~Book Review - Who Do You Think You Are by Alyse Myers~

Alyse Myers' story takes place in Queens, NY where she was born and raised along with her 2 sisters. She is the eldest of the three. She was also the target of her mother's wrath. Alyse's parents did not get along, and she and her sisters witnessed many screaming matches between their parents which usually ended by their dad leaving and slamming the door behind him, only for him to return later and ring the doorbell over and over again and yell to be let in. Alyse's mom would yell back, telling him to go away. The three girls would huddle in their room, trying to block out the sounds of their fighting. Alyse slept with a radio under her pillow...her radio was her salvation.

Alyse loved her dad and she was his favorite, further irritating Alyse's mother. Her childhood was an uncertain one, never knowing how her mother was going to react to certain situations. This memoir got its name by a phrase that was spoken to Alyse by her mother all of the time...."Who Do You Think You Are?" Alyse was constantly being accused by her mother of thinking that she was better than everyone else. Determined not to let her mother drag her down, Alyse applied and was accepted at a school for the gifted in Manhattan. She started working part-time jobs, and got her own apartment. She invited her mother to come see her new place, informing her beforehand that she would not be allowed to smoke in the apartment. Her mother did not come.

"My mother married my father when she was nineteen and was a widow at thirty-three. She told me that he was the only man she had ever been with, both before they married and after he died. Even when I was a child, I knew that theirs was a complicated marriage. I wanted to believe they were destined to be together, that their bitter fights had to do with his illness and her inability to cope with it. I didn't want to believe that my parents -- childhood sweethearts -- could end up hating each other with a passion that still frightens and saddens me to this day."

My Thoughts: I could relate to this story on a personal level, as my mom and Alyce's mom are a lot alike. My mom never threw me out of the house, but she was extremely crabby and rude to me growing up. She smoked constantly. She had an unhappy marriage. I was a Daddy's Girl. Alyse's descriptions of her childhood are raw and real. I hurt for her each time she was berated or called nasty names by her mom. I so admire Alyse for her strength and courage to share her story with us. Her memoir will stay with me a very long time.

Five Stars

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 6, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416543058

~Teaser Tuesday~

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read*

* Open to a random page*

*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page*
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! ;)

I looked in the mirror and I thought about my mother and my father and their wedding day. I was going to have a good marriage, I promised myself. I was going to have the kind of marriage that my mother didn't have. -pg 173, Who Do You Think You Are? by Alyse Myers.

What's YOUR teaser today???

~Mailbox Monday~

These books arrived in my mailbox last week:

Gal by Ruthie Bolton:

From Kirkus Reviews
A young African-American woman born and raised in Charleston, SC, movingly relates in unsparing detail her struggle to overcome a legacy of abuse and neglect. Choosing to write under a pseudonym to protect her family, the author showed her manuscript to another Charlestonian, novelist Josephine Humphreys (The Fireman's Fair, 1991), who describes in the foreword how she suggested that the story would be better told in the old Southern way--orally. And this they did, with Humphreys taping and transcribing each session. Born in 1961, when her mother was only 13, Ruthie was raised by her grandmother and Clovis Fleetwood, the man she called Grand-Daddy, in the Hungry Neck section of Charleston. Though shabby and rundown, it was a place of special pride to local African-Americans, who have owned land there for more than a century. Fleetwood, who gave Ruthie the nickname ``Gal,'' enjoyed an honorable naval career, winning numerous awards and achieving the rank of chief petty officer, but off duty he was a sadistic monster. He beat Ruthie's grandmother to death in front of her, punished minor infractions with savage beatings or humiliating punishments, and though he spent money freely on drink and other women, he refused to provide the girl and her sisters and young aunts with proper clothing or adequate food. Ruthie developed a stutter, began to steal, and as she grew older smoked dope and drank. ``I was evil as a child,'' she confesses, ``but I was evil because I was being treated evil.'' Her despair-fed anger and self- destructive behavior finally ended when she met Ray Bolton and his affectionate kin, who showed her that some families, unlike her own, could truly give love. An inspiring journey of a contemporary pilgrim who, beset by all the worst demons, learned to love and forgive. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Who Do You Think You Are? by Alyse Myers:

Product Description
After her mother's death, Alyse Myers covets only one thing: a wooden box that sits in the back of a closet. Its contents have been kept from her for her entire life. When she was thirteen years old her mother promised she could have the box, "when I'm dead. In fact, it'll be my present to you."

Growing up in Queens in the 1960s and '70s, Alyse always yearned for more in life, while her mother settled for an unhappy marriage, an unsatisfying job, and ultimately a joyless existence. Her father drifts in and out of their home. There are harrowing fights, abject cruelty, and endless uncertainty. Throughout her childhood Alyse adamantly rejects everything about her mother's lifestyle, leaving her mother to ask "Who do you think you are?"

A personal portrait of a mother and daughter, Who Do You Think You Are? explores the profound and poignant revelations that so often can come to light only after a parent has died. Balancing childhood memories with adult observations, Alyse Myers creates a riveting and deeply moving narrative.

What was in YOUR mailbox last week?