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...

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 ...

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:...

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