Specifically, Take One Candle is a two-hundred-years-later sequel to her excellent A Million Nightingales. It was the story of a group of black families who migrated to Southern California from Louisiana and the eventual return to Louisiana during Katrina because of a crisis with one of the central characters. A related criticism is that Wikipedia often has more extensive coverage of such popular topics than it does of some traditionally encyclopedic topics. The characters explore many different levels of what family, history and genetic legacies mean to each of us. I guess now i'm reading it from the eyes of a 'woke' Black woman and it gets on my nerves. Wikipedia articles often appear near the top of search engine results and attract a large readership. Specifically, Take One Candle is a two-hundred-years-later sequel to her excellent A Million Nightingales. Wikipedia's methods for addressing these problems are effective when used well. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who needs a refresher of the Christian faith that founded this country and would like to read a novel that is morally clean,pure and enjoyable. Something went wrong. One of the reasons the Wikipedia project is successful is that its fundamental structure makes it easy for volunteers to retain useful contributions and discard destructive changes. To encourage feedback, provide a neutral summary in one or two lines on the requests for comment page and start an RfC section on the article talk page that introduces the issues in an impartial manner. I've enjoyed Susan Straight's essays in Salon for many years and I really liked the first novel of hers that I read- Highwire Moon. While that dovetailed with the chaotic mess of Hurricane Katrina, I found it all wearying, tiresome, and not terribly interesting. One very positive thing I can say for the novel, though, is that Straight does a very good job of handling the racial aspects of the book in such a way that the reader gets the feeling that this is a novel about a family's trials, not so much a novel about race. Straight's focus on character and place is strong, as always. Bad title, nice little book--not amazing, but a lovely diversion for a few days. It’s rare that a debut novel gets the kind of love and attention that Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, which spanned centuries and continents, received. I think I'll have to check out other work by this author. Also, the flashbacks were jarring and generally did not have a large bearing on the present events of the story. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Ms. Straight does a fascinating job with the characters and their language. Periodic expert reassessment to discard mistakes and retain improvements should be considered a normal and healthy part of the Wikipedia process. The article's date of acceptance to good or featured status becomes an accepted benchmark for periodic checks and reversions. Many topics have poor articles due to a lack of editors who are knowledgeable in the subject. Most vandalism to Wikipedia is little more than graffiti. I did not enjoy the plot involving the narrator's godson, and the parts of the book where various characters traveled from California to Louisiana right as Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on. My main complaints are that I could not find myself connecting with any of the characters, so I did not really care what happened to them. A nonexpert reader should be able to come away from a Wikipedia article on a controversial topic with enough information and references to form an independent conclusion. i usually like susan straight. At the hypothetical extreme a twelve-year-old might become an expert editor about Laura Ingalls Wilder by citing references to children's books. Fortunately it is easy to track Wikipedia contributions from any username or unique IP address. I'd give it 2-1/2 stars if I could. I suppose her language is nice but her story is terrible. The book ends with a bit of the madness of Hurricane Katrina. Wikipedia has a high minded goal of summarizing the world's knowledge in one convenient place and gets most of its help from volunteer editors and donations. The first is petty. Otherwise this book was pretty great, although very upsetting for much of it. Am currently reading #3 which backs up, time- wise, and fills in some of the puzzles of Take One Candle. After getting involved in a shooting, Victor has fled to New Orleans. What if you did not look like a Black American and every one guessed, incorrectly, about your background? "WP:LIGHT" redirects here. As they cross from California to the heart of Louisiana, all three characters will come face-to-face with the issues of race that beset them: Fantine, whose light skin has allowed her a kind of invisibility; her father, who grew up in the Jim Crow South and has tried to guard his family against that world; and Victor, whose fall into violence mirrors the path of so many other young black men. Formal dispute resolution is another recourse. Please try again. One of the tenets of Wikipedia is that it is not a paper encyclopedia. Even some stubborn cranks give up in the face of unanimous opposition, especially when voiced by a new set of people who had not participated in any previous dispute. by Pantheon. Their inter-relationships reveal history in slow, satisfying ways. Oh by the way, the story is set just before and after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, so that makes for. The characters and connections felt authentic and credible, making me long for the easy sense of belonging that is lost when one leaves her place of origin. I was interested in reading this book when the author appeared at Mrs. Dalloway's bookstore along with Ayelet Waldman. Although she is a local writer (Riverside) I have not read any of her novels (I used to see her reviews in the L.A. Times). Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. We’d love your help. It took me a while to get used to the language (ebonics, creole, etc.) Troublemakers become somewhat less likely to attack and their changes are less likely to survive, both because more editors watch the page and because of clear differences in quality. Site policies such as Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:No original research, and guidelines such as Wikipedia:Reliable sources prohibit this behavior, but enforcement depends on volunteer efforts. I believe that The author has tremendous compassion for all of the inhabitants of the novel without creating stereotypical heres or villains. For anyone who has an interest in the beginning of our country, this is a must read. The main character is known as FX when she is out in the world publishing her pieces in travel magazines. I suffered through 2/3 of it. It should be noted that Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy seeks to characterize public debate rather than settle it. Too much creole. That authenticity covers a multitude of sins detailed below. Be the first to ask a question about Take One Candle Light a Room. Beautiful written story of a Louisiana family that settled in the orange groves of California. It was a fairly good novel, but urban crime isn't something I usually care about reading. When an advocate of a specific point of view violates policy, a user conduct request for comment often establishes a consensus that corrects the offending behavior. As any experienced Wikipedian knows, real improvement happens less often than people wish for it. Very realistic. How are you true to your roots when those roots run deep, and are watered across State lines, race and socio-eco-culture? A well researched book! and 200 new characters (who the hell is this person and why should I care?) I liked this book although it took me a while to get all the ancestors straight in my head. It is interesting how the author weaves the writing of the Mayflower Compact into the pilgrims need for a document to "govern" their settlement. I love the sense of community Straight evokes with her Sarrat, CA. In addition, several bots monitor the site and automatically revert many types of vandalism, such as page-blanking or insertion of profanity into articles. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. I always liked the IDEA of Star Wars--the creation of a world and a mythology that unfolded over many generations. The characters explore many different levels of what family, history and genetic legacies mean to each of us. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published It deserves no more attention than scrawlings on a restroom wall and, fortunately, is easier to remove; the simplest solution is to revert the page, which takes only seconds. A template from Wikipedia:Cleanup resources can caution readers during the interim. Unable to add item to List. Many of these changes may be made in good faith by editors who, for example, add an assertion from an obsolete reference source. I thought that part of the story was fairly incoherent, with increasing numbers of characters, locations, and situations being thrown at the reader and making a chaotic mess. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. I wish that I would have had this book available for my daughter when I homeschooled her during her middle school years. Address disputes on specific articles or larger topics, and permit experts in the subject area to jointly address problems. I don't believe we can fully comprehend what these people endured, but ONE CANDLE'S LIGHT by Fay Alexander makes the sufferings and hardships of these brave souls come to life. This page was last edited on 1 June 2020, at 13:52. Read for book club and thoroughly enjoyed it. The job entails hosting and producing the radio show/podcast “Christopher Closeup,” writing and editing the syndicated “Light One Candle” column, producing and scriptwriting the annual Christopher Awards ceremony, and more. This is done for several reasons--to test Wikipedia's defenses, for fun, or as part of a deliberate effort to foster bad faith amongst editors or to harm and/or discredit Wikipedia. Nonconformists are fined, imprisoned, or executed. I do not get why people liked this. I couldn't wait to see what happened at the end. As someone who lived in New Orleans and experienced the storm first hand, I get tired of authors setting books during that period when to do so is just contrived, but for this story it was totally appropriate.