You Must Be A Jones By Lydia Jones Cole ( Review )

Happy Thursday 😇

Author : Lydia Jones Cole

Rating: 9.5/10📚✔️

You Must Be A Jones By Lydia Jones Cole is a family memoir of the Jones. It is a heart warming book to read. Whenever we think about the stories of African American families, we often think about the hardships faced by them, segregation policies and unequal treatment meted out to them. We often think about a dysfunctional family because these are the stories that usually come out and sell in the market and reinforce the stereotypes.📚

While the unequal treatment and injustice was the reality of those times and we get glimpses of it even during the contemporary times (remember George Floyd), this book attempts to bring forth the lighter and brighter aspects of what it meant to be a member of an African American family. It shows the kinship and close community bonds. It shows that how all the family members lived close and all the community members supported each other.📚

The author grew up in Virginia when the state and most of the US was segregated, still she had a positive and wholesome family life. Her parents raised all the kids to be wholesome human beings despite hardships.📚

The book starts with the chapter on Thanks Giving hosted by the author after her mother's demise. The chapter shows the positive bonds between the Jones and strong ethics and life values learned by them.📚

The book presents family trees of the Jones and the Greenes. It traces the family history, telling all the events related to family of author's mother as well as family of author's father. It also brings out the irony of the fact that author's father was drafted in the US Army and fought WWII, while they themselves were facing injustice back at home.📚

My favourite part was reading about all the Jones Kids, there was something very pure and innocent about it to read, despite having a large family, author's parents managed it quite well. The kids helping Nana at her home when she started facing difficulties due to old age was so sweet. Throughout the memoir, the personalities of all the members of the Jones family has shined through and all the photographs included in the book enriched the reading experience.📚

I wanna thank the author for penning down her family memoir, people need to hear these kind of stories too in order to do away with their biased and distorted worldview.📚

Looking Forward to read more from you📚✔️