Golden Beauty Boss, The Story of Madame Sara Spencer Washington and the Apex Empire by Cheryl Woodruff Brooks*   Non-fiction biography   Sunbury Press, 2020  Get comfortable and prepare to journey back to the early 1900s when a brilliant, entrepreneurial young Black woman named Sara Phillips crowned herself Madame Sara Spencer Washington in the tradition of Madame C. J. Walker and Annie Turnbo-Malone, two business people who mentored and inspired her as she became their peer. The author of Golden Beauty Boss invites readers to share in her amazement at the cascading series of revelations her research (for her Chicken Bone Beach project) uncovered about this little-known titan of Beauty Culture, business innovation, and success. By providing broad historical context that includes Black American, civil rights, women's, military, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic history as critical facets of overall U. S. history, the scope of Madame Spencer Washington’s accomplis...

  We Wrote in Symbols, Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers  Edited by Selma Dabbagh  Literary anthology   Saqi Books, September 2021   We Wrote in Symbols offers a collection of poetry and prose that deciphers the signposts for the phases and stages of longing, lust, and love: anticipation, courtship, intoxication, commitment, adoration, in/fidelity, betrayal, complacency, danger and more. Women of Arabic heritage from around the world and across three millennia most often celebrate, sometimes ridicule, and all evaluate the nuances of sex and love and their power dynamics. The first prose selection, “A Free Girl's Tale" by Saeida Rouass*, examines agency and consequences. The protagonist realizes, “As I wondered in my naivety I had no inclination that my simple existence shook the very foundations of power…” Much later in this collection Hanan al-Shaykh's longer “Cupid Complaining to Venus" thematically overlaps and diverges from S.R.’s interpretation ...

  The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin Speculative Orbit, March 2020   Octavia Butler, Kafka, Men in Black , Inception …  It’s as if this author has consumed and absorbed every significant SciFi/fantasy/speculative innovation and synthesized them with musical refrains and sociopolitical riffs on otherness and identity. There’s humor and biting satire, irony and sarcasm. Dangerous existential and physical battles. Brilliant writing. Glorious reading.  A few memorable lines: What good does it do to be valuable, if nobody values you? [Prologue, pg. 9] “Not helping your case with the mansplaining, guy.” [Chapter 1, pg. 37] “… So, lesson one of New York: what people think about us isn’t what we really are.”   Ron-Coms Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin Contemporary romance Berkley, April 2021 Examining the layers of Canada’s Golden Crescent: Hana broadcasts her thoughts, jockeys for position, contemplates romance, and unravels family ent...

  Father’s Day recognizes and honors the unique contributions of men as parents and parental figures. Among its many overt themes, Crossing the Line also indirectly addresses the ways in which women, children, families and communities improvise and compensate for the absence of men and fathers. On this celebration of the first Juneteenth as a U.S. federal holiday, let's honor the faith, integrity and stamina of our enslaved ancestors while recognizing how much work is still needed to make the American Dream equally accessible for all.  Crossing the Line, A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever Kareem Rosser Creative non-fiction memoir St. Martin’s Press, February 2021 The Bottom is a neglected (except by police enforcement), under-resourced community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s where Kareem Rosser and his brothers stumble upon an unexpected oasis: the Work to Ride stables, a safe space in the midst of an assortment of thre...

Game Changers series by Rachel Reid   Contemporary romance, Carina Press   For fans of Sawyer Bennett, Sarina Bowen, Kate Meader, hockey, and sports romances with as much emotional substance as sexual heat   1. Game Changer   Being oneself is worth the risk.   2. Heated Rivalry   Misdirection misleads almost everyone, even the two people involved.   3. Tough Guy   Hard shell, soft center. Yum. Unapologetically authentic creative. More yum.   4. Common Goal   Not quite May-December brings the heat off the ice year-round.   5. Role Model (coming August 2021)   The first four rank high on emotional intimacy, sexual chemistry, and nuanced character complexity. They range from medium to high on the squick-o-meter of physical intimacy.  Reviews for the following two titles will post to RomanceDailyNews.com at some later date.   Learned Reactions (Higher Educa...

  Bookshelves Got Stacks by Cardyn Brooks   as inspired by “Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot   I like big books and I can not lie   You other readers can't deny   That when a good book takes up so much prime shelf space, wow   And a wide spine in your face, you get crazed   Wanna check it out ‘cause you notice that title is bait   Deep thought meanings, it's blaring   I'm intrigued and can’t stop staring   Oh, big books, I wanna start reading   And take your measure   Reviewers tried to warn me   That big books ARCs sent (they so binge-y!)   Oh, door-stopper reads   You say you wanna expand my mind?   Well, do it, do it   ‘Cause you ain't that average-length read    

  It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian   Contemporary romantic women's fiction   Mira Books, February 2021   Noni Blake is smart, funny, and dedicated to her family, friends, and students. She's also a charming, neurotic mess who uses a list of past lovers to set off on a journey to become her most authentic self. It's a risky and intentional endeavor to navigate adulthood. Near the beginning during a chat between Noni and her bestie, they speculate that “… aging is actually just about getting used to yourself… or fighting against it.”   In a slapstick, absurdist manner that also incorporates emotional nuance and sensitivity, It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake taps into prominent themes from Alice Walker’s non-fiction work The Same River Twice as applied to one's romantic past with Cher's “If I Could Turn Back Time" and Willie Nelson's and Julio Iglesias’s “To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (where Girls = People) dominating ...