Currently reading fiction and nonfiction, alternating one J. California Cooper short story with one or two Jessica Valenti chapters.   [one trade paperback book - Homemade Love by J. California Cooper and one hardcover book - Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win by Jessica Valenti]  [zoomed in closeup of The Strong Black Woman by Marita Golden] The Strong Black Woman, How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women by Marita Golden   Non-fiction   Mango Publishing, October 12, 2021   https://maritagolden.com/ Our TWWBF2021 interview here:  https://youtu.be/dQ5lIMx66Vo   With a mix of surgical precision, lyrical phrasing, keen observations, testimonies, and profound insights from the author, experts in assorted fields of study, and a broad spectrum of other Black women, The Strong Black Woman challenges and deconstructs pervasive stereotypes superimposed upon them to reveal the inherently valuable and complicated humanity of Black women as wo

Continuing to celebrate Black love, Black joy, Black triumphs over adversity, Black friendship, family, community is one of my coping strategies for processing anxiety. Here are three satisfying reads for encouragement and pleasure.  [front cover art of a trade paperback book: profile view of two adults embracing; only the bottom half of a woman's face is visible]  Courage to Love Again by Kimberly Brown contemporary romance with Christian elements Black Odyssey Media, April 2024 After a series of devastating losses, Pasha Sinclaire is grieving, anxious, and depressed. Enter Callum Ellis, successful entrepreneur and seeming guardian angel. Years of emotional abuse and the undercutting of her sense of self-worth make it hard for Pasha to believe Callum is as decent as he appears to be. She’ll need to continue working on healing herself before she can trust again. Forever friends, family by blood and by choice help her navigate this bumpy path back to her true self. Light-hearted mo

These characters are forced to choose who to trust to work with them to achieve the best interests of their personal and professional ambitions.  [ 3 trade paperback books: Frenemy Fix-Up by Yarah St. John; a couple standing side-by-side in tree pose, The Design of Us by Sajni Patel; a couple lying on the beach, Errands & Espionage by Sam Tschida; an adult holding binoculars up to their face]  Frenemy Fix-Up by Yahrah St. John Contemporary romance  Harlequin/afterglow books , February 2024  Deadlines. Shay is a small business yogi who works hard to go with the entrepreneurial flow. Colin is a corporate go-getter who thrives under pressure—until that stress jeopardizes his health. When these former high school classmates who quickly remember all of the ways they annoy each other work together to establish Colin’s fundamental work-life balance, both of them recalculate their expectations of what and who they want in their lives. Witty banter combined with relevant threads on th

From the Great Lakes to the Northern Lights by boats, planes, trains, mass transit, car service, and on foot, these romances take readers on bumpy journeys to finding love around the world.  [ a stack of 3 trade paperback books: Frequent Fliers, Love Requires Chocolate, Second Tide's the Charm]  Second Tide's the Charm by Chandra Blumberg contemporary romance  Canary Street Press, August 2024  Hope and Adrian's future together once seemed guaranteed, until it wasn't.  When circumstances force them back into each other's lives will they get closure and move on separately or have they grown enough as individuals to figure out how to build a happily ever after that works for both of them?  Maligned sharks, an assortment of science nerds, meddling friends, family, tourists, and the cut-throat arenas of academia, research grants, and social media add to the high stakes of their love story.  Love Requires Chocolate (Love in Translation #1) by Ravynn K. Stringfield contemp

Thanks to the library my TBR bookstack/list never shrinks! [a stack of 6 books from top to bottom: Second Tide's the Charm, The Next Best Fling, Love Requires Chocolate, Fall into Temptation, A Jungle Bell Mingle, Passions in Death]  [same bookstack as shown above with the addition of Buried Too Deep on the bottom]  [Fall for Him trade paperback book upright next to a stack of 5 books from top to bottom: Frequent Fliers, Second Tide's the Charm, Love Requires Chocolate, Passions in Death, Buried Too Deep]  The Next Best Fling (Librarians in Love #1) by Gabriella Gamez  New Adult romance  Forever, July 2024  Is getting under someone new the best way to get over someone else?  Librarian Marcela and former NFL player Theo find out when they team up to mislead their families and friends in this mega angsty, laugh-aloud romp that also offers readers emotional complexity, tenderness, an incendiary sexy times.  A Jingle Bell Mingle (Christmas Notch #3) by Julie Murphy & Sierra Sim

[Front cover of A Fire at Romanticon by H.L. Brooks with a design of a lacy pink thong and scattered flower petals; book held up against the backdrop of a framed black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge at night]    [ front cover art for A Vampire of a Certain Age by Maria Vale; a city skyline silhouette with a bat's wings spread above it]  [ three trade paperback books: One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin (spine up), A Fire at Romanticon by H.L. Brooks, Fall: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller by Tracy Clark]  A Fire at Romanticon by H.L. Brooks*  contemporary rom-com  Write Women Publish, September 2024  Peach Kincaid is struggling. Her marriage, her self-image, her secret project and more feel like they're beyond her control until she takes more than one leap of faith. New look, new location, new friends and new opportunities offer her time and space to step into her most authentic self and claim a life that fulfills her in every way. Lots of laughs, tenderness, steamy adu

