The Founders, for all of their flaws, were clear on this. They didn’t just say that freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion and the press were important. They didn’t just say that the country should have and uphold those rights. They issued an ironclad edict to bar any future possibility of a potential breach of them. The founders flatly said that “Congress shall make no law….” It was unmistakable that, for as long as there was a United States, freedom of speech or of the press or assembly should never be in question. It was their unyielding intention that, in a country based in the rule of law, nothing could touch these rights, with Jefferson going so far as to say that he’d prefer the press without a government than a government without the press. There was little debate as they discussed the First Amendment. On this, the Founders were clear.
The Founders, for all of their flaws, were clear on this. They didn’t just say that freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion and the press were important. They didn’t just say that the country should have and uphold those rights. They issued an ironclad edict to bar any future possibility of a potential breach of them. The founders flatly said that “Congress shall make no law….” It was unmistakable that, for as long as there was a United States, freedom of speech or of the press or assembly should never be in question. It was their unyielding intention that, in a country based in the rule of law, nothing could touch these rights, with Jefferson going so far as to say that he’d prefer the press without a government than a government without the press. There was little debate as they discussed the First Amendment. On this, the Founders were clear.
The Founders, for all of their flaws, were clear on this. They didn’t just say that freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion and the press were important. They didn’t just say that the country should have and uphold those rights. They issued an ironclad edict to bar any future possibility of a potential breach of them. The founders flatly said that “Congress shall make no law….” It was unmistakable that, for as long as there was a United States, freedom of speech or of the press or assembly should never be in question. It was their unyielding intention that, in a country based in the rule of law, nothing could touch these rights, with Jefferson going so far as to say that he’d prefer the press without a government than a government without the press. There was little debate as they discussed the First Amendment. On this, the Founders were clear.
It was 15 years ago today that The Warmth of Other Suns came into the world — telling the story of the six million souls who fled the Jim Crow South, who crossed rivers and mountains to get to what they hoped would be freedom in the rest of the country, transforming American culture as we know it. It was a singular offering that cannot truly be repeated. It took 15 years of immersion to produce it, over 1,200 interviews, North, South, East and West, and sacrifices that I am still calculating. It was a karmic undertaking, given that those generations were up in years when I began, and now the vast majority are no longer with us. I started working on it 30 years ago, before Google and iPhones existed. I threw myself into the project with no guarantee of success, entering the lives of hundreds of informants as a complete stranger and ended up so close that I spoke at one of their funerals. It was the honor of a lifetime to bear witness to the survivors of the largest mass movement in American history, and, especially, to get to know Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster. I am forever grateful to everyone who embraced this book and this quest to turn a footnote of history into the central chapter it deserved to be and one of the most inspiring stories in American history. Its legacy endures. Of the African-Americans who shaped 20th Century culture, many were either part of the Migration or descended from it — Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Ross, Bill Russell, August Wilson, Prince, Tupac, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, so many more…. The Great Migration was a leaderless revolution, and nothing in this world could stop it. It is a testament to the power of human will, to the impact of a single decision, to the transformation that is possible when enough people of one mind act upon their intuition. Shortly after the book’s release, a man I knew only in passing got ahold of it. He pulled me aside one day to tell me this: “The most important readers of this book,” he said, “have not yet been born.” My deepest, truest gratitude to every single one of you.
It was 15 years ago today that The Warmth of Other Suns came into the world — telling the story of the six million souls who fled the Jim Crow South, who crossed rivers and mountains to get to what they hoped would be freedom in the rest of the country, transforming American culture as we know it. It was a singular offering that cannot truly be repeated. It took 15 years of immersion to produce it, over 1,200 interviews, North, South, East and West, and sacrifices that I am still calculating. It was a karmic undertaking, given that those generations were up in years when I began, and now the vast majority are no longer with us. I started working on it 30 years ago, before Google and iPhones existed. I threw myself into the project with no guarantee of success, entering the lives of hundreds of informants as a complete stranger and ended up so close that I spoke at one of their funerals. It was the honor of a lifetime to bear witness to the survivors of the largest mass movement in American history, and, especially, to get to know Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster. I am forever grateful to everyone who embraced this book and this quest to turn a footnote of history into the central chapter it deserved to be and one of the most inspiring stories in American history. Its legacy endures. Of the African-Americans who shaped 20th Century culture, many were either part of the Migration or descended from it — Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Ross, Bill Russell, August Wilson, Prince, Tupac, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, so many more…. The Great Migration was a leaderless revolution, and nothing in this world could stop it. It is a testament to the power of human will, to the impact of a single decision, to the transformation that is possible when enough people of one mind act upon their intuition. Shortly after the book’s release, a man I knew only in passing got ahold of it. He pulled me aside one day to tell me this: “The most important readers of this book,” he said, “have not yet been born.” My deepest, truest gratitude to every single one of you.
