Knit to This
Knit to This: The Warmth of Other Suns
Robert Foster. George Starling. Ida Mae Gladney.
If you’ve read The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, you know exactly who I’m talking about.
If you haven’t, I’m here to encourage you to settle in with the book that will introduce you to these three people.
Each left behind everything they knew in hopes of finding a better life. Their stories will forever alter your understanding of what happened in this country during the past century.
Wilkerson spent 15 years researching the migration of Black Americans from the South to the North, the West, the Midwest—anywhere that wasn’t the South, where Jim Crow laws and attitudes brought about a brutal oppression of Black rights. Beginning in the 1910s, more than six million people left the South, a migration that continued until the 1970s, when civil rights legislation finally started to take hold in the South.
Wilkerson frames her history around three particular people who migrated, along the rail routes that were the way out: Ida Mae Gladney from Mississippi to Chicago, George Starling from Florida to New York City, Robert Foster from Louisiana to Los Angeles. Along the way, each of their stories reveals the greater issues of the Great Migration. How did such a massive number of people migrate? What new kinds of discrimination met them when they arrived? How did these newly arrived populations alter the cities to which they moved?
The audiobook is read by Robin Miles, who is a brilliant narrator, bringing each character to life. I was riveted.
The book won prize upon prize, and last year The New York Times named it the number-one nonfiction book published in the 21st century.
A conversation with the New York Times Book Review gives a feel for Wilkerson’s warmth and sense of humor, which is so much a part of this book.
If you read one book this year, this is the one.
Thank you for this recommendation, I’m looking forward to reading it!
The Warmth of Other Suns has been one of my top ten recommended books for years. The characters are like many of my family members whose experiences are important & historical. Read, learn, enjoy!
My library has the ebook, but not the audiobook. I just submitted a purchase request for it!
I second your recommendation whole heartedly! It opened up a new perspective and history to me.
I loved this book. When mentioning to friends, I always get to hear myself thinking out loud about reading it again, along with a map on a big board to note the details and locations. Second your recommendation.
This book has been in my Audible library. Just started reading it now. Thanks for the reminder.
Anyone who I know who has read this book, including myself, highly recommend it. I read Deacon King Kong by James McBride not long after The Warmth of Other Suns, and there were echos of the same themes; I had a much better appreciation and understanding of those themes for having read Isabelle Wilkerson‘s book first.
I learned so much about about how difficult it was where they went to but also how bad it was where they came from.
Double rec for Deacon King Kong! I listened to the audio and still long for those characters. Laugh out loud funny and poignant and wise. Narrator James McBride was brilliant!
This is an amazing book. Don’t miss her other amazing one — Caste. Equally well researched, gripping, compelling.
I just read her book Caste which was terrific. Looking forward to reading this one soon!
Thank you! Downloading it now!
This book changed the way I see our country. I thought I knew, but I did not. I recommend this book to everyone. The audiobook is riveting, hooks you in like a page-turner novel. I listenend to it one summer when I was doing lots of gardening and weeding. It shut my mental whining down for sure. I look foward to seeing Henry Louis Gates Great Migration as well.
Thanks so much for the reminder. I bought and read this when it was first published, but now I think a re-read is in order, perhaps listening to it this time while knitting & mending. Wonder if Libby has it? And I will find her other book, also well reviewed.
Wow! I am so inspired to listen to this. I am always looking forward to opening up my horizons with true history as experienced by those who were there.
The audiobook is on sale at chirp.com for only 4 bucks for 4 more days!
Thank you! I just purchased it. Part of my “more audiobooks, less streaming” goal.
Thank you for the recommendation!!
I read this book a couple of years ago…fabulous. It changed my perspective. I recommend it often!
I had put off reading this book for YEARS. It’s not only a must-read, it’s a true pleasure to read. I’m solidly a fiction reader, but this book was one of the best and most important books I read last year.
Last night we watched the Piano Lesson on Netflix. We’d seen the play before (in Ashland, OR, with August Wilson in the audience). But I understood and appreciated it so much more because I’d read Warmth.
Absolutely a must-read. Not only is the content eye-opening, but it is great story-telling.
I read this book last year, and loved it so much! It was so interesting, and even though it’s non-fiction, Isabelle Wilkerson writes it like a novel! I was completely engrossed the entire time, learned so much, and did not want it to end, even though parts of it were difficult to read.
Audio books always take longer but are a must if you are knitting to it. There’s no other way. The narrator is very good.
Fabulous! I’ve spent the morning reading and listening and scrolling and reading the entire list of 100 Best Books. Wonderful way to start a snow day. Thank you, Ann!
AMEN! I listened to the audio several years ago and it was transformative. Heart-breaking, horrifying, hopeful, powerful. . . . So glad you’re reminding us about it!
Ms. Wilkerson’s talent lies not just in her copious research but in her ability to create a compelling, beautifully-written narrative. I was sorry to close the cover on the last page. Ann is right. You will never think of the history of our country in the same way again.
Excellent recommendation. This is one of those books that changed me by adding breadth and depth of understanding. A riveting and soulful read.
My reaction upon seeing your book choice was, “oh, yeah!” I read this book quite a few years ago, and since then I’ve believed it should be required reading for every high school student. Insights into and understanding of the diversity in our nation are mind-opening.
Another mind-opening book is “James,” by Percival Everett. It’s the retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” but from Jim’s perspective.