“If you're Native American and you pray to the wolves, you're a savage. If you're African and you pray to your ancestors, you're a primitive. But when white people pray to a guy who turns water into wine, well, that's just common sense.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
“My dad would sometimes say things to my mom like, “Devil, get away, for I am God’s property!”
― Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life
― Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life
“Nelson Mandela once said, 'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.' He was so right. When you make the effort to speak someone else's language, even if it's just basic phrases here and there, you are saying to them, 'I understand that you have a culture and identity that exists beyond me. I see you as a human being”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
“People thought my mom was crazy. Ice rinks and drive-ins and suburbs, these things were izinto zabelungu -- the things of white people. So many people had internalized the logic of apartheid and made it their own. Why teach a black child white things? Neighbors and relatives used to pester my mom: 'Why do this? Why show him the world when he's never going to leave the ghetto?'
'Because,' she would say, 'even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world. If that is all I accomplish, I've done enough.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
'Because,' she would say, 'even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world. If that is all I accomplish, I've done enough.”
― Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
“My dream of having four children was replaced by utter gratitude that I was able to get pregnant three times, and give birth to two beautiful girls, who exhaust me spiritually, financially, and emotionally.”
― Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life
― Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life
Natalie’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Natalie’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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