The Warmth of Other Suns

Summer starts tomorrow. I know you'll be reading a few books!

If you only read one book this summer, The Warmth of Other Suns should be highly considered. In fact, at 640 pages, it may take you all summer to finish.

With over 250 reader reviews on Amazon.com, this book is rated 5-Star, which is a very rare accomplishment.

Black American history is difficult to learn. Very little is taught in school and there is no definitive comprehensive book that covers the journey of blacks in America from slavery to present. 

However, The Warmth of Other Suns comes close to being that book.

Author, Isabel Wilkerson interviewed over 1200 people in a 15 year span to put together a book that reads like fiction but is the true stories of three real life characters that migrated from the south in three different decades to three different cities.

Wilkerson tells their individual stories while providing historical references related to their situations that teaches black history as I’ve never read before. 

I’ll admit that it was sometimes difficult in the beginning to keep up with the three different characters as the story jumped from one to the other in no particular order. But, as I got deeper into the story, it became easier to distinguish between the three, and by the end, I felt that I knew them all personally. 

One can’t be exposed to raw Black American history without it invoking all types of emotion. 

This book surprised me with detail on things I thought I already knew; angered me with the descriptions of violence, oppression, and bigotry; educated me on the ‘Great Migration’ and the impact it left on the south and brought to the north; and helped me understand where we are now as a result of the migration and specifically where I currently fit in within the legacy of Black American history.

Compared to some popular stories, The Warmth of Other Suns is sort of a mix of Roots, Color Purple, Malcolm X, and The Wire, all wrapped up in one. 

This book is a collector's item and should be in every black home in America. 

Click HERE to view The Warmth of Other Suns website.