Straight, a self-proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college they married. In Amherst, Massachusetts, Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Both the Straight and the Sims families were filled with stories of the hardship and resilience of women pushing onward; their three daughters "carry in their blood at least three continents." Straight's memoir is both a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. -- adapted from jacket