Gorgeous covers matched with intriguing blurbs are my weakness!  [3 new books on a display shelf at a public library branch: Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni, In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundira, She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor]    [4 new books on 2 shelves of a display at a public library: That Prince is Mine by Jayci Lee, The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava, Troubled Waters by Mary Annaise Heglar, Here for the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang]  Returned some borrowed items and despite my best intentions not to go beyond the returns counter, the new books display lured me close enough to see these enticing titles, which I managed not to bring home with me! Adding them to the top of my TBR list was my compromise. Still reading through last week's bookstack, ebooks on my phone, tablet, and in my email inbox.  Happy reading!  P.S. After a soul-boosting visit with someone who loves me, that person gave me two books. Then a book on my requests lis

No blog post about books last weekend did not equal a suspension of acquiring more books.😏  [front cover of a paperback copy of Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti; a man and a woman in 19th-c. garb as they balance precariously in a wooden row boat with a little dog in a city lake setting]  Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti  historical romance  St. Martin's Griffin, July 2024  Selina and Peter's love story is a tenderhearted farce of a romp grounded in emotional substance about honoring commitments with love and compassion toward family, friends, and fellow human beings. Mix in precocious children, tenacious animals, and well-intentioned meddlers for a satisfying read filled with lots of grit, affection, and humor along with deeper historical context that's often ignored.  books borrowed two weeks ago [a horizontal book stack from top to bottom: The Diamond and the Duke, Counting on the Cowboy, Body Check, Daydream, Better Left Unsent, Alternate Endings, Struck Dea

Aawww. Rain in the weekend forecast? How sad.  [a horizontal stack of 6 books from top to bottom: Undermining Twyla and Frank, Under Your Spell, Four Weekends and a Funeral, Take Me Home, One Last Summer, Just Some Stupid Love Story]   These are my back-up reading options just in case the books I already have aren't enough to last through the long holiday weekend even though my non-reading to-do list of personal and professional tasks is quite substantial.  Currently reading  [a horizontal book stack of 3 paperback books: Isabel and the Rogue; Loyally, Luke; Never Duke Well arranged atop a jar candle with a deep turquoise colored abalone shell attached to the front]  Thank you to everyone who labors to contribute to the economy, society, and humanity!    

Every age is an age of infinite possibilities!  [hardcover copy of I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol propped up inside a hat box with a pattern of the Eiffel Tower and "PARIS L'EXPOSITION" around the rim of the top]  I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol  non-fiction memoir  Viking/Penguin Life, June 2024  In a world that works hard to shove women over forty into irrelevance and invisibility, this author celebrates life as viewed, lived, experienced to its fullest by one grown woman and other grown women in the present and from the past. The breezy, contemplative narration style invites readers to observe and consider the author's adventurous journey of investigation and confirmation of self through the uninhibited pursuit of all kinds of pleasure. References to other memoirs, movies, art, history, fashion, geography and more parallel, re

Jump, jump into your joy!    [Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham hardcover book with 3 black & white images of the author on the front; then the following books with their spines facing outward - Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, Business Casual by B. K. Borison, The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey, Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan, The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson]  Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Scientist by Jasmin Graham  non-fiction memoir & scientific research  Pantheon, July 2024   Seeing the author during a recent appearance on CBS Mornings made me curious to learn more about her life and her scientific pursuits. To quote a passage from chapter 13, "As is so often the case in science, you go looking for the answer to one question and end up with another unanswered question altogether."  Throughout the prologue, thirteen chapters, and epilogue filled with thoughtful personal and professional observ

Gorgeous weather, lovely humans (and a few precious fur babies), talented musicians, artisans, authors, delicious food, assorted adult libations...  Too much goodness and joy to list.  Abundant gratitude to every attendee and the phenomenal P.G. Parks & Recreation/Marietta House Museum teams!  Special thanks to everyone who stopped to chat with the authors and to buy (or find out how to borrow from pgcmls.info) books and pick up some author swag.  This year's Jazz & Wine Fest at Marietta was outstanding in every way. [4 musicians moving among a drum set, an amp, music and  instrument stands arranged under a tent]  [half of a six-foot table assorted author swag of t-shirts, ball caps, a jute & cotton basket containing items for a raffle, framed pages with various QR codes, book purchasing/borrowing instructions, and content warnings, business cards, and hand sanitizer] [multiple copies of Prison Love, a non-fiction memoir about one woman's experience of incarceration

  [front cover of a hardcover book of Your First Million: Why You Don't Have To Be Born Into A Legacy of Wealth To Leave One Behind, An Entrepreneur's Course by Arlan Hamilton with a photo of the author]  [Your First Million by Arlan Hamilton atop and next to two book stacks: the first has three trade paperbacks - Love in Tandem, Love You Mean It, Effie Olsen's Summer Special; second stack: Lady Eve's Last Con, The Body in the Backyard, Pride & Preston Lin, Bruno, Fiasco, The Dixon Rule, Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel His Master Distiller Nearest Green and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself]  Your First Million: Why You Don't Have To Be Born Into A Legacy of Wealth To Leave One Behind, An Entrepreneur's Course by Arlan Hamilton  non-fiction, business, memoir  Little, Brown Spark, January 2024  Underestimated.  Underrepresented.  Two labels that apply to millions (billions?) of people who ha