Review: Takes More Than Love by Jenna Winters

 Genre: Memoir

Description:

“If Jenn had known her husband's family before they'd gotten married, there might never have been a wedding at all.

Now she has to confront the reality that her new family holds ignorant—and, at times, racist—views, and that spending time around them triggers her ingrained trauma of growing up Black in the U.S.

Why is it so hard for her to speak out against their prejudice? And, more importantly, what does it mean that her husband is silent in the face of all this?

This transformative memoir follows Jenn as she confronts the past, helps her husband on his own journey to racial awareness, and finds the inner strength to be an advocate for others.

Both harrowing and uplifting, this book is for anyone who has ever been othered, as well as those in close relationships with those from different walks of life. It challenges us all to confront our unconscious bias and seek true reconciliation.”

Author:

According to the publisher’s website Jenna Winters “lives with her husband and four children in Omaha, ​Nebraska. Whenever she has a spare moment, she can be ​found enjoying a book (she carries one with her everywhere ​she goes). The only thing she loves more than reading is ​traveling. She believes that leaving the comfort zone of one’s ​own community is one of the greatest ways to build empathy ​for other people.”

Appraisal:

One of the many great things about reading books is how they can help us understand other people who are in situations much different than our own, which is what this book did for me. The opposite of that, seeing how someone struggling with the same things you struggle with and potentially getting ideas of how they deal with comparable struggles is another area where some books are very valuable, and for other readers out there, this book could well do that. Some might even find themselves on both sides in different ways, for example you might not understand the struggles of being a minority race in the US who has to cope with racism, but you might find yourself having to help a spouse understand why something is difficult for you because they have never experienced those situations (maybe helping a man understand issues that a woman encounters that he never would).

The point, of course, is that better understanding people from all walks of life, both how their lives are different and how they’re the same helps everyone. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to become a better person and improve their understanding of the world and those around them.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words