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Book Review: Can't We Be Friends by Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight

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Expected publication March 5, 2024 My Review:   Thank you to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s e-proof courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers of ‘Can’t We Be Friends’ a novel of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe by Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight  The timeline culminates from 1952-1962. The memories they shared of lost mothers, evil stepfathers, orphanages, and early marriages gone bad. Meeting because of a song. Marilyn Monroe grew up in the foster care system and as an adult actress, cynics and people judged her and categorized her. She must match the image that everyone wants. A sex goddess, desired by many. She holds onto a wealth of sadness (All About Eve). Marilyn wanted to be taken seriously and admired for her talent as an actress. No recent actress has had this much power over her career, owning and operating a production company, a pioneer for women in Hollywood. Inspired by her friend Ella who had control and say so over her career. Ella was filled with guilt of a failing mar

Book Review: The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate. **Spoilers**

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I received this kindle book from NetGalley and immediately wanted to read about Hattie McDaniel, the first member of her race to be so honored with an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her superb performance as Mammy in ‘ Gone With the Wind’  Hollywood clubs, sights, restaurants and digs. Learning how Hattie McDaniel made a name for herself in music, in vaudeville, and onstage in several cities. Her fortune of finding an agent when most white agents didn’t take Negro clients. Hatties’ role as Mammy often got more attention than some of the other players who were considered the stars, so she learned how to embrace it. Hoping that she capitalized on her Oscar win, Hattie believed that her Oscar win was about to open a number of doors, and she didn’t want to block her blessings. Even the First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt had called Mr. Selznick, demanding that her maid Elizabeth McDuffie (who had no acting experience) be given the part. Hattie was truly tired o

Book Review: Homeward by Angela Jackson-Brown

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The country is changing, and her own world is being turned upside down. Nothing—and no one—will ever be the same. Georgia, 1965. Rose Perkins Bourdon returns home to Parsons, GA, without her husband and pregnant with another man’s baby. After tragedy strikes her husband in the war overseas, a numb Rose is left with pieces of who she used to be and is forced to figure out what she is going to do with the rest of her life. Her sister introduces her to members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—young people are taking risks and fighting battles Rose has only seen on television. Feeling emotions for the first time in what feels like forever, the excited and frightened Rose finds herself becoming increasingly involved in the resistance efforts. And of course, there is also the young man, Isaac Weinberg, whose passion for activism stirs something in her she didn’t think she would ever feel again My Review  I listened to the narration on audio by Joneice Abbott-Pratt who does an