Tag: black women writers

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Gabrielle Union Shines Light on Books by Black Women With Screen Projects

LIVE! WITH KELLY AND RYAN – 9/13/21 – Gabrille Union and Anastasia Pagonis are guests on âĜLive! With Kelly and Ryan.âĝ âĜLive! With Kelly and Ryanâĝ airs weekdays in syndication on ABC. (ABC/Lorenzo Bevilaqua) GABRIELLE UNION

Currently a judge on America’s Got Talent and a creator behind a fashion line at New York and Company, actress and author Gabrielle Union has an astounding number of book projects in the works. Her future screen adaptations over the past year have been separated by articles, but when seeing all the upcoming projects come together, she’s clearly becoming a leader in bringing books to another medium.

The New York Times best-selling memoirist, with 2017’s We’re Going to Need More Wine (a must-read, especially with her voicing it on the audio book), is creating these projects via her production company I’ll Have Another (a play on her memoir’s title), which is wrapping up the first season of Spectrum’s L.A.’s Finest co-starring Jessica Alba.

Unlike Reese Witherspoon who buys rights before a book comes out on shelves, Gabrielle instead is taking novels by black women that reached a belated award-winning, best-selling status. For example, Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO was originally self-published three years ago, but its sales catapulted it to a top publisher and is being re-released this month while The Perfect Find was published under a black woman-owned company. Even Coffee Will Make You Black was a top book for black women readers two decades ago, but may enjoy a resurgence for a new generation when it comes to screen.

Below are snippets about the projects in development.

Tallulah The Tooth Fairy CEO

In March, I’ll Have Another and 5 More Minutes Productions announced they had acquired the rights to Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO, a children’s book written by Dr. Tamara Pizzoli and illustrated by Federico Fabiani.

The book was published under Tamara’s Texas-based, Italy-managed publishing house The English Schoolhouse in 2016 and now with Macmillan’s Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers. The story stars Tallulah, the tooth fairy mother behind Teeth Titans Inc. and National Association for the Appreciation and Care of Primary Teeth, the NAACP-T.

Yamara Taylor, a writer and producer who’s worked on Black-ish and Boondocks, is attached to the project to turn the book into a live-action modern family comedy, according to Deadline.

“Yamara was the perfect choice for us when choosing a writer to bring Tallulah and her story to life,” Gabrielle said with 5 More Minutes’ John Sacchi, who are producing, in a press release. “She is a working mom herself who strives to tell authentic stories that her daughter can relate to. Her interpretation of Tallulah and the world she lives and works in was so grounded and real yet had all of the fun and fantastical elements you need when telling a story about a fictional character, in this case the Tooth Fairy.”

Coffee Will Make You Black

February marked the announcement of Gabrielle’s production company is partnering with Oscar-winning actress and producer Octavia Spencer’s Orit Entertainment to bring Coffee Will Make You Black to the screen with director Deborah Riley Draper and producers Tate Taylor and John Norris. Both actresses will star in the film as well, according to the film’s Facebook page.

The 1994 debut novel of April Sinclair was named Book of the Year in Young Adult Fiction by the American Library Association and received the Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library. The story follows a teenage Jean “Stevie” Stevenson as she navigates race and sexuality in the 1960s.

On the Facebook page, the team wrote: “This coming-of-age story of an African-American girl confronting race, class, colorism, sexuality and gender roles will be authentic, tender, funny and complicated. Special shout out to novelist April Sinclair who penned this seminal 25 years ago this month. We are proud to announce this important production in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the publication of the book and Black History Month!”

Book rating: Reading this as a teen, I remember how impactful this book was in the 1990s. With LGBT Pride Month recently celebrated, I’m wondering how this missed those book lists as Stevie is trying to discover herself in a time when a young woman, especially a black one, is discouraged to do that.

The Idea of You

On Dec. 19, news broke that the 2017 novel, The Idea of You, by actress Robinne Lee had been optioned by I’ll Have Another and CEO Welle Entertainment Cathy Schulman to be developed into a feature film. Robinne, Eric Hayes, and Jeff Morrone will join the production team.

According to the fan website, the director and stars have not been announced yet.

Book rating: A teen’s mom falls for the younger boy band heartthrob. At first, it sounds like an unbelievable scenario, but Robinne really emphasizes how this is turning the protagonist’s life upside down. And the traveling takes the reader all over the world as the romance hits a fever pitch. Full review here.