It was 15 years ago today that The Warmth of Other Suns came into the world — telling the story of the six million souls who fled the Jim Crow South, who crossed rivers and mountains to get to what they hoped would be freedom in the rest of the country, transforming American culture as we know it. It was a singular offering that cannot truly be repeated. It took 15 years of immersion to produce it, over 1,200 interviews, North, South, East and West, and sacrifices that I am still calculating. It was a karmic undertaking, given that those generations were up in years when I began, and now the vast majority are no longer with us. I started working on it 30 years ago, before Google and iPhones existed. I threw myself into the project with no guarantee of success, entering the lives of hundreds of informants as a complete stranger and ended up so close that I spoke at one of their funerals. It was the honor of a lifetime to bear witness to the survivors of the largest mass movement in American history, and, especially, to get to know Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster. I am forever grateful to everyone who embraced this book and this quest to turn a footnote of history into the central chapter it deserved to be and one of the most inspiring stories in American history. Its legacy endures. Of the African-Americans who shaped 20th Century culture, many were either part of the Migration or descended from it — Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Ross, Bill Russell, August Wilson, Prince, Tupac, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, so many more…. The Great Migration was a leaderless revolution, and nothing in this world could stop it. It is a testament to the power of human will, to the impact of a single decision, to the transformation that is possible when enough people of one mind act upon their intuition. Shortly after the book’s release, a man I knew only in passing got ahold of it. He pulled me aside one day to tell me this: “The most important readers of this book,” he said, “have not yet been born.” My deepest, truest gratitude to every single one of you.
It was 15 years ago today that The Warmth of Other Suns came into the world — telling the story of the six million souls who fled the Jim Crow South, who crossed rivers and mountains to get to what they hoped would be freedom in the rest of the country, transforming American culture as we know it. It was a singular offering that cannot truly be repeated. It took 15 years of immersion to produce it, over 1,200 interviews, North, South, East and West, and sacrifices that I am still calculating. It was a karmic undertaking, given that those generations were up in years when I began, and now the vast majority are no longer with us. I started working on it 30 years ago, before Google and iPhones existed. I threw myself into the project with no guarantee of success, entering the lives of hundreds of informants as a complete stranger and ended up so close that I spoke at one of their funerals. It was the honor of a lifetime to bear witness to the survivors of the largest mass movement in American history, and, especially, to get to know Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster. I am forever grateful to everyone who embraced this book and this quest to turn a footnote of history into the central chapter it deserved to be and one of the most inspiring stories in American history. Its legacy endures. Of the African-Americans who shaped 20th Century culture, many were either part of the Migration or descended from it — Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Ross, Bill Russell, August Wilson, Prince, Tupac, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, so many more…. The Great Migration was a leaderless revolution, and nothing in this world could stop it. It is a testament to the power of human will, to the impact of a single decision, to the transformation that is possible when enough people of one mind act upon their intuition. Shortly after the book’s release, a man I knew only in passing got ahold of it. He pulled me aside one day to tell me this: “The most important readers of this book,” he said, “have not yet been born.” My deepest, truest gratitude to every single one of you.
