Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Life is So Good by George Dawson & Richard Glaubman

Happy New Year. Unfortunately, I spent the better part of the holidays battling a virus, which kept me in bed with the TV on. I was watching the OWN channel and Oprah was doing  a review of memorable people that she had met over the course of her 25 years. One person was George Dawson, who at age 98, went back to school to learn to read. She then mentioned that he went on to write a best selling book, so I grabbed my Kindle and read a sample. AND then immediately bought the whole book. I read many reviews of the book before I read the sample and most found the book very inspiring. Many people said that this book should be read by all school children, so I had to see for myself.

George Dawson was born in 1898, in the South, a grandson of slaves. His parents owned a small farm of their own and George started work on that farm at four years old. At eight he witnessed the lynching of a family friend. At twelve he was sent by his parents to another farm to work and lived in a small shack outside of the farm owners barn. The shack had a straw mattress and he was given a thin blanket and fed twice a day while working the fields from before sun up to after sun down. His parents expected nothing from George but to work hard, respect people, be thankful for what he had and to stay out of trouble. George did exactly that all his life.
There is no way I can express how good this book is. It is something everyone needs to read and contemplate on their own. It is a book of hope, strength and perservance. It is a book that speaks of  injustices and man's inhumanity to man.
This is a book about taking what life hands you and making the best of it.

1 comment:

  1. I love books and it helps to read your reviews first. I was referred to this awesome blog by reviewed by mom

    ReplyDelete