 

The Perfect Find

Top black chick lit author Tia Williams will see her latest novel become a film with Gabrielle in the starring role as a 40-year-old magazine editor who falls for a 20-something aspiring videographer. The Perfect Find was published by Brown Girls Books in 2016.

Book rating: Preordered this book because I loved Tia’s first novel, The Accidental Diva. Tia is probably the foremost author on sophisticated black chick lit, especially with The Perfect Find, which brings the reader into the world of fashion and beauty journalism through a black woman editor battling her nemesis in the workplace and falling in love with someone she feels is too young. Brilliantly written and descriptive.

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what's lit

Marketing Maven Arian Simone Shares How Barnes & Noble Picked Up Her Self-Published Book

Arian Simone recently announced the inspirational book she self-published earlier this year earned a spot on Barnes & Noble bookshelves, producing a book tour and an author event later this year.

The media and marketing entrepreneur is known for her Hollywood public relations game with coordinating events for musicians Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and Ne-Yo, but she became an author first in 2015 with the self-published My Fabulous & Fearless Journey: From Homeless to Hollywood. She released another self-help book, Fearless Faith + Hustle: 21 Day Devotional Journey, in January. This book, according to Arian Simone’s Instagram, had Barnes & Noble knocking on her door via an email through her website.

In 2016, Barnes & Noble started a self-service program supporting self-published authors with Nook Press that enables them to create hardcover and paperback books for purchase at stores and online. Some authors even qualify to participate at in-store events like book-signings and discussions based on print and e-book sales.

But Arian Simone didn’t go that route, so it’s rare—in comparison to the number of self-published authors with books on the market—to hear of an author being contacted by a major bookseller. She said Barnes & Noble reached out to her after noticing her book sales.

Arian Simone completed her Barnes & Noble book tour in late June with hitting six cities after headlining a public speaking workshop at the Girlboss Rally in Los Angeles. She’s planning an Oct. 19 event for authors in Atlanta under her Fearless brand to showcase their work, which she said will be free to the public.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Bluebird, Bluebird’ by Attica Locke

Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59, #1)Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Bluebird Bluebird” by Attica Locke is a well-constructed racial murder mystery set in small town Texas that nicely twists and turns with an ending that opens up to a potential sequel.

The story starts with Darren, a rare Black Texas Ranger, defending himself on the stand for his response to an older Black man shooting a known White supremacist in self-defense. While on probation, he learns that a body of a Black man and a young White woman washed ashore two days apart in nearby Lark. He weasels himself into the investigation and learns the male victim had traveled from Chicago to give an ex-musician an old guitar as part of his uncle’s last wishes. Darren feels a close connection to the victim who had graduated from the law school he had once attended but didn’t finish, as his wife brings up a lot. It turns out the ex-musician, Joe Sweet, had been murdered years before in the diner owned by his 70-something wife, Geneva. It’s also the diner the female victim had been a waitress. As Darren puts together the pieces of the two victims and how their lives intertwined one night at the diner with its own controversial history, he tries to deal with what’s left of his career, his marriage, and his desire to solve the crime.

Though not a fan of racial murder mystery, I enjoyed this story because the pacing was even with flawed characters that are still likable. Also an FX drama is in the works, so it’ll be interesting to see how the characters leap off the page onto the screen.

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experiences

Book Launch: ‘More Than Enough’ by Elaine Welteroth

Elaine Welteroth. Photo: Renell Medrano.

Elaine Welteroth, who reached prominence as the first black Teen Vogue editor and now as a Project Runway judge, stopped in Los Angeles Thursday for her book tour and discussed why she wrote the women empowerment memoir to an estimated 400-member audience.

What appeared to be a well-read black girl magic rally at the California African American Museum in Exposition Park started with the cheerful announcement that Elaine’s book had notched itself to the coveted New York Times Best Sellers list. She was then introduced by her former Teen Vogue colleague and friend Lynette Nylander, who conducted the fireside chat.

Right away, Elaine began reading from Chapter 16 in More Than Enough: Claiming Space For Who You Are (No Matter What They Say), which is dubbed “Disturbing the Peace,” which starts with a quote from Audre Lorde and describes how Elaine returned to work from a Christmas vacation from Rwanda for a surprise racial interaction. Her hair was braided into Senegalese twists down her waist—the first time she came to a corporate setting in an overly ethnic hairstyle—and a white female colleague in disbelief asked how her hair had allegedly grown feet over a short amount of time.

This question is sometimes posed to black women who decide to add synthetic or real hair to their braids for a new look to celebrate their heritage, so Elaine took it in stride after an inner dialogue berating the beauty industry for neglecting what is considered beautiful to women of color with telling the woman, “Oh, you of all people must know these are extensions.”