It was 15 years ago today that The Warmth of Other Suns came into the world — telling the story of the six million souls who fled the Jim Crow South, who crossed rivers and mountains to get to what they hoped would be freedom in the rest of the country, transforming American culture as we know it. It was a singular offering that cannot truly be repeated. It took 15 years of immersion to produce it, over 1,200 interviews, North, South, East and West, and sacrifices that I am still calculating. It was a karmic undertaking, given that those generations were up in years when I began, and now the vast majority are no longer with us. I started working on it 30 years ago, before Google and iPhones existed. I threw myself into the project with no guarantee of success, entering the lives of hundreds of informants as a complete stranger and ended up so close that I spoke at one of their funerals. It was the honor of a lifetime to bear witness to the survivors of the largest mass movement in American history, and, especially, to get to know Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster. I am forever grateful to everyone who embraced this book and this quest to turn a footnote of history into the central chapter it deserved to be and one of the most inspiring stories in American history. Its legacy endures. Of the African-Americans who shaped 20th Century culture, many were either part of the Migration or descended from it — Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Ross, Bill Russell, August Wilson, Prince, Tupac, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, so many more…. The Great Migration was a leaderless revolution, and nothing in this world could stop it. It is a testament to the power of human will, to the impact of a single decision, to the transformation that is possible when enough people of one mind act upon their intuition. Shortly after the book’s release, a man I knew only in passing got ahold of it. He pulled me aside one day to tell me this: “The most important readers of this book,” he said, “have not yet been born.” My deepest, truest gratitude to every single one of you.
It was 15 years ago today that The Warmth of Other Suns came into the world — telling the story of the six million souls who fled the Jim Crow South, who crossed rivers and mountains to get to what they hoped would be freedom in the rest of the country, transforming American culture as we know it. It was a singular offering that cannot truly be repeated. It took 15 years of immersion to produce it, over 1,200 interviews, North, South, East and West, and sacrifices that I am still calculating. It was a karmic undertaking, given that those generations were up in years when I began, and now the vast majority are no longer with us. I started working on it 30 years ago, before Google and iPhones existed. I threw myself into the project with no guarantee of success, entering the lives of hundreds of informants as a complete stranger and ended up so close that I spoke at one of their funerals. It was the honor of a lifetime to bear witness to the survivors of the largest mass movement in American history, and, especially, to get to know Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster. I am forever grateful to everyone who embraced this book and this quest to turn a footnote of history into the central chapter it deserved to be and one of the most inspiring stories in American history. Its legacy endures. Of the African-Americans who shaped 20th Century culture, many were either part of the Migration or descended from it — Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Ross, Bill Russell, August Wilson, Prince, Tupac, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, so many more…. The Great Migration was a leaderless revolution, and nothing in this world could stop it. It is a testament to the power of human will, to the impact of a single decision, to the transformation that is possible when enough people of one mind act upon their intuition. Shortly after the book’s release, a man I knew only in passing got ahold of it. He pulled me aside one day to tell me this: “The most important readers of this book,” he said, “have not yet been born.” My deepest, truest gratitude to every single one of you.
It was 70 years ago this very month that the people with the least power in Alabama began a bus boycott in Montgomery that would become a turning point in American history. It rained all day December 5, the boycott’s first day. Still they walked — 40,000 people for 381 days, until the buses were desegregated. Under Jim Crow, black riders had to sit in the back, move further back or stand if white people needed seats. True to the caste system, black people were not permitted to sit across from or in the same row as a white person. Black people could not board from the front but rather had to pay, disembark and then board from the back door. The bus often left before they could climb on. A few lone riders had tried to resist. Just that spring, a teenager named Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat. So when longtime civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to yield hers, local NAACP leaders and politically active black women, led by college professor JoAnn Robinson, were primed to go into action. They sent out 35,000 leaflets to black residents: “We are asking every Negro to stay off the busses Monday….If you work, take a cab, or walk, but please, don’t get on a bus.” Without TikTok or Instagram or email or cell phones, they managed to organize a boycott in five days. Workers joined together in carpools. Churches arranged shuttles and taxis. People rode bicycles or walked as far as 20 miles to get to their destinations. Hostility mounted as city buses sat idle in parking lots. Boycotters were beaten and fired from their jobs. Black churches were firebombed. Martin Luther King Jr. and other ministers, along with carpool drivers, were jailed. Still the people walked. At the same time, a lawsuit challenging bus segregation, Browder v. Gayle, made its way through the courts. In November 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling outlawing segregated buses. The ruling took effect December 20, 1956, permitting black riders to sit where they chose. From there, the Civil Rights Movement spread throughout the South. The people at the very bottom of the caste system had managed to overturn a central part of it.
