in inland southern california near the desert and the mexican border susan straight a white selfproclaimed book nerd and dwayne sims an african american basketball player started dating in high school after college they married and drove to amherst massachusetts where straight met her teacher and mentor james baldwin who encouraged her to write once back in riverside at weekly driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large closeknit sims family straightand eventually her three daughterslearned the stories of dwaynes ancestors some women escaped violence in postslavery tennessee some escaped murder in jim crow mississippi and some fled abusive men straights motherinlaw alberta sims is the descendant at the heart of this memoir susans family too reflects the hardship and gumption of women pushing onwardfrom switzerland wisconsin canada and the colorado rockies to californiaa pakistani word biraderi is one straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clanthose who become your family she and sims divorced after their third daughter was born but he lives nearby and the family has remained close of her three girls now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry straight writes the daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents we are not about borders we are about love and survival in the country of women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to america and indomitable women