That set the tone for the evening: Elaine describing her humble background in the San Francisco Bay Area as a first-generation college graduate to a high-ranking editor in a magazine media empire. Starting her career in the beginning of the recession, she said she felt the weight of being “black, young, and female,” the trifecta of the media industry teeming with racism, ageism, and sexism.

“We all live in a 180-character world where we are scrolling each other’s success stories every day, and we’re only getting the shiny slice, we’re only getting the prettiest picture, we’re only getting the clearest caption,” she said. “I felt like I owed this community more than I can fit into a caption on Instagram about the most universal aspects of the success story. The parts that get left out from the messy relationships that so often intercept with how we show up in our careers.”

At 32, she said she feared her audience would doubt she was ready to write a memoir, even as her own brother echoed this sentiment soon after she submitted a manuscript questioning her reason to pen an “autobiography.”

“I wanted to throw the plate in his face,” she said of the interaction over a Christmas vacation while he was washing dishes in the kitchen. “I was so emotional because that was the very question that threatened to keep me from doing this and leave it to be my family—it’s always family—that are your harshest critics. At the time, I was so emotional I can only think to say, ‘They don’t even call it autobiographies anymore, you asshole!'”

A round of laughter erupted from the audience, but she continued with the true translation of that moment.

“Then later I really sat with it. I don’t blame my brother for asking that question. That’s the patriarchy talking. We’ve all been conditioned by this mindset that tells us, ‘Your stories are not valid if you look like me.'”

The two-hour event brought up more gems from Elaine’s book like her decision to attend a state university because the boy she was dating was supposed to be there but turned out to be in jail and how on her first Ebony photo shoot she had a serendipitous moment with the hairstylist who happened to be friends with her aunt.

Eso Won Books, the main black-owned bookstore in Los Angeles, was the official bookseller at the event.

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what's lit

Mystery Novelist Attica Locke Lends Writing Talent to Netflix’s ‘When They See Us’

Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on a true story. / Netflix

Acclaimed novelist Attica Locke joined a National Association of Black Journalists Los Angeles panel Wednesday in Hollywood along with actors Niecy Nash and Blair Underwood for their new Netflix series When They See Us, featuring the true-life stories of the boys who had become known as the Central Park Five.

Based in Los Angeles, Attica has written award-winning novels The Cutting Season, Pleasantville, Black Water Rising, and Bluebird, Bluebird, which was picked up by FX in 2017 for a TV series. A sequel titled Heaven, My Home will be out in September.

Attica Locke / Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times

As a writer and producer, Attica said the Ava DuVernay project, which includes Oprah and Robert DeNiro as producers, was the highest outlet for her talent with the social justice aspect. The four-episode series available on Netflix this weekend surrounds the New York City case convicting five teenage African American and Latino boys over the rape of a white investment banker who received the moniker of Central Park Jogger. The 1989 event and the subsequent trials revived racial tensions within the city and country, infamously including an $85,000 New York Times ad from Donald Trump calling for the death penalty for the boys. The woman, who was later revealed to be Trisha Meili in a 2004 memoir, survived the attack though still experiences cognitive difficulties.

The case is now examined by journalism scholars who find the media coverage 30 years ago had a racial tinge with most articles never saying these boys—Antron McCray, 15, Kevin Richardson, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15, Raymond Santana, 14, and Korey Wise, 16—”allegedly” committed the crime, a necessarily placed word to let the masses know their innocence was probable. Terms such as “wolf pack” and “wilding” dominated headlines along with “bloodthirsty,” “animals,” “savages” and “human mutations,” according to the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism and research organization. It added newspaper columnists such as New York Post’s Pete Hamill wrote the teens hailed “from a world of crack, welfare, guns, knives, indifference and ignorance…a land with no fathers…to smash, hurt, rob, stomp, rape. The enemies were rich. The enemies were white.”

In 2002, after the boys became men in prison from sentences ranging from 6 to 13 years, convicted murderer and rapist Matias Reyes admitted to the rape. His DNA matched the samples collected from the crime scene, and detectives said he knew details about the crime that was never released to the public. He’s serving a life sentence.

The next year, the five wrongfully convicted men filed a civil lawsuit against New York City for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. The charges against them were vacated, and they eventually received a $41 million settlement in 2014.

