While wandering the Library on Election Night I came across a book that I felt like I should have read ages ago, aaa|Their Eyes Were Watching God|0060931418|aaa by Zora Neale Hurston. I’m not sure why I’ve never read it, having heard it recommened several times. I thought to myself, “today’s the day,” and checked it out.

It was a quick read, only a couple commutes on the train, but it’s one of those stories that will stay with me. I found it difficult to get into at first. Hurston writes in the black vernacular and it took me a while to get used to Ah=I and ken=can, but once it clicked, it clicked.

Janie was a free spirit caught in a world of practical and sober people. Her first two husbands were not love matches, although they offered her the security that she and her grandmother thought she needed. Only after the death of her second husband does she gain the freedom that she truly wants…only to have it… (well, I guess I don’t want to give the whole story away!)

Told from the black perspective in 1930’s Florida, aaa|Their Eyes Were Watching God|0060931418|aaa offers the readers an inside look at what being black was like in the beginning of the 20th century. Entertaining, funny, and though provoking, it is no wonder that so many schools include this book on their reading lists.