My letter “B” pick for this year’s A To Z Challenge was BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah. This is a collection of stories from his life growing up during and after apartheid in South Africa. Interracial relationships were against the law under apartheid, so when his white father and his black mother began to date, then chose to have a child, Trevor was “born a crime,” and from that point on both during and after apartheid, he never really seemed to fit in. He begins the book by dropping a bombshell concerning a major trauma that was going to happen later in the story, and at various times in the narrative I was waiting for that chapter to come, waiting for that other shoe to fall. But Trevor’s storytelling is masterful, and his anecdotes are so varied and thought-provoking (as well as frequently hilarious) that I’d go long stretches forgetting I was on a train heading for disaster. When that inevitably hits, it ends up being like nothing I could have ever imagined.

Despite all his difficulties growing up poor, despite the challenges of being a biracial child in an unwelcoming world, he blazed his own path, made some great friends, made a lot of mistakes and kept on going. His love for his indomitable mother and his struggling, hustling, often misunderstood people comes through loud and clear. I’ve always loved Trevor and watched him when he hosted The Daily Show. He’s intelligent, articulate, funny, and a whole lot more than I ever knew he was. This book gets a resounding five stars.