Reams of articles from the time were prepared by the When They See Us staff for the actors to know the real people they will play on screen, the panel said. Attica added that watching the actual “confession” videotapes from the boys, who say they were coerced into those confessions for a crime they didn’t commit, “fucked her up.” She said it was difficult to watch the children without their parents saying they were a part of the crime when their statements contradicted each other. Niecy brought up in the discussion that mental health hotlines were available to the cast and staff over the emotionally heavy material, adding she had never seen an emphasis of self-care on a production set.

In November, Attica led a social media campaign against the Mystery Writers of America’s decision to bestow a lifetime achievement award to Linda Fairstein, the Central Park Five prosecutor who pushed for the convictions of the teens and eventually became a successful mystery novelist. The literary organization rescinded the award for the first time in its history after it said many members were also against the decision.

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film reviews

‘The Sun Is Also a Star’ Sees Mediocre Reviews: Is Multicultural YA Viable on Silver Screen?

Nicola Yoon’s best-selling young adult romance The Sun Is Also A Star transformed into a movie this past weekend, but the critics didn’t seem to love it. Now with a score of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, this story about interracial love bombed at the box office, so how does that impact other multicultural YA novels blossoming into films?

So far, the movie grossed $2.5 million, significantly below the anticipated $6 million to $12 million from 2,100 theaters, according to Variety. Deadline Hollywood said the film’s ultimate box office return on its $9 million production budget looks dismal with even the author’s debut novel-turned-movie Everything, Everything opening at $11.7M in 2017 and finishing with almost $62 million globally.

The movie follows the novel well with Natasha Kingsley (Yara Shahidi of Grown-ish) heading to an immigration lawyer to save her family from deportation scheduled for the next day when she bumps into Daniel Bae (Charles Melton of Riverdale), who believes their meeting is kismet. As science-minded Natasha fights Daniel’s determination to make her believe in love and fall in love with him, they’re savoring every moment they can together in New York City. With the cinematography expertly showcasing the city, the marshmallow fluffiness of love that readers adored falters a bit onscreen.

And reviewers emphasized that. Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a C while it gave the book in 2016 an A with having the exclusive of the cover reveal. Separate reviewers graded the film and book, but it’s jarring to see such variations for the same media outlet.

The New York Times editors added the book to its curated top children’s books of 2016. “The story and its trappings feel a little generic, the dialogue studiously bland and the characters and their problems curiously weightless, in spite of gestures in the direction of real-world issues,” A.O. Scott wrote in the film review. And “generic” pops up in the headline for the review as well.

Potential moviegoers also saw casting issues with both stars being biracial when Natasha and Daniel were not in the story. Yara is half-black, half-Iranian when Natasha is fully Jamaican, a contrast visible in the film where the actors representing Natasha’s family have a darker complexion. Charles is half-white, half-Korean when Daniel is fully Korean, another contrast visible with the actors playing his family look fully East Asian as his attractiveness is mentioned. It’s the same issue that reared its head in the casting of Nick Young’s character in Crazy Rich Asians.

How this successful novel became an unsuccessful film may not influence future multicultural YA adaptations, but the magic of a book is hard to capture, and casting and script-writing obviously plays a role in the high-profile critiques and bringing the key audience into theaters.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Queen Sugar’ by Natalie Baszile

Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First of all, the writing and pacing is really good. But the drama dragged. The actual sugar cane business overshadowed the interesting family situations occurring between characters. And because it went into detail about the business, there were all these miscellaneous characters the reader doesn’t care about. I read it because Oprah is doing a show on it, but I have a feeling OWN changed a lot for the book to be remotely entertaining on TV.

Charley Bordelon is a single mother raising her 11-year-old daughter Micah in Los Angeles, where she can’t keep a job as an artist though she enjoys the fruits of her ophthalmologist mother’s labor. When Charley’s father dies, he leaves her a sugarcane field in Louisiana, where he’s originally from. So Charley packs her things up and moves to Louisiana with Micah. They live with Charley’s grandmother Miss Honey while Charley deals with her troubled half-brother Ralph Angel, who has a son named Blue.

While Charley tries to figure out how to run a sugarcane farm, her bullheadedness leaves her making some business mistakes as Ralph Angel grows jealous that the business wasn’t left to him. As Charley gets on track with the help from Remy Newell, a competitor, she finds herself falling him though she doesn’t realize how much she’s neglecting Micah. Ralph Angel’s actions eventually lead to a timely Black Lives Matter ending, which brings the family closer.

