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It Is Well With My Soul: The Extraordinary Life Of A 106-Year-Old Woman (2010)

by Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.07 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0143117440 (ISBN13: 9780143117445)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Penguin Books

review 1: It was extraordinary that she lived to 106, and she was certainly an extraordinarily kind, wise, generous, spirited individual. But even all of that doesn't necessarily add up to an "extraordinary life". I can imagine certain people in particular stages of life, or with certain prejudices or assumptions about African-Americans, and/or seniors -- who would benefit and even be enlightened by this book. But those groups aren't going to be the ones to read it. So not sure how this got green-lighted to be published.
review 2: I didn't like this book quite as much as I liked the Life Is So Good or the books by the Delancy sisters. But it was still pretty interesting. This lady is much more reserved, so I felt like I got to know her only on the surface, and seemed ... moreto be a little too full of slightly trite "this is the way I am" stuff and laudatory quotes from grandchildren. But that may not be the fault of the subject but the biographer. Anyway. I really enjoyed reading about her reaction to attending Barack Obama's inauguration, and thinking about what it must be like for a black woman who'd survived what she'd survived to see such an event. But again, we are kept kind of at a distance. I was really surprised how unemotionally she told of her first husband's dying of ALS. less

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