The 12 Tribes of Hattie Oprahs Pick/not mine

When Oprah speaks, people listen.  A book selected for Oprah's Book Club becomes a best seller.  Ms. Winfrey is a positive force for constructive change.  Oprah is credited for getting more people reading.  However, that doesn't mean Oprah's picks are divine.  I appreciate why the The 12 Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis, was chosen.  The novel touches on many significant issues affecting African Americans'  lives; Jim Crow Laws in the Southern States and dire poverty endured by the multitudes who came north hoping for a better life.  Hattie migrated north to escape the horrors of the south.  One of Hattie's 12 children notes, "they left because of the whites, only to spend the rest of their lives being hostalgic for the most banal and backwoods things.  The North was cold and colorless."  Mathis touches briefly on numerous struggles in addition to racism: a self-imposed class system, stubborn pride,"unseemly failed" males, church charlatans, unwed mothers & limited options for a better life.  Hattie concluded ""60 years out of Georgia, and there's still the same wounding and the same pain."  Mathis covers too many issues through too many lives that their impacts becomes diluted.  I recommend "To Kill a Mockingbird, or the Help instead.  People listen when Oprah speaks, but those who speak to Oprah, do not always speak the truth (Sir Lance Lies-a-Lot.)  I on the other hand, can be trusted.