The OWN TV series is better but totally changed characters and situations. The show added a sister, Nova Bordelon, to add even more tension between Charley and Ralph Angel. Violet is a preacher’s wife who only shows up a few times in the book as a confidant to Charley; now she’s a waitress with a knack for baking. Miss Honey doesn’t exist, like her character is combined with Violet. In the show, Violet’s love interest is Hollywood, but in the book Hollywood is an old classmate of Ralph Angel who’s a little slow (he gets his nickname for loving tabloids) yet wants to be there for his friend while having a crush on Charley. Remy is an older white man, so Charley has reservations about dating him at first since she would be in an interracial relationship in the South. Micah is a boy in the show while his father is alive and well as a star basketball player who Charley leaves in the season premiere over a cheating scandal. In the book, girl Micah’s father is dead, which is the reason why Charley has been financially desperate to the point where she relocates to handle a sugarcane farm without experience. Also, Ralph Angel returns to town with Blue assuming his son’s mother died of a drug overdose since he abandoned her in a crack house in the book. The TV counterpart has the mother as a recovering addict but still alive and trying to make amends with her family. Prosper, the old farmer who helps Charley get her business moving, is probably the only character who’s stayed the same. And maybe Blue (though the Power Ranger he played with in the book evolved into a Barbie doll in the show).

Though the book sets a good layout for the TV show, it’s one of those stories fun to compare and contrast because there are multiple changes.

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Free Black Women’s Library Los Angeles Holds Launch Party in Slauson Community

Asha Grant, founder of The Free Black Women's Library Los Angeles, at the launch party on April 27, 2019.

Free Black Women’s Library celebrated its Los Angeles launch Saturday night at the Hilltop Coffee & Kitchen on Slauson Avenue in the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood with the performances by eight Black female poets.

The featured local poets were Amoni Thompson-Jones, bridgette bianca, Camari Carter, Iman Milner, Jessica Gallion aka YELLAWOMAN, Nadia Hunter Bey, Shakira Peterson, and Shonda Buchanan.

The party started with a networking hour for attendees to bond over literary happenings in the coffeehouse that’s quickly becoming a haven for similar events. A live artist, Brittney Price, painted a piece she later donated to the cause. Quotes were pasted on the glass from Black women writers such as bell hooks, Octavia Butler, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Ntozake Shange. Bouquets of flowers sat on the tables with most attendees sitting in seats in front of the window that provided a backdrop of the sunset with painted skies for the poets as they recited their melodies.

As each poet spilled her soul to the crowd, applause naturally erupted. The poems magnified the Black female experience from different perspectives. For example, bridgette bianca and Camari Carter mentioned the death of six adopted Black children killed by their White lesbian mothers where one drove their SUV over the cliff in Mendocino County, a story forgotten in the constantly ticking news cycle. YELLAWOMAN lyrically spoke about her experience as a light-skinned woman with Louisiana roots while Shonda Buchanan played a drum and chanted a song before her poetry to honor her African-American and American-Indian roots.

The library’s goal is to compensate Black women for their artistry while collecting #300BlackWomenBooks, or 300 books authored by Black women, by June. Donations will be accepted at subsequent events and this address: 5350 Wilshire Blvd P.O. Box #36618 Los Angeles, CA 90036.

The original branch of the library was created in 2015 by Ola Ronke Akinmowo in Brooklyn, New York, the same year and place where Well-Read Black Girl began. The idea is to provide “a free, feminist pop-up library and book swap with Black women writers at the center,” as its mission states.

Asha Grant, the director of the Free Black Women’s Library LA, was the mistress of ceremonies at the launch party. She said she recently moved back to the LA area and wanted to bring Akinmowo’s mission here.

The next event has not been announced yet but Grant said it will involve interactive journaling with sitting on pillows, a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the party.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi

Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Children of Blood and Bone” is an overhyped young adult fantasy that follows a stereotypical storyline with substandard writing and dialogue but shows the struggles of an oppressed people trying to fight the oppressor.

Zelie is a teenager who is conveniently training for battle in the beginning of the novel when she gets whisked in the ultimate battle for regaining magic for her people. Zelie comes from a line of maji, a group of people who had extraordinary powers that had been suppressed by the kingdom. Her mother and many other maji had been killed in the Raid years earlier. But when Amari, the crowned princess witnesses the death of her maji servant, she flees the castle with the one thing that could bring it back: a scroll. In her pursuit, she runs into Zelie, who has the maji marking of long white hair, to help her bring back magic for peace. They embark on a long journey with Zelie’s brother, Tzain, while Amari’s brother, Inan, follows their moves with his army to make sure magic never comes back.

