Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family & Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance, 272 pages

I started this book thinking I know Hillbillies and their experiences because I had my own grandmother called Mamaw.  My dad was the oldest of seven, and the only one of his siblings to leave North Carolina.  But I did not live the life that J.D. Vance experienced.  I wasn't even exposed to it when visiting my family in North Carolina.

This is a book about broken families and a broken society that our government isn't able to fix, and is perhaps, making worse.  It goes a long way to explaining how our new president got elected.

How do we make the American Dream real and attainable for all Americans?  How do we heal broken families and break the cycle of poverty, abuse and lack of education?  Until we find those answers as a country and society, I fear we will continue to be divided.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz, 288pages

The full title of this book is "The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook--What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing."

I approached this book with trepidation.  I am not a fan of true crime or horror but I am happy to say this truly was a book of hope.  I wanted to read (listen) to this book because my Rotary Club is getting ready to work with a local elementary school whose teachers and staff all plan to read this.  Students who have adverse childhood experiences don't learn or behave like students who have a happy and stable home life. 

We all need appropriate love and interaction from birth and some families are not equipped to provide that.  In order to help traumatized children succeed and thrive, they need adults who can step in and be supportive and love them even when they are acting out.  That's a tall order, but this book explains why and how caring adults can impact lives.