This book was not exactly what I expected until about halfway through, when she starts telling her own story of growing up in NYC. That's when it became very interesting. Her voice is authentic and natural. The writing is a bit vague and could use some examples to illustrate her points, rather than just rephrasing them again and again. I found the first half difficult to navigate. The bits about the countries read like encyclopedia entries and the parts about her ancestors is repetitive. I felt like this could be two books with certain parts fleshed out a bit more.