this text is quite a feat to have undertaken, part autobiography/part history of history genealogy study/part deconstruction of white supremacy within familial structures*. Newton was using a lot of moving pieces in a book that I personally felt deserved more time to live in each aspect of her work. Though they are quite cohesive together and contextualize each other beautifully in her writing I felt at times there were simply not enough pages.

If you are looking for a gentle intro to the topics above it is very approachable and written accessibly for those both familiar and unfamiliar with texts on history through an academic lens. If any one of the topics covered in the text are of interest this book is a great expansion into necessary sister topics. but if you are wanting to wade deeper into the shared areas of the subject matter covered you may be disappointed as this is more of a intro to the topic rather than anything deeper or challenging.

*The author does seem to have a white audience in mind for this book and I would say this is only scratching the first layer of more deeper introspection on veins of white supremacy and racism and deconstructing/dismantling those structures within family units and histories. Helpful for those working on starting their anti-racist work but by NO means should this be considered an end.