The New Yorker | May 25, 2020

“Since mid-March, San Francisco has reduced its jail population by nearly forty per cent, and California has made plans to release thousands of people from state prisons. In New Jersey, the State Supreme Court authorized the release of as many as a thousand detainees from county jails. Each week in April, the federal-prison population declined by around a thousand people; by May, it had reached its lowest level in two decades. In dozens of cities, cops were ordered to make fewer arrests, district attorneys dropped low-level charges, and judges vacated bench warrants for unpaid fines and other minor infractions. ‘Advocates on the ground have been challenging mass incarceration for so long—and now much of what we’ve been calling for, pre-covid-19, we’re seeing it transpire,’ Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, told me, from Los Angeles, where she’s been organizing for releases with Reform L.A. Jails. ‘At the local, state, and national level, this is a moment when we can collectively transform how our country relates to the most vulnerable.’”

Patrisse Cullors was interviewed for this thought-provoking article in The New Yorker. Follow the link above for more.

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New York Journal of Books | May 25, 2020

“Liv Constantine is the pen name of USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and international bestselling authors and sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Their works include The Last Mrs. Parrish (2017) and The Last Time I Saw You (2019). Separated by three states, they spend hours plotting via FaceTime and burning up each other’s emails. They attribute their ability to concoct dark story lines to the hours they spent listening to tales handed down by their Greek grandmother.

The sisters’ newest collaboration, The Wife Stalker is a bold, yet cleverly unsettling psychological thriller filled with complicated characters and a disturbing plotline. The book alternates between two sides of the story. Joanna, the soon-to-be ex-wife, and Piper, Leo’s new love interest. They each give us their interpretation of the circumstances and ramifications of the sordid affair.”

Follow the link above to read the full review of The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine!

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Shelf Awareness | May 22, 2020

“In 1933, as FDR's first New Deal programs sprung up across a United States in crisis, NAACP official William Pickens found the Roosevelt administration's relief efforts lacking: he saw Roosevelt's NRA--the National Recovery Act--as more akin to a ‘Negro Removal Act,’ thanks to the early New Deal's targeting of aid toward white communities and its enshrinement of discriminatory hiring practices.

This vivid, penetrating study by historian Jill Watts (Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood; Mae West: An Icon in Black and White) captures how determined black intellectuals and activists accumulated the power to document the inequalities of the New Deal, often from within its own agencies, and to nudge a reluctant federal government toward seeking relief for all Americans. Chief among this unofficial cabinet's accomplishments: pressuring Roosevelt into signing an executive order that barred racist hiring practices in the defense industry, a pioneering antidiscrimination regulation that, decades later, would stand as the foundation of affirmative action law.

Despite such triumphs, the Black Cabinet faced much frustration, disappointment and intractable racism. Roosevelt himself never officially acknowledged its existence, even as its members were touted in black newspapers and integrated government lunchrooms. Watts's attention to personalities and the nuts-and-bolts practicality of D.C. decision-making builds the story's tension. She's adept at capturing complex lives in a page or two, and her treatment brings vigorous life to figures like Mary McLeod Bethune, the activist turned official, and Lucia Mae Pitts, a secretary skeptical at first of her white boss's dedication to black America.”

Follow the link above to read the full review from Shelf Awareness!

The New York Times | May 22, 2020

“You can tell a lot about a man by how he treats his dogs. My ex-husband called Tilly, our Labrador retriever mix, ‘pinhead.’ He banished her from our bed (while welcoming our other dog) because she lavished affection on me, or so I surmised, and by doing so, he managed to punish us both.

After our divorce, I started dating again, but with reservations. I was enjoying living in a tiny condo with enough room for only me and the dogs, Tilly and Chance, an Australian shepherd mix. Their companionship was nearly enough to keep my loneliness at bay. Nearly.

My first date with Steve was in a bookstore-coffee shop in Boulder, Colo. He had arrived early and was camped at a corner table with a half-empty cup of black coffee and three newspapers. His beard was trimmed, his smile genuine.”

Click the link above to read R.L. Maizes beautiful column in the Modern love section of The New York Times!

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CrimeReads | May 22, 2020

“The following is an exclusive excerpt from My Mother’s House, by Francesca Momplaisir. When Lucien and his wife, Marie-Ange, immigrate to New York City from Haiti, they purchase a home that they turn into a community hub. But Lucien has demons, and soon, he begins a tragic, and terrifying decent. But what he doesn't know is that the house is watching, and sees him for who he truly is.”

