Complicated Legacies of Culture & Identity...

Along with unfinished business from the past that haunts the present

[5 books; 3 face up and 2 spine up, from left to right: Best Woman, The Gist of Bid Whist, Blind Date with a Werewolf, Crazy Spooky Love, The Year of the Wind]

Read

Best Woman by Rose Dommu

new adult contemporary romance

Penguin Random House, September 2025

Madcap. Tenderhearted. Poignant. Satisfying.

Crazy Spooky Love (Melody Bittersweet #1) by Josie Silver

new adult contemporary romance

Penguin Random House, September 2025

Ornery relatives. Dangerous spirits. Romance gone wrong with potential for it to go right. Intrigue. Mysteries. Laughs.

Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs

adult contemporary supernatural romance

Penguin Random House, October 2025

This novel rendered in 5 short stories (3 previously published and 2 new) is all about Asil with cameos of Moira, Tom, and other series favorites. Looking for love in all the most dangerous places delivers all kinds of drama and a satisfying story arc.

Reading

The Gist of Bid Whist: The Culturally Rich Card Game from Black America by Lamont Jones

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams

Both non-fiction books are less than 300 pages of accessible language and narrative clarity, but the historical contexts and details make me want to take my time reading, absorbing, and processing the information.

TBR

The Year of the Wind by Karina Pacheco Medrano

More BAC Issues (Book Acquisition Compulsion)

[8 stacked books, from top to bottom: The King Must Die, The Baby Dragon Bakery, After Happily Ever, Ladies in Waiting, All the Men I've Loved Again, An Introvert's Guide to Life and Love, Kooky Spooky Love, Circle in the Water]

Books and reading add joy to my life, and public libraries provide access to those simple pleasures and so much more. Just signing up for a library card supports them by showing that the community is using their many resources.

Always wishing you good health, peace of mind, safety & joy.

Happy reading & creating!

Comments

New Arrivals Giving BRBF Vibes + BAC Issues

Even as my friends and I enjoyed a fantastic community event yesterday in and around the Bowie Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System, there was envy in my heart for all of the attendees and participants at the Black Romance Book Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Reports of issues of crowding just made me happy for the event organizers' success while they posted apologies and corrective strategies for crowd control during the last day. In the meantime, the new arrivals shelves at the closest library in the neighboring county offered a variety of books by BRBF authors. "Where the Melanated Are Celebrated" indeed. [9 books, from left to right: Positive Obsession, Communion, Big Girl Blitz (atop a bookstack), The Started Ex, Fire Sword & Sea, Leave Your Mess at Home, Archangel's Eternity, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, First Sign of Danger] Currently reading Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Mo...

Legacies of Octavia Butler & June BAC Issues

It's so exciting to read about a trailblazer who was ethical, thoughtful, generous, and funny in addition to being diligent and multifaceted. [Positive Obsession atop a bookstack of 7 books - The Last Lady B spine showing, then 6 books showing page edges; Communion propped to the left of the bookstack] Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris non-fiction biography Amistad, 2025 Opening with a quote from Parable of the Sower, this biographer uses every word in the O.E.B. chronology, author's note, introduction, six chapters, epilogue, and acknowledgements to engage readers in an intimate personal study of this extraordinary, talented, driven woman who was vulnerable and complicated in her brilliant humanity. The author's access to the O.E.B. archives adds layers of emotional depth that enrich the context of the details of the author's personal life and creative and professional development. from the Author's Note:...

Trauma and Phenoms of Color TLG (mostly vague) SPOILERS

This photo cover art on the original mass market paperback edition is my personal favorite, at least until/if they release a Heated Rivalry show cast Hollanov version. (Respect to the talented artist who's crafted the illustrated covers.) ["Rachel Reid, The Long Game" mass market paperback edition with two shirtless, muscular men in jeans, standing at an angle one in front of the other; the man in back embracing the man in front] Recent public comments from people who've read (in any and all formats) The Long Game by Rachel Reid and feel annoyed, disappointed, frustrated with Shane inspired this post. ****(mostly vague) SPOILERS**** Until the death of his father and breaking free of his brother, Ilya has been in a constant mindset of fight, flight or freeze for most of the nearly three decades of his life. Once he's disconnected from his toxic family dynamic, firmly established in his loving relationship with Shane, welcomed and embraced by Yuna and David, and...

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