Week 3: Books

Three books most influential in my life.

Kaffir Boy. By: Mark Mathabane- African American history has always been and interest of mine, and this book was a huge look in to apartheid in South Africa . I found it absolutely inspiring how he survived and never gave up hope. It makes you appreciate everything you have, even when it doesn't seem like much.

Black like me By: John Howard Griffin, was also a very influential book for me. I think it is amazing the huge difference in the way he was treated when he was white, and when he was pretending to be black. I feel like it relates to me now, even though I am Caucasian, my fiancee is from Mexico and a lot of people still give us dirty looks from people because we are an inter-racial couple, and we have children together. It is interesting how people think and act even to this day about the color of some ones skin.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.By: Ken Kesey is my third most influential book. It talks about mental institutions and how they were ran in the 1950's and what was being done to patients. My mother suffered from Bipolar disorder and had a pretty bad case of it. She had to be hospitalized many times and endured E.C.T.... Electro Shock Therapy. So when I later read this book it struck a quite personal note for me. Obviously people are not treated in the same manor as they were in the 50's, and the people that are patients now actually have real issues and aren't just being sent there for their independent thinking or radical ideas.

All these books had messages that keep me thinking until this day.