First of all, the story doesn’t come off as unique and one of the reasons why is the turning point of the masked princess escaping her castle walls — which she never had done before — to save magic. That’s been in too many stories and films. The characters are undeveloped with Amari, for example, avenging her servant Binta’s death as her only reason to go on the journey. The death is the only memory that comes up, along with Zelie’s memory of her mother’s death. The repetitiveness of these same memories impeded character complexity since it seemed like they didn’t really have any others. Zelie, Amari, and Inan get chapters while Tzain never does because he’s reduced to the supportive brother though he’s on the same journey.

The most interesting character is Inan because he’s conflicted with pleasing his father, the king who lost his previous family to a war with maji, and his realization that he himself is evolving into a maji. He goes back and forth while Zelie and Amari remain boring, especially Zelie who relatively stays the same throughout the story with finding confidence that she’ll save her people then losing that confidence and going back and forth with this. On the other hand, Amari starts weak then becomes stronger, but at the end her strength progress comes too quickly that it doesn’t seem authentic.

With the hype around this book, I wanted to love it. But honestly it was the first book in a long time where I kept falling asleep from boredom at all the battles that just become a blur. The writing is offensively simple with more focus on the story that’s too fast-paced with the characters and settings never really receiving the proper attention they should. The dialogue is atrocious, especially with the cursing. All the characters just keep cursing like they barely have any other words in their vocabulary. It’s pretty bad how many times the reader will come across “skies,” “gods,” and “dammit,” the last one seeming out of place with the setting. Though I’m not a big reader of fantasy YA, I do know when I read a great novel in the genre, and this is not it.



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Book Review: ‘The Idea of You’ by Robinne Lee

The Idea of You

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The Idea of You” by Robinne Lee is an unexpected well-conceived story about an older woman falling for a boy band member. It sounds like a fantasy ripped out of the tabloids, but it captures the complexities of such a relationship and how the world reacts to it.

Solene Marchand is dealing with the emotions before a 40th birthday when she gets stuck with taking her daughter, Isabelle, and friends to an August Moon concert with backstage access in Las Vegas. As the teen girls stay enamored on the British boy band, Solene finds herself flirting with the bandleader himself, Hayes Campbell. While living her life as an LA art dealer, Solene meets up with Hayes when he’s in town as he flies her out to where he is until they have a full-blown love affair that surprisingly develops into an authentic relationship. Except Solene feels the relationship threatening her art gallery business with her partner Lulit, her relationship with Isabelle, her relationship with her ex-husband Daniel who’s of course having a baby with a 30-year-old model, and her reputation in general with fans sending threatening messages via social media and postal mail. But Solene and Hayes try to beat the odds amid the craziness.I’ve been disappointed with some of the recent women’s fiction/romance books because in many cases the issues and characters become stereotypical and the storyline is forced into a happily ever after. This book actually shows the progression of a modern-day fairy tale relationship and the rockiness that comes with it. The ending is refreshingly unexpected yet emotional. The writing is fantastic, which again in other recent works seemed to be either missing or the only upside to the book.

What’s great about this book is the reader travels with August Moon, a fictional mashup of One Direction/The Wanted/and all those other recent boy bands out of the U.K., since Solene gets a first class ticket and hotel suite with Hayes everywhere. It covers Aspen, Miami, Malibu, Paris, Tokyo, the Hamptons and so many other destination cities, so it feels like you’re there admiring the scene though Solene and Hayes spend a lot of time in their suites. Also, the stakes of the romance are high. Not only are Solene’s relationships feeling the heat, but so are Hayes’ with one of his bandmates vengeful of destroying the romance and past hookups continually making appearances around the world.

Overall, there are great elements throughout the story, and the book is a great piece of women’s fiction with serving up the steamy sex scenes and drama on every corner. And Lulit is the best because she’s Ethiopian, and we’re rarely in books, especially books like these, so the whole time I envisioned her as me, and that was fun.

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Book Review: ‘A Kind of Freedom’ by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

A Kind of Freedom: A Novel

A Kind of Freedom: A Novel by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A Kind of Freedom” by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton is a multigenerational novel that follows a family overcoming and adapting to obstacles specific to their eras. Though the stories of families may be seen as one-dimensional, it still emphasizes how wealth in the African-American community could disappear based on circumstances.

The story starts with Evelyn and her younger sister, Ruby, in 1940s New Orleans as the daughters of one of the only black doctors in the city. Evelyn has her as eye on Renard, who also likes her and has dreams of going to medical school. But her father doesn’t want Evelyn to marry Renard because he doesn’t believe he’ll become a doctor because he lived as an orphan with a friend’s family.

