Juliana

09/29/08 Dear Mr. Aronson:  In a book such as your book, __Race__, first impressions are worth a lot and from the first sentence of the dedication I wanted to read on. I loved how you made that seemingly unimportant part of the book powerful and memorable. “Readers, if we can learn from their deaths, they live.” Reading it before I read the book I had a much different view than when I read it for the second time, after I finished the book.  Next the book it’s self. I thought the book was extremely well written. First in the sense of flow and such, but also in the sense of you taking a huge, worldwide issue and putting it into a small package. Though the task of containing yourself to the boundaries of a book was a hard one indeed, you managed to complete the job in an interesting piece of writing. All the way through the book you captured my attention.  I learned a lot while reading the book. I knew what the concept of race and racism were I didn’t know the so-called science behind it. I never realized how many people wanted to find the ‘truth,’ proving that people of African descent or people of Irish or any group of people are inferior to another. I really liked how you took the ‘pillars of race’ in the beginning and then added onto them throughout the book.  On pages 208-209 the italicized paragraph really intrigued me. That paragraph really struck me. My first impression was surprise. But the more I read over the paragraph the more I liked it. I thought it was a very powerful part of the book. You could tell that the feelings in that section were real, which I liked. There were mixed opinions about that passage but I liked it. What affected your decision to put that section in? what did you think it added?  Overall, I liked this book and was glad to read it. I hope you continue to write.  Sincerely,  Juliana Trach