It was 70 years ago this very month that the people with the least power in Alabama began a bus boycott in Montgomery that would become a turning point in American history. It rained all day December 5, the boycott’s first day. Still they walked — 40,000 people for 381 days, until the buses were desegregated. Under Jim Crow, black riders had to sit in the back, move further back or stand if white people needed seats. True to the caste system, black people were not permitted to sit across from or in the same row as a white person. Black people could not board from the front but rather had to pay, disembark and then board from the back door. The bus often left before they could climb on. A few lone riders had tried to resist. Just that spring, a teenager named Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat. So when longtime civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to yield hers, local NAACP leaders and politically active black women, led by college professor JoAnn Robinson, were primed to go into action. They sent out 35,000 leaflets to black residents: “We are asking every Negro to stay off the busses Monday….If you work, take a cab, or walk, but please, don’t get on a bus.” Without TikTok or Instagram or email or cell phones, they managed to organize a boycott in five days. Workers joined together in carpools. Churches arranged shuttles and taxis. People rode bicycles or walked as far as 20 miles to get to their destinations. Hostility mounted as city buses sat idle in parking lots. Boycotters were beaten and fired from their jobs. Black churches were firebombed. Martin Luther King Jr. and other ministers, along with carpool drivers, were jailed. Still the people walked. At the same time, a lawsuit challenging bus segregation, Browder v. Gayle, made its way through the courts. In November 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling outlawing segregated buses. The ruling took effect December 20, 1956, permitting black riders to sit where they chose. From there, the Civil Rights Movement spread throughout the South. The people at the very bottom of the caste system had managed to overturn a central part of it.
She held out for over a century yet still did not live to see justice. Viola Ford Fletcher was, at age 111, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 — one of the worst such attacks in the country’s history. Her passing yesterday is not just the loss of a persevering woman but a symbol of the dashed hopes for atonement for an entire people. She was seven when her family was forced to flee a white mob that attacked the black section of Tulsa, shooting residents on the ground, bombing from above and leveling what had once been known as “Black Wall Street.” The massacre left hundreds dead and the black district in cinders. “I still smell smoke and see fire,” she said in her testimony before Congress in 2021 at 107 years old. “I still see black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre everyday.” Her family escaped with nothing but the clothes they had on. She would grow up to marry and become part of the Great Migration to California, finding work in the shipyards. She spent her final years bearing witness to the history she had lived. She and the handful of aged survivors filed suit in 2020 against the city and the state, seeking official acknowledgement and reparations. But three years later, a Tulsa County District Judge dismissed the case. It was a blow beyond one person. As long as Viola Fletcher was alive, there was hope that the country would do right by her as one of the last survivors of a tragic chapter in American history. It would have been tangible recognition of the injustices against the black citizens of Tulsa and, by extension, the millions of others who survived enslavement and Jim Crow. The country has a history of running down the clock, so that the incontrovertible case for recompense for those who were wronged no longer applies. At times, there may be acknowledgment after the fact that reparations might have once been warranted; but, alas, it’s too late because those who suffered directly are no longer living. Which is exactly how justice delayed becomes justice denied. Yet, she bore witness so that none of us would ever forget.
She held out for over a century yet still did not live to see justice. Viola Ford Fletcher was, at age 111, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 — one of the worst such attacks in the country’s history. Her passing yesterday is not just the loss of a persevering woman but a symbol of the dashed hopes for atonement for an entire people. She was seven when her family was forced to flee a white mob that attacked the black section of Tulsa, shooting residents on the ground, bombing from above and leveling what had once been known as “Black Wall Street.” The massacre left hundreds dead and the black district in cinders. “I still smell smoke and see fire,” she said in her testimony before Congress in 2021 at 107 years old. “I still see black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre everyday.” Her family escaped with nothing but the clothes they had on. She would grow up to marry and become part of the Great Migration to California, finding work in the shipyards. She spent her final years bearing witness to the history she had lived. She and the handful of aged survivors filed suit in 2020 against the city and the state, seeking official acknowledgement and reparations. But three years later, a Tulsa County District Judge dismissed the case. It was a blow beyond one person. As long as Viola Fletcher was alive, there was hope that the country would do right by her as one of the last survivors of a tragic chapter in American history. It would have been tangible recognition of the injustices against the black citizens of Tulsa and, by extension, the millions of others who survived enslavement and Jim Crow. The country has a history of running down the clock, so that the incontrovertible case for recompense for those who were wronged no longer applies. At times, there may be acknowledgment after the fact that reparations might have once been warranted; but, alas, it’s too late because those who suffered directly are no longer living. Which is exactly how justice delayed becomes justice denied. Yet, she bore witness so that none of us would ever forget.
