Rating: 
Summary: no great expectations
Review: It's an easily read book, but nothing more. The subject and the strusture are offering nothing new. The strong point is the narration being vivid, but nothing more than that.
Rating: 
Summary: Just GREAT!
Review: McBride's loving tribute to his mother shows a deep respect, appreciation and compassion for a young, frightened outcast Jewish girl who found comfort, religious fulfillment, love and acceptance in New York City's black population, and at a time when it took great courage to do so. Feisty Ruth considered herself 'born' again when she moved to New York. She eventually received her own college degree, with all of her successful children attending. Readers can be grateful for McBride's curiosity and persistence in getting his intensely private, mysterious mother to finally share her remarkable story with both her children, and the world. Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This book is one of the finest, inpirational books I have ever read. A combination of two profound stories, the Color of Water was very engaging. I can't help but strongly reccomend this tremendous work.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspirational Story of Love, Hope & Determination
Review: I've read this book several times over the last five years and recommended it to many. The story and triumph of James McBride and his family is truly awesome, not as a slang term but awesome as in remarkable and amazing. His detailed research into his mother's background (a Jewish woman raised in the south) who falls in love with a black man gives such wonderful insight into that era. His mother is uncooperative about divulging information about her family but James uncovers it slowly but surely. I cry every time I read about the accomplishments he and his siblings have achieved under her constant vigilance and tough love. This is a tribute not just to James McBrides mother but all those mothers who face incredible odds of poverty, racism, ignorance and yet somehow contribute amazing people to our society. God Bless them all.
Rating:
Summary: a book about understanding
Review: As I read along, I realized that something odd was happening. McBride was writing about his mother after he had come to peace with her. It was an odd feeling. His book is honest--his mother is not sugar-coated or idealized. But her failings are described with an understanding humor, and while he makes it clear that he himself had trouble along his way, the trouble is not what the book is about. Maybe I couldn't have noticed this if I were younger. The story itself is moving and well written, the character of his mother highly believeable, but what touched me the most is that this is what a relationship looks like after you have battled, self-destructed, loved, hurt, and all the rest, through to understanding and acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Summer Reading
Review: This book was on my list for summer reading, I picked it up and thought why not? I'll read it. Little did I know how well this book was written. It's one of those books where you get into it on the first page. The story is sad and yes I cried a lot but this is one of the best books I have ever read. Read this book even if you are not a big reader--you'll like it.
Rating: 
Summary: we are our mother's work of art
Review: Praise to James McBride's mother. She made sure her children were educated she found a way. Her childhood story was hartbreaking. She had known true love. for that she was very lucky. Her children's success are her reward for all the tough times she experienced, and her own mother's too.
Rating:
Summary: A TRIBUTE TO MOM...
Review: This book is, indeed, a tribute to the author's mother. In it, the author, a man whose mother was white and his father black, tells two stories: that of his mother and his own. Tautly written in spare, clear prose, it is a wonderful story of a bi-racial family who succeeded and achieved the American dream, despite the societal obstacles placed in its way. The author's mother was a Polish Orthodox Jew who migrated to America at the age of two with her family during the early nineteen twenties. They ultimately settled down in Virginia, where she led an isolated and lonely life; shunned by whites because she was Jewish and shunned by blacks because she was white. She was raised in a predominantly black neighborhood, where her father, a despicable and harsh man who brutalized his handicapped wife, ran a local grocery store, where he priced gouged his black clientele. She left home and moved to New York when she was nineteen and never looked back. She met and married the author's father, a black man, when mixed race marriages were still frowned upon by both whites and blacks. Still, she always felt more comfortable around blacks than around whites.
When he died sixteen years later, she married another black man who nurtured her eight children by the author's father and proceeded to give her four more children. The author tells of his childhood, of his family, and of the issue of race that ultimately colored his life while growing up in predominantly black neighborhoods, where his mother stood out like a sore thumb because of the color of her skin. It was always an issue his mother avoided discussing with him, as for her it was not an issue. It was not until the author wrote this book that his mother discussed the issue of race within the context of her own life. From this dialogue emerges a fascinating look at the issues of race, as well as religion, and how it impacts on an individual's identity within our race conscious society. It is also a very personal story. While the author's family was economically disadvantaged, his eccentric and independent mother always stressed education. She was a strict disciplinarian who brooked no nonsense from her twelve children. A convert to Christianity through her first husband, with whom she founded a Baptist church, she provided her children with the will to succeed. Consequently, all twelve eventually went to college and did her proud. The story of this unique family is told from two distinct, parallel perspectives: that of the author and that of his mother. While both are interesting, it is his mother's story that dominates this beautifully written book, which is, indeed, a tribute to her. It is truly a story told from the heart, as the love that the author has for his mother is evident with every written word.
Rating:
Summary: What a mama.
Review: Though somewhat stiff in delivery, the story is an incredible tribute to a most unusual family. A good read.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: That McBride could write so convincingly in the voice of his mother surprised and pleased me. He explained some aspects of Orthodox Jewish life, and black life that I'd only suspected or had wondered about. Some of the attitudes and experiences of life in those economically challenging years reminded me of my own parents and of my own upbringing with multiple siblings. The less interesting parts of the book are when McBride tries to relate and psychoanalyze his life. I couldn't make the connection. But that's okay, I still give it 5 stars.
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