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savannahisarose's reviews
73 reviews
Wager by Donna Jo Napoli
5.0
I read The Wager years ago, but I definitely enjoy it more as an adult. There's one particular scene I keep coming back to (not a spoiler) in which the author describes a room with walls covered in a mosaic made entirely of shades of blue. Sometimes I find it hard to envision stories, but the way Napoli sets place in this book really works for me.
"myne Owne Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676 by T.H. Breen, Stephen Innes
3.0
I taught this book to ~50 students in a U.S. history intro course (I'm a History MA and teaching assistant). This book is excellent for getting students to realize that slavery and servitude are connected to race, but not always in a 19th century 'cotton is king' era way. However, I have to echo what many reviewers have mentioned about the shaky conclusions the authors reach. The book is also somewhat outdated at this point, but could benefit from discussing code-switching (in regards to the court cases and other evidence) and reading the 'silences' in the written record à la Michel-Rolph Trouillot (specifically the book "Silencing the Past").