She held out for over a century yet still did not live to see justice. Viola Ford Fletcher was, at age 111, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 — one of the worst such attacks in the country’s history. Her passing yesterday is not just the loss of a persevering woman but a symbol of the dashed hopes for atonement for an entire people. She was seven when her family was forced to flee a white mob that attacked the black section of Tulsa, shooting residents on the ground, bombing from above and leveling what had once been known as “Black Wall Street.” The massacre left hundreds dead and the black district in cinders. “I still smell smoke and see fire,” she said in her testimony before Congress in 2021 at 107 years old. “I still see black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre everyday.” Her family escaped with nothing but the clothes they had on. She would grow up to marry and become part of the Great Migration to California, finding work in the shipyards. She spent her final years bearing witness to the history she had lived. She and the handful of aged survivors filed suit in 2020 against the city and the state, seeking official acknowledgement and reparations. But three years later, a Tulsa County District Judge dismissed the case. It was a blow beyond one person. As long as Viola Fletcher was alive, there was hope that the country would do right by her as one of the last survivors of a tragic chapter in American history. It would have been tangible recognition of the injustices against the black citizens of Tulsa and, by extension, the millions of others who survived enslavement and Jim Crow. The country has a history of running down the clock, so that the incontrovertible case for recompense for those who were wronged no longer applies. At times, there may be acknowledgment after the fact that reparations might have once been warranted; but, alas, it’s too late because those who suffered directly are no longer living. Which is exactly how justice delayed becomes justice denied. Yet, she bore witness so that none of us would ever forget.
She held out for over a century yet still did not live to see justice. Viola Ford Fletcher was, at age 111, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 — one of the worst such attacks in the country’s history. Her passing yesterday is not just the loss of a persevering woman but a symbol of the dashed hopes for atonement for an entire people. She was seven when her family was forced to flee a white mob that attacked the black section of Tulsa, shooting residents on the ground, bombing from above and leveling what had once been known as “Black Wall Street.” The massacre left hundreds dead and the black district in cinders. “I still smell smoke and see fire,” she said in her testimony before Congress in 2021 at 107 years old. “I still see black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre everyday.” Her family escaped with nothing but the clothes they had on. She would grow up to marry and become part of the Great Migration to California, finding work in the shipyards. She spent her final years bearing witness to the history she had lived. She and the handful of aged survivors filed suit in 2020 against the city and the state, seeking official acknowledgement and reparations. But three years later, a Tulsa County District Judge dismissed the case. It was a blow beyond one person. As long as Viola Fletcher was alive, there was hope that the country would do right by her as one of the last survivors of a tragic chapter in American history. It would have been tangible recognition of the injustices against the black citizens of Tulsa and, by extension, the millions of others who survived enslavement and Jim Crow. The country has a history of running down the clock, so that the incontrovertible case for recompense for those who were wronged no longer applies. At times, there may be acknowledgment after the fact that reparations might have once been warranted; but, alas, it’s too late because those who suffered directly are no longer living. Which is exactly how justice delayed becomes justice denied. Yet, she bore witness so that none of us would ever forget.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
On this day when we turn our attention to the people near and far that we’re thankful to have in our lives, I wish to express my unending gratitude to the readers who have taken my books into their hearts over the last 15 years, including readers that I didn’t even know I had. Coming completely out of the blue, the legendary British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox recently told The New York Times that Caste was the last great book she had read. She said that she considers it “essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the roots and effects of racism, right up to the present day.” (Absolutely gobsmacked, and this is my favorite song of hers.) Later, on NBC’s Saturday Today Show, the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner listed The Warmth of Other Suns as one of her recommended books this holiday season. “It’s a nonfiction book that reads like a novel,” she said of Warmth. “It draws you in and doesn’t let you go.” In the midst of so much upheaval, my deepest gratitude to every single one of you, especially those who, like @garrisonh, take the time to share your discoveries with the world. The readers are the people I picture with every word I write. As you seek understanding and solace in my work, please know that your embrace has brought solace to me. Thankful always.
