🚀 Summary

Jenna writes open-heartedly about her grandparents and the lessons they taught her through intimate personal essays. A series of reflections on the time Jenna spent with her grandparents as a young girl and on the devastating year in which she lost three grandparents. Jenna does not venture into political territory, her focus is on the bond with each of her grandparents. It is a book filled with bittersweet stories, lessons, and advice from elders, sometimes comical and sometimes sorrowful, but always down-to-earth and relatable.

🎨 Impressions

I think I got the timing right with this book. I needed some semblance of a family at that time and Jenna delivered on that front. I had a preconceived notion that Jenna might either glorify her struggles or praise her politically inclined relatives in subtle undertones. But I’m glad I was wrong. She is easy to relate with- as a woman, a woman with ambition, a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a granddaughter. This is her compilation of stories about the enduring power of family that is both universal and timeless.

🕵 How I Discovered It

Goodreads.

✍️ My Favorite Quotes

“There’s nothing you can do to make me stop loving you, so stop trying so hard.”

“America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms, and dads. And they need to be treated with respect… . Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior. This is a great country. It’s a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth.”

“our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens inside your house.”