I'm Down by Mishna Wolff

This is the only "free" book I'm getting for school. Well not really since I was able to get a textbook from one of my brothers. Anyways all week during my breaks I read this book and I was super excited at first that it was a memoir (I know I sound like a nerd) and was even more pleasantly surprised since the book started off pretty hilarious.

You might be wondering what's up with the hair? The author is actually not black but 100% white. Her father is the one who also isn't black but he grew up in the "neighborhood" and thinks he's black. Wolff's perspective of her childhood is both hilarious yet endearing.

Her parents are split up and they have a sort of "arrangement" that I still don't understand where he's got Mishna and her little sister Anora. Anora is adorable. Everybody loves her and she easily fits in the crowd whereas Mishna is a daddy's girl but the dad is not really forthcoming towards her. She acts like a snob according to them. They are poor and she is smarter them honestly. She goes to an all white school later on. She was finding her way through her neighborhood and fitting in and then she's transferred into an all white school where she doesn't fit in either because all those people are rich.

I'm impressed of how much in her youth she remembers! I remember hardly anything. She had a lot to deal with so I understand that. I don't think she was a snob. She was always trying to please her dad. Her dad was a jerk a lot. He would push her into things and sports. I would have loved if not at the moment but later on as I got into a sport I would have loved it and was kind of annoyed at first by the way she was acting. She was a bit selfish but rarely. She basically was trying to be herself throughout but no one was expecting her. You usually don't get asked to go away because you told a fact or something like that or called uppity or anything like that. I really felt bad for her throughout. Like I was this quiet shy girl and if I had to deal with these two opposite situations all the time I would go crazy. She actually had way more guts than I think she noticed at the time.

Not only did her father really make me angry with him but I started noticing at a certain point how her mother wasn't around and I was like "what is wrong with this lady?" She was so timid and wouldn't confront her ex-husband about the kids. She would talk to him but she couldn't stand up for herself and kids. She was way nicer than him but that really bugged me. Her and her father curse a bunch in this book so heads up. I don't mind it. I don't ever remember reading a book with people cursing in it but it's real life and that's what people do.

This was pure entertainment and it was fun and interesting to see her growing up and how she dealt with being this awkward white girl that was too black for the rich white kids but too white for the poor black kids.  The author is coming to my university so I'm hoping to see her. I really want to ask her a couple of questions if I can. Maybe I can get my book signed? If so then that would be the first signed book that hasn't been massed produced that I have plus the first EVER author I meet. So that's very exciting. I'm glad that I read a memoir that wasn't so depressing. The other memoirs I've read are good but this book has a light mood to it even of her life isn't that great because she adds humor to it. Reading someone's life makes you really think. What if I had this family and life? I could have ended up as anyone. You and I don't know. I liked how we know that she's alright because she wrote this book and it tells us all her accomplishments as well as her follow up to how everything is going on now. A very satisfying read.