Academics in Love

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

contemporary romance

Joy Revolution, August 2024

Whitney's to-do list:

Ace the Paris exchange student experience.

Retrace Josephine Baker's Paris.

Learn French. (Maybe that should have been first.)

Falling in love with her grumpy language tutor wasn't on her agenda, but sometimes rolling with improvisation leads to unexpected rewards, along with laughs, emotional revelations, and intimate connections.

Frequent Fliers by Noue Kirwan

contemporary romance

Canary Street Press, August 2024

Lanie travels back and forth between New York City to London carrying the weight of unrequited love, conflicting family expectations, and cross-cultural friction. A meet-hostile leads to a surprising connection in this layered story about grief and learning how to heal and move forward. Generational, international, and cultural threads weave together to form an engrossing narrative tapestry. It's beautiful, poignant, funny, and super sensual.

An engaging virtual event

[Zoom Workplace waiting room screen with "Cardyn Brooks" for "On Romance: A Conversation with Author Beverly Jenkins and Dr. Carole V. Bell"]

DePaul University respects, appreciates, and adores Ms. Beverly Jenkins as much as the rest of her fans with a lively exchange of thoughts, ideas, and revelations. Also, laughs.

This week's library haul

[a stack of 7 books from top to bottom: Frenemy Fix-Up, The Design of Us, Close Knit, The Duke Has Done It Again, Errands & Espionage, Courage to Love Again, Between Friends & Lovers]

Happy reading!

Comments

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:...

When What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funny

Need to laugh out loud? To feel inspired? To feel seen? To feel encouraged to pursue your heart's most ambitious desires despite overwhelming odds against succeeding? Read Zarna Garg's memoir, which offers an intimate, compelling coming of age, immigrant's journey, family saga, and keen observations about humans and life as experienced by a hilarious, intrepid individual. [front cover of "Zarna Garg, This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir" showing the Statue of Liberty holding the author in her arms with the New York City skyline in the lower half of the background] This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg non-fiction memoir Ballantine Books, April 2025 Universal themes of family love and family conflict, support and abandonment, grieving as a years' long process with lulls, parenting and being parented (or not), finding your people in friendship, romance, community presented and dissected with the author's sharp wit ...

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...

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