This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
In Elizabeth Elder’s Who Are We Anyway, life isn’t easy, but it is a journey. It’s a journey in which we learn, we evolve, and we teach so that others will learn from our successes and our failures. A memoir is a story of this journey, a narrative that debunks the myths of the ‘happily ever after’ syndrome. Elizabeth Elder was born in the 1940s in one of the severely segregated and very prejudiced southern states. She observed the unfairness of how people treated others of a different color. In her young mind, she couldn’t understand the differences between black and white. Why? Because there isn’t any difference. If a child can observe that simple conclusion, it’s unbelievable that so many others, for generations, can’t.
Later, growing up in New England, she progressed from the public school system into the private school system when her mother took on a teaching position in a private school, which allowed her daughters to attend as part of her salary. More inequities, another childhood observation between the privileged and the ordinary in society. A key point that she did observe while in private school was the importance of an arts education, something that in the public system comes and goes like the changing tides of financial restraints, whereas in the private schools, it’s part of the required curriculum, an essential of a well-rounded education.
Later in her married life, she faced more of society’s stigmas as she struggled to understand and deal with her husband's mental illness. She writes: “Each one of us is broken by something, limited by circumstances, ability, upbringing or outlook. We are parts of who we might have been if it had not been for this, that, or the other thing.” The world around us and, quite simply, fate, defines who we are.
Elizabeth Elder’s Who Are We Anyway is a careful examination of her life, the society in which she grew up, the world around her, and the people with whom she interacted and whom she loved. The title suggests it all. We really should examine ourselves individually and ask ourselves that very question: who are we anyway? The author sums up her answer: “We are each of us, and all of us, that world, are we not?” An intuitive and insightful memoir.
