A mandatory read for anyone who thought they were 'woke' after reading 'Waking up White'. The author takes us on her trip of growing up in mid-century Atlanta Georgia; through her memories of life in a poor Black neighborhood, of her lively siblings and her mother's interminable work schedule, she gives us insight into a parallel world. There is not a false note in her recreation of poverty in a Southern city at the edge of the civil rights era as the backdrop of her personal memoir. The second room on the right is a sanctuary for a headstrong stubborn girl on her own road to freedom. We want to know that unexceptional room in that classic shotgun house on that street called Arcadia Circle. And we want to know her mama.