent generations rather in the dark about their own family histories.
danicapage's review against another edition
4.0
Okay wow! How does one begin to review a book like this one.
Morgan Jerkins did n incredible job here talking about the complications of what it means to be a Black person and a Black woman who is disconnected from her roots and her family and also the complications of what it means to “be Black in America.”
This book chronicles her search into understanding her own roots and history, but it also applies much more broadly.
I am blown away. Not quite a five, but I can’t pin down why. But I do know it’s destined to be among my favorites of the year.
Warnings: I don’t remember anything that would require a warning here.
Morgan Jerkins did n incredible job here talking about the complications of what it means to be a Black person and a Black woman who is disconnected from her roots and her family and also the complications of what it means to “be Black in America.”
This book chronicles her search into understanding her own roots and history, but it also applies much more broadly.
I am blown away. Not quite a five, but I can’t pin down why. But I do know it’s destined to be among my favorites of the year.
Warnings: I don’t remember anything that would require a warning here.