#BookReview: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO FANNIE DAVIS:My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis

Synopsis: Offering a daughter's perspective on her larger-than-life mother, Bridgett Davis traces her family's story as part of the Great Migration, showing how her mother and father arrived in Detroit from Tennessee carrying with them not just their own hopes but also those of their families. A child gifted with extraordinary powers of perception and understanding, Davis breaks the code of secrecy around her mother's business and in so doing reveals both her mothers' extraordinary sacrifices as well as her seemingly endless generosity. We come to understand just how keenly Fannie Davis believed in the power of money, and family, to make the world right.

Review: Black mothers are amazing. Don't hit me with "all mothers are amazing" because while they might be good, black mothers are amazing because they're tasked with preparing black children to face a life that won't always be kind to them and won't think they're amazing. Fannie Davis created a blueprint for life that showed her kids, the author in particular, that they were special, there was nothing they couldn't do and no one could place limitations on them.

I grew up with a granny who loved playing the lottery. I have vivid memories of going to the neighborhood liquor store (because no one batted an eye in the 80s when kids bought lottery tickets and cigarettes) to play her numbers, straight and boxed. And though she never told me, I suspect that my granny, a Tennessee transplant living in East St. Louis, IL, played the numbers long before the lottery became an official entity. So I understood how important the numbers were to the black community - a chance to pay a little for a potentially big payout, a little hope for a few dollars, and the excitement when your number hit.

I was immediately drawn into Fannie Davis's story, learning the flip side of how the numbers worked and the ability to turn that knowledge and ingenuity into a life long enterprise that afforded her and her family nice houses in good neighborhoods, education at private college, luxury vacations, and the ability to walk away from a marriage that was no longer working for her, because she could afford to do so. I love the example she set for her children, her daughters especially. I'm so glad Bridgett M. Davis shared the story of her family and her mother with us and I think you will be too.

#BookReview: Into the Go-Slow - Bridgett M. Davis

Often when someone dies, our memories of them become exaggerated.  We remember all of their good traits and focus on them as if they were some kind of superhuman while they walked the earth.  Instead of reflecting on their bad qualities and remembering them as they were, it's almost as if we put on blinders and elevate them an angel-like level.  In Bridgett M. Davis' Into the Go-Slow, we find 21 year old Angie tracing the footsteps of her deceased sister, Ella, and trying to fit in the missing pieces of the puzzle that she was.

As the youngest of three sisters, Angie witnessed Ella's need to shine in the eyes of their father and her rebellious spirit when dealing with her mother.  Middle sister Denise was always sensible.  And baby Angie just fit in where she could, carrying the heavy load of watching Angie tumble off her pedestal and trying to save her when no one else would.

 Whether Angie's recollection of Ella is clouded because of her young age at the time of Ella's death or because she engaged in older sibling hero worship, it becomes apparent that the Ella she thought she knew was not the person she really was.  Deciding to reconnect with those who really did know Ella, Angie goes to Nigeria to find out what really happened to her in her final days.

From Detroit to Nigeria, Davis takes readers on a sometimes painful, yet engaging, journey. She captures the spirit of  the late eighties; a Detroit beginning to crumble under Reaganomics, student activists' newly found awareness of South Africa's apartheid structure, and injustices around the world.  She vividly paints a picture of Fela's Nigeria as experienced through Ella and re-told to Angie.  And she does it all masterfully.

320pp
Published: September 2014
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.