Follow the link above to read the excerpt on CrimeReads!

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Minneapolis Star-Tribune | May 22, 2020

“Legend has it that after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawing racial discrimination, President Lyndon Johnson grimly predicted his fellow Democrats would pay dearly for outlawing injustice. ‘We have lost the South for a generation,’ he purportedly said.

In her fascinating new book, ‘The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt,’ Jill Watts dissects the obverse of Johnson’s lament: Why African-Americans, a once-loyal Republican constituency, fled the Party of Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, and embraced Democrats in the first place.”

The Black Cabinet by Jill Watts was reviewed in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune! Follow the link above to read the full article.

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The New York Times | May 21, 2020

“One hundred and six recipes. Frankly, I was a bit embarrassed when I counted the lentil soups, Russian salts, creamy diner puddings, bacon cheeseburger tacos, antique Irish whiskey drinks and sheet pans of roasted broccoli that I made between February and the first week of April while evaluating the best cookbooks of the season. Weren’t there better ways I could have spent that time, like, say, sewing masks? Yes, but when you’re quarantined at home with a lot of nervous energy, a thigh-high stack of cookbooks and an assignment, it’s easy to get carried away.

It was hard to choose the best of these books. There are so many wonderful titles this year, books that will introduce you to novel pasta shapes from underexplored corners of Italy and others that will help you eat more vegetables. In the end, though, there were seven books in the stack I kept reaching for to try new recipes, reread engrossing essays tucked between those recipes or study photographs that transported me beyond the four walls of my home.

The books have little in common. Two dive deep into regional cuisines. There’s a celebration of diner standbys, an eccentric restaurant bible and a couple of books aimed squarely at the home cook. But each of these books is a delight to read while sitting on the sofa, and each got me off that sofa and into the kitchen. Each promises that it’s possible to eat a little better, which is to say, to live a little better. Each, in its own way, fulfills that promise.”

Meals, Music, and Muses by Alexander Smalls was included in this beautiful article! Click the link to read more.

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Publishers Weekly | May 20, 2020

“Juniper (‘Jun’) is the first and only scholarship student at the prestigious Ellsmere Academy for Girls, a castle turned boarding school founded for girls to study science and literature. With thrift store clothes, a $10 haircut, and a single mother, Jun finds that her initial hesitation about attending alongside rich kids morphs into a close friendship with her roommate, Cassie, and an engaging rivalry with mean-girl Emily. Both outcasts, Jun and Cassie bond over Emily’s cruel treatment and investigate the history of Ellsmere’s forest, where the founder’s sons disappeared nearly two centuries ago. Jun’s rivalry with Emily comes to a head as Emily threatens Jun’s last connection to her late father and perfectly captures Hicks’s (Pumpkinheads) primary strength: clear character motivations, in which readers feel invested, that create dramatic situations. Panels are broken out to capitalize on specific moments, creating a variety of impactful emotional beats: sardonic retorts, profound loneliness, smug satisfaction, and doe-eyed vulnerability. Previously published in black-and-white, this edition sports updated line art and solid color work by Shelli Paroline that subtly enhances Hicks’s original art.”

Follow the link above to read more!

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Stained Page News | May 20, 2020

“Because it’s already way too hot here in Austin, we have a lemon icebox pie recipe from Meals, Music, and Muses by Alexander Smalls. I’m going to serve it with sliced peaches, which are already in season here (!!), but perhaps where you live it’s strawberry time? In any case: yum. Now, on to the news!”

Follow the link above to get Alexander Smalls’ recipe for lemon icebox pie!

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Complex | May 20, 2020

“In the middle of a global pandemic, Corvain Cooper sits in federal prison, serving a life sentence for a 2013 conspiracy to distribute more than one ton of marijuana, pleading for his release. As Cooper aptly points out, he is serving a sentence for something that used to be a crime—marijuana distribution—and has since been deemed an essential business during the COVID-19 crisis.

Yet, around the country, we’ve seen a number of celebrities and public figures convicted of more serious offenses getting released from jails and prisons in order to spare them the extraordinary risk of contracting COVID-19, and what could be a death sentence.“

Follow the link above to read the full article.

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Bookreporter | May 20, 2020

“By their very nature, thrillers and novels of suspense typically have any number of twists. However, The Wife Stalker is teeming with them, and a big one that will leave you totally reeling. You may read this entire book thinking you know what’s going on. At least 99 percent won’t get it right. Once you’ve reached the aha moment, you’ll want to go back to the beginning to see the perspective in a whole new light. Liv Constantine really is that clever with this plot.”

