Rating: 
Summary: A hauntingly beautiful memoir
Review: I adored this book. I read it over a year ago and still remember its impact. I am neither Black nor Jewish yet this did not impede my pleasure at reading a finely crafted, moving and honest account of a family. The author's voice is authentic and bracing in its intelligence. A compelling and brave book -- and an important one. I read it again when I had finished, to catch the nuances I had doubtless missed the first greedy go-round. A gift, of course. He has a gift.
Rating:
Summary: An Encouraging and Inspirational Memoir
Review: The Color of Water is one of the best books that anyone can read. After reading this book several times, I would recommend it to anyone. The memoir not only expresses how religion is important to one's life, but it demonstrates the need to know of one's past to know where one is going in the future. The author James McBride writes how he struggled with knowing his identity, and through his struggles he finds that it is not the color of one's skin that matters but it is the person's dedication, perseverance, and faith that counts. McBride also illustrates how the strong will of his white mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, produced twelve successful black adults from the projects of Harlem.
Ruth's story is not only unforgettable, but it is also encouraging for men and women alike. After being disowned by her family, burying two husbands, and forced to raise twelve children on her own, Ruth shows what being strong-willed and having strong faith is all about. McBride's juxtaposition of his life story, with his mother's allows the reader to see that Ruth's commitment to her family has made James and his siblings the affluent adults they are today. A quote from chapter two, The Bicycle, represents this, "The nuts and bolts of raising us was left to Mommy, who acted as chief surgeon..., war secretary..., religious consultant..., and financial advisor." Ruth was always there for her children, and this book is a wonderful tribute to her and mothers everywhere.
Rating: 
Summary: a wonderful tribute from a son to his mother
Review: This is an amazing story about Ruth, a woman who left her Jewish upbringing, to marry a black man, have a family and live as she wanted to live, in a difficult social time. Ruth raised 12 kids on love, faith and pure will. I liked McBride's style, weaving his mother's words into his story. It was easy to read and touched my heart. McBride has given a lovely gift to his mother, and his family by telling her story and how it shaped his life. I think the words that touched me the most in this book were from the writings of McBride's father, Dennis. He quoted a sermon that his father had written and said "Sometimes we think if we could just go back in time we would be happy. But anyone who attempts to reenter the past is sure to be disappointed...he finds he is no longer here even in spirit. He has gone on to a new and different life..." I am glad that McBride added his father's words to this story. By quoting his father, McBride makes the point that by researching his mother's past, and searching for himself at the same time, has made him who he is today...but the past cannot be reclaimed and you can not return there; the past can only define you. Very poignant and touching. I recommend this book and give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining to read, but excessively shallow and preachy...
Review: I read this book on the advice of a friend. For the first 3 chapters, I found the story of 'Rachel' Shilsky and her son James McBride deeply moving. After further reading however, the writer revealed himself to be race-obsessed if not racist and anti-semitic. The author(/s) knew the expectations generally placed on books with this subject matter and did not fail to deliver - a contrived and self-contradictory tale of strength in the face of oppression. While McBride delivers a beautiful story about the colorless nature of god and importance of equality and forgiveness, almost all of the hardships faced by the McBride family are blamed on oppression caused by 'the white (and jewish) man. Furthermore both McBride and his mother refuse to take responsibility for their actions. They are able to justify all manner of behaviour: prostitution, stealing, drug-use and abuse by blaming others for their position. ie Repeatedly approaching to ask a well-known pimp for work as a prostitute, then moving out of his apartment to her family's residence to escape his evil 'clutches'. Ruth McBride unquestioningly suffered at the hands of her father's abuse. She went on to abandon her mother and sister (and arguably her children) all the while feeling pity for herself and blaming her family (and collectively white people and jews) for her uncaring and irresponsible actions. Any hardships she faced at the hands of black persons is ignored and justified on the basis that white oppression forced their hand. Perhaps the story of Ruth McBride and her son would be better told by another sibling who was not so embarrassed by their childhood that they needed to blame all their problems on the actions of others. Regardless, the color of water is an interesting book to read, if only to look for contradictions and obvious ploys for sympathetic responses... Read this book so you can tell others not to bother.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Review: The best word I can use to describe this book is Remarkable! I truly loved reading this book and all throughout the book I couldn't help saying to myself what a Remarkable person Ruth Mc Bride Jordan really was to raise all of those children under the worst circumstances, to receive no help from any of her family and still have every one of these children educated and professional people. I truly admire this woman and I don't know if I would have never been able to do the same under those circumstances. She is an inspiration to all mothers everywhere. One of my most favorite scenes in this book is when he is questioning his Mother about God and what color he is, and his mother tells him that God is the Color of Water. This was the perfect answer and that scene will live on in my head forever. James Mc Bride is truly a talented writer and I look forward to reading many more books by him in the future. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable true story of a remarkable woman's son
Review: Required reading in an introductory class at my college, The Color of Water was first a "had to read," and then a "love to read." I was incredibly fortunate in that James McBride had been invited to speak at my college as a part of the Orientation events. The book that had struck me as powerful before meant all the more to me after listening to him speak. The gritty reality, the humor and wit, the refusal to give up; it is an inspiring true story that I recommend to all. Skin may have a color, but the human spirit is, like God, the color of water.