Then the story fast forwards to the early 1980s with Evelyn and Renard’s two daughters Jackie and Sybil. Jackie is unexpectedly raising her son on her own with her husband dealing with a crack cocaine habit working at her parents’ daycare center.

The third part focuses on a post-Katrina New Orleans with Jackie’s son, T.C., all grown up just getting out of jail before his son’s birth.

To most readers, it might seem like a dull tale around a family, but it makes you think about how this black family was on top decades ago only to lose that wealth and status when a white family would’ve more likely stayed on top generations later. It’s a thought-provoking novel.



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Book Review: ‘Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now’ by Dana L. Davis

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now by Dana L. Davis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now” by Dana L. Davis is a wonderfully complex YA novel about a girl from Chicago dealing with her mother’s death who moves to California to be with her biological father when there’s another man claiming to be her father.

The story starts with Tiffany Sly, a 16-year-old from Chicago, arriving at LAX in Los Angeles to meet the father she never knew. Instead a driver is there to pick her up to whisk her away to Simi Valley where her wealthy doctor father and his family lives. During the ride, Tiffany’s anxiety revs up and has been up since her mother died from cancer. Once she arrives at the home, she meets her new stepmom and four other sisters she didn’t know about. After meeting her father, who’s fair-skinned with blue eyes, she’s doubtful about the genetic connection with her dark brown skin. Then she recalls how another man, whom she believes she looks like including the complexion, had showed up at her apartment in Chicago the day before claiming to be her father, too. He even threatens legal action in a week, so Tiffany has a week to see if her California life will work in that matter of time before coming clean to her new family.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘The Belles’ by Dhonielle Clayton

The Belles (The Belles #1)

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“The Belles” by Dhonielle Clayton revolves around a fantasy world built on beauty with a species of women responsible in making the entire kingdom beautiful as looks fade into greatness and they inject the color. Though a unique way to take on society’s obsession with what constitutes as beauty, this typical fantasy YA novel designed for a series has so much great descriptions that they may have slowed the story down.

Camellia is a Belle in the kingdom of Orleans, which means she has the power, her arcana, to bring color and vitality into people’s appearances since they lose both after some time. Like their hair dries out and their complexion drains out of color or even their heights can shrivel. Through beauty appointments mostly the rich can afford, Camellia works her magic to restore the look desired by the individual. For now, she and the other five Belles she calls her sisters, have this great duty as they are scattered to different posts on the main island. Camellia becomes the kingdom’s favorite where she works in the palace with Princess Sophia, the sole heir as her mother, the queen, ails and her sister is still in a yearslong coma. While Camellia hears disturbing news from previous Belles and her sisters about what’s happening in the kingdom and in the palace, she realizes the princess is evil and is trying to reproduce her own Belle power, which could destroy the kingdom.

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experiences

Author Event: Jade Chang and Natashia Deón

Meeting two authors in one night is an amazing treat, but when they drop knowledge, it’s even more amazing. That knowledge: build your reputation as a writer before your work comes out.

Jade Chang of The Wangs vs. The World and Natashia Deón of Grace spoke together at a Women’s National Book Association meeting last Wednesday night at Skylight Books in Los Angeles.

At the event, the authors dove into what inspired them to write their novels and how being a woman writer — especially women of color writers — affected their work. They spoke about their past experiences and how it took them both about eight years to get to the finish line for their debut novels. 

It turned out they both completed the same fellowship. After the talk, I went up to Chang to tell her how much I adored her book, which I had conveniently finished earlier in the day. Then I went to Deón to buy her book since my daily attempts to win a Goodreads giveaway seemed to be fruitless.

They suggested applying for the literary fellowships that would be convenient to your life, e.g. you can keep your day job if necessary, to learn about the publishing industry and how to navigate it. If you don’t have a masters in fine arts in creative writing, these fellowships can help lessen the barriers of entering the publishing industry.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘The Hate U Give’ by Angie Thomas

The Hate U GiveThe Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas looks into the Black Lives Matter movement from a personal viewpoint of a Black teen struggling in two different worlds, and it’s done perfectly.

Starr lives in Garden Heights, the predominantly Black side of the city riddled with crime, but attends Williamson Prep in the ritzy white suburb. While she balances her two personalities in these two different places, she gets caught up at a party where a shooting breaks out. She runs out with her childhood friend, Khalil, and they drive off. A police officer soon stops them for something trivial, and for showing attitude, Khalil gets shot and killed for reaching in his car for his hairbrush. The officer mistook it for a gun. And now Starr as the witness struggles with what comes after.