Follow the link above to read this fantastic review of The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine!

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Elle | May 18, 2020

“In a world of instability, the steady churn of new books from brilliant authors remains one of the few things we can count on. As we move into the summer, typically a high point of the year for the publishing industry, the slate of new releases looks a bit different than it did a few months ago. But while a few dates have been pushed back, the book business remains one of the few able to march ahead. For those of us who proclaimed in an earlier life that we’d be avid readers if we just had more time at home, this is the moment. From essential new fiction by N. K. Jemisin and Curtis Sittenfeld to much-awaited sophomore titles by Morgan Jerkins and Stephanie Danler, there's something for everyone. Read on.”

My Mother’s House by Francesca Momplaisir was included in this beautiful round-up! Follow the link above to see the full list.

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Book Marks | May 15, 2020

“Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible, Richard Ford’s Sorry For Your Trouble, Samantha Harvey’s The Shapeless Unease, and Olivia Laing’s Funny Weather all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week.”

My Mother’s House was included as one of the best reviewed books of last week! Click the link above to read more.

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Fox 11 | May 14, 2020

“LOS ANGELES - A group of activists who call themselves the ‘COVID-19 Response Team,’ have filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department for what it calls ‘a failure to protect the health of inmates in the county jails,’ during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Patrisse Cullors, Founder and Chair of Reform LA Jails, says the sheriff is trying to demonize inmates. Cullors is also a co-founder of Black Lives Matter.

Los Angeles County Department Sheriff Alex Villanueva claims inmates are deliberately trying to infect themselves.

‘I’m disappointed in the Sheriff’s inability to roll out a plan to release more people out of the jails. Yes, he has released a significant amount of people out of the jails, but there are still people who are incredibly vulnerable who are at risk inside of L.A. jails.’

She said some of the vulnerable inmates include nine pregnant women, those who are HIV positive and those with suffering from mental illnesses.”

Follow the link above to read more.

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My Favorite Murder | May 14, 2020

“Karen and Georgia cover the murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and the survival story of Juliane Koepcke.”

In the most recent episode of the podcast, My Favorite Murder, host Georgia Hardstark picks Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter as her book club pick! Follow the link above to listen!

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BookPage | May 14, 2020

“When Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945, he was praised for the significant advances African Americans made during his administration. One editorial said black Americans had ‘lost the best friend they ever had in the White House.’ The New Deal did provide African Americans with substantial assistance and more reason to hope, but FDR needed the support of Southern Democrats in Congress to advance his agenda, and he was reluctant to take actions on race that would upset them. What he was able to achieve came largely thanks to the efforts of an informal group of black activists, intellectuals and scholars working within the government. As historian Jill Watts shows in her meticulously researched and beautifully written The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt, these ‘black cabinet’ members succeeded in stopping or modifying many policies that would have made institutionalized racism even worse than it was.”

Follow the link above to read the full BookPage review of The Black Cabinet by Jill Watts!

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Ms. Magazine | May 13, 2020

“The Feminist Know-It-All: You know her. You can’t stand her. Good thing she’s not here! Instead, this column by gender and women’s studies librarian Karla Strand will amplify stories of the creation, access, use and preservation of knowledge by women and girls around the world; share innovative projects and initiatives that focus on information, literacies, libraries and more; and, of course, talk about all of the books.

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically underrepresented groups.”

Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma and My Mother’s House by Francesca Momplaisir were included in this fabulous round-up! Follow the link above to see the full list.

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Tor.com | May 12, 2020

“Francesca Momplaisir’s novel My Mother’s House tells the tale of a sentient home that burns itself to the ground in rage and despair at housing a terrible and abusive man. The dark and unsettling story follows Lucien, who flees his home country of Haiti with his wife, Marie-Ange, and their three children to move to New York City’s South Ozone Park and seek a fresh start. The family then buys a run-down house that they name ‘La Kay,’ or ‘My Mother’s house,’ which becomes a place for fellow Haitian immigrants to find peace, food, and legal assistance. What the family doesn’t know, however, is that all the while the house is watching and passing judgment on all of its inhabitants and is particularly upset at Lucien’s cruel behavior. But after La Kay burns itself to the ground, Lucien’s true evil nature is revealed.”

Follow the link above to read the rest of this wonderful review from Tor.com!

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