Rating:
Summary: The Color of Water
Review: The Color of Water is an excellent book. In it, the author explores the life of a woman who, for whatever reasons, refuses to give up and live what might be considered to be a "bad life" simply because she came from a dysfunctional family, because she became pregnant out of marriage, because she was poor, because she had a lot of children, or because her husbands died leaving her with twelve children to raise. She taught her children to be responsible for their own lives and to take charge of those lives simply because others would not do this for them. The style of coincident autobiography and biography is interesting. It gives the reader the opportunity to see what happened to Mom, and how that affected her children. I wouldn't recommend that others copy that style, but it works here. I would recommend this book to students who have begun the process of surrender because of divorced parents or poverty or society's prejudice against their particular ethnicity, sexual orientation or whatever. It offers hope and direction. The Color of Water is easy to read. McBride's vocabulary is intelligent but not overblown, and the points are made without the reader's being beaten over the head with them. The simultaneous stories are easy to keep together and to separate. The Color of Water is a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Color Me Unimpressed
Review: The subject of our story, Ruth McBride Jordon - the mother, speaks of dropping babies like a chicken dropping eggs, and boasts that she didn't go to a doctor even once while pregnant with of one of her children. McBride Jordon and her husband lived in a two-room apartment in a housing project while continuing to add to their family for a total of seven children. After her husband died leaving her destitute she went on to have five more. She did encourage all her children to educate themselves and made sure they went to good schools through government bussing programs. But beyond snapping incomprehensible aphorisms like "Never ask questions or your mind will end up like a rock" she too often relied on beating her children to motivate them. It was interesting reading about the author (McBride Jordon's son) coming to terms with his African-American/Jewish biracial identity (the same as Marian Wright Edelman's children if you want a different point of view). As a child he was ambivalent about his mother's "light skin" and fought both embarrassment and fear for her safety as the only white woman in a black neighborhood. The processes that took the mother from her twisted and repressive Southern family home to the black community were complex. While she "became" black she remained critical of negative aspects of that community, from the few blacks she met that looked down on her to political preaching in black churches. Her contempt was spent on the white society that marginalized her at birth for being Jewish while remaining complicit in her further flight from "white acceptability." It might have been her courage and stubbornness that made her take this road less traveled, both traits necessary for the journey, but in truth it was the love and the primarily unconditional acceptance she found in the black community that drove her. While her sacrifices, determination, and successes were and are admirable her means are not what I would hold up to high school students as anything to be emulated. Neither would I point a high school student to the author's style - the prose was plodding and the attempts at sentimentality thin. There are many books that better convey to high school students the important issues explored in "The Color of Water."
Rating:
Summary: A study of racial and religious tolerance for one and all!
Review: I first heard about this book from some fellow educators who were planning to implement it as part of the English curriculum at an alternative high school and I decided to check it out for myself. This is a non-fiction memoir written by James McBride about his mother. This is unique because Mr. Baldwin is black and his mother is a white woman of Jewish descent. Sometimes real life creates the most amazing characters, and Ruth McBride Jordon (formerly Rachel Deborah Shilsky) is one of the most incredible women I've read about in modern literature. Her amazing odyssey from her Orthodox Jewish family in Suffolk, Virginia to her life with her black family first in Harlem then in the projects of Brooklyn was like nothing I have ever read! After reading this amazing memoir, I can definitely see why it is rapidly becoming required reading for high school and college student across America. It shows how one can overcome drugs and racial discrimination to become successful. It also teaches important lessons about racial acceptance, religious tolerance and the discovery of hidden family background. The latter especially fascinated due to my interest in genealogy - James McBride went in search of his mother's true background and discovered his unknown Jewish heritage. FANTASTIC!
Rating:
Summary: It was an inspiration
Review: In a world where we think that everything revolves around ourselves, out comes a book that reminds us of what the true meaning of sacrifice and love are really all about. Just when we think that we've done everything we can, we read about a woman who goes above and beyond the call of duty. This book is an inspiration and a guiding tool for hard work, dedication, and respect for the human race!
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