Starr deals with her nurse mother and ex-con father who owns a grocery store in the neighborhood; her old half-brother Seven who feels he has to take care of his other family under siege by a ganglord; her cop uncle; her white girlfriend Hailey who makes racist comments at school; insecurities around her white boyfriend Chris; and all her friends and neighbors in Garden Heights she feels she’s hurting somehow for not knowing how to approach the situation.

The novel explores a real young Black girl perspective unheard of in the young adult genre, so it was exciting to read that voice. Her voice is raw, so at first it’s wonky to get used to the slang and how she explains her world, but it comes through fast enough to the point where the reader can get devoured by what’s going on. There are a lot of elements, but it shows real-life situations for a teen girl living in two worlds and seeing her friend die at the hands of a cop. Definitely a must-read for being a genre standout and looking forward to how the book will play out on the silver screen.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘The Mothers’ by Brit Bennett

The MothersThe Mothers by Brit Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Brit Bennett’s “The Mothers” takes on a controversial issue that is usually viewed as an issue between two people but can impact an entire community as the secret unravels with the passage of time.

Nadia loses her mother unexpectedly to suicide and begins to ditch school. She finds herself at a restaurant by the beach where Luke waits tables since they live in San Diego. He’s the pastor’s son at the church they grew up in, and Nadia always had a crush on him, so they begin to have a relationship though Nadia is underaged at 17 while Luke is past 18. During their steamy stint, Nadia becomes pregnant. But she has dreams to go to the University of Michigan and become a lawyer, so she decides to get an abortion. She asks Luke for the funds because he has a job, but he gets the money from an unexpected source.

They move on with their lives, but the impact of the lost child lingers in the background, especially for Luke, who lacks ambition due to football injuries and believes a child could’ve changed everything for him. Nadia acts relieved about the decision because she believes her mother’s future was destroyed by having her at a young age and that’s why her mother shot herself in the head without a suicide note. Years later, when Nadia returns home to visit her lonely father, she finds out her best friend is going to marry Luke. The secret haunts her then. How can she tell her best friend what happened? These dilemmas build up for both Nadia and Luke until they explode and ripples shake up them, their families, and the rest of the church community.

This debut novel is heartfelt with the characters dealing with the impacts of abortion, depression, suicide and other everyday issues but trying to move past them with making strives and missteps along the way. It also shows how home may not be a source of comfort because that’s where the bad things happened, and every time you return, the bad things resurface in a different way.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Everything, Everything’ by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This young adult debut is simplistically entertaining. I’m working on a young adult novel, so I saw this one was going to become a film after being released just a year ago. It’s about a girl named Maddy who has that condition of being allergic to everything who’s kept in the house all day and starts to spy on her new cute neighbor, Olly.

They fall in love by sharing at first posters against their bedroom windows to instant messaging each other constantly. As they learn more about each other, they’re determined to actually meet in person. With Maddy like a modern-day Rapunzel stuck in her house all day, Olly tries to figure out how to be with her. Maddy’s home nurse, Carla, secretly allows them to meet in person in the house with extra disinfection without letting Maddy’s mother Pauline know. Carla can’t keep letting the secret meetings to happen because they’ll be too hard to hide from Pauline, her boss. This triggers more drastic measures for Maddy to take as she uses her credit card to purchase tickets to Hawaii for she and Olly. It shows how much Maddy is willing to sacrifice to not only have a friend but a connection to the real world she never experienced.

The storyline was simple yet I kept flipping to see what was next. It’s broken into short chapters with illustrations done by her husband David Yoon, which makes the entire book more digestible. Maddy’s curiosity and desperation to go outside is apparent on almost page as she draws figures, write book reviews, and occupy herself all day with home school and other brain-teasing activities.

The one thing that didn’t jive was the character is supposed to be half black and half Japanese since the author has an interracial family, but adding race and culture to the character fell flat. If the author wanted it to be a factor, then it really needed to be a factor, with incorporating more culture in the relationship between Maddie and her mother; or describing their physical features more; or having Maddie question Olly’s attraction to her because of her race and skin color—these are all real moments for a teenage girl that could’ve been added in lightly to the storyline. And even though Maddie hadn’t been in the real world, she was home-schooled and took history, so she knew race is an issue.

Overall, it was cute quick read, and I look forward to seeing the movie.

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