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Showing posts from May, 2019

If Loving You Is Wrong... Outlawed, Forbidden, Taboo Lovers

Enemies in Love by Alexis Clark A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance Non-fiction biography, sociopolitical and military history The New Press   May 2018 Decades before Loving v. Virginia, African-American U.S. Army nurse Elinor Powell and German POW Frederick Albert defied the military, Jim Crow, society’s expectations, and many other challenging circumstances in order to love each other. Enemies in Love tells their harrowing personal tale in the global context of the aftermath of World War I, Hitler’s rise to power, and illogical racial contradictions in everyday civilian life and in the U.S. military during World War II and afterward. Elinor and Frederick’s story reads like an exquisitely researched historical novel. Family drama, personal demons, war, forbidden attraction, clandestine meetings, and a constant struggle to find a safe place for their superficially unconventional family to settle and to thrive are woven among rarely ...

Bookish Fun in Phoenix at Metro Barnes & Noble

Go west, young (at heart) authors! MARC train, then free shuttle to BWI? Check. Easy bag drop-off at Frontier Airlines? Check. Enthusiastic pat down from a dedicated TSA agent makes me think maybe we're engaged--or at least dating! Smooth boarding process. New, clean cabin interior. Window seat. Restful snooze until arrival. (Many thanks to the adorable toddler who waited until we were deplaning to melt down in spectacular fashion.) Metro Valley mass transit from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to Authorpalooza for good times with booklovers, talented authors, and a team of phenomenal booksellers led by a visionary store manager who supports creatives and the arts in dynamic ways. It was a pleasurable privilege to participate with panelists on the Saturday 5/4 group at 6 p.m.: Virgil Alexander, Ellsworth James, Timothy Moore, and Keith Mueller. Fellow Black Opal Books author John Beyer was in the 2 p.m. session. Lively book chat, a couple of rounds of Tic Tac Trop...