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Kinky Gazpacho
2009
Washington Square Press
Reviewer: Gaby

Synopsis:
In Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain Lori Tharps takes us on an unusual and enjoyable journey. The book is part coming of age story, part narrative of a young woman finding herself, and part love story.

Lori Tharps was born and raised in middle class comfort in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was often the only person of color in her school and neighborhood. Feeling dislocated in her home city and fascinated by other cultures and countries from a young age, Lori took all the available opportunities to travel from school sponsored exchange in Morocco in high school to spending her junior year of college in Salamanca, Spain. Lori went to Spain hoping that she would find a place where race doesn't matter. Although Lori didn't come across this idealized place, Spain was a did bring her self discovery and love and marriage with a young Spaniard.

Review:
I found Kinky Gazpacho a sensitive and fascinating read. The anecdotes of her childhood reveal the playground slights and ways that she was treated differently from her peers without bitterness or anger. I found Lori sympathetic, plucky and interesting - the sort of friend that I would loved to have at that age. I enjoyed reading about the different stages of her life and the ways that she and Manuel made a life for themselves and their family.

Kinky Gazpacho is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a memoir, coming of age story, or an unusual and satisfying read.
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After spending years as a corporate lawyer in a big law firm in NYC, I'm looking into starting my own practice. I have time to explore NYC, learn to cook and eat healthier, exercise, garden (on my Brooklyn balcony), and read more. Read more reviews by Gaby at Starting Fresh.

The Other Side of Paradise
Staceyann Chin
Scribner Books
2009

Publisher's Comments
No one knew Staceyann's mother was pregnant until a dangerously small baby was born on the floor of her grandmother's house in Lottery, Jamaica, on Christmas Day. Staceyann's mother did not want her, and her father was not present. No one, except her grandmother, thought Staceyann would survive.


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Kinky Gazpacho
Lori Tharps
Atria books
2008
From a young age, Tharps became infatuated with Spain; knowing that Spain was her destiny and that she would someday live there. While in college, she traveled to Morocco with the American Field Service, but later studied abroad in Spain, where she came face to face with the culture she never knew Spain to have.
~Holly Ord, guest reviewer at Womanist Musing


Sewing Circle-These are not reviews but profiles. Leave a comment or send us a review. If we publish your review, your name will be entered in a monthly drawing to win a book from our Prize Bucket.

If you want us to feature a book, send us your recommendation. Send recommendations, reviews and questions to [email protected]

Children of the Waters
Carleen Brice
One World/Ballantine
2009

"She'd known there wasn't a god since she was four years old, when her mother and baby sister were killed in a car accident,'' Brice writes in the first chapter, as she introduces Trish Taylor, who still feels alone and abandoned at 36. But now, the loneliness has an exclamation point. She is divorced and preparing for her only son to leave the nest. If not a wife or a mom, who is she? ~from Black Voices review

Sewing Circle-These are not reviews but profiles. Leave a comment or send us a review. If we publish your review, your name will be entered in a monthly drawing to win a book from our Prize Bucket.

If you want us to feature a book, send us your recommendation. Send recommendations, reviews and questions to [email protected]

Across A Hundred Mountains
Reyna Grande
Atria Books
2006
a stunning and poignant story of migration, loss, and discovery as two women — one born in Mexico, one in the United States — find their lives joined in the most unlikely way.

Sewing Circle-These are not reviews but profiles. Leave a comment or send us a review. If we publish your review, your name will be entered in a monthly drawing to win a book from our Prize Bucket.


If you want us to feature a book, send us your recommendation. Send recommendations, reviews and questions to [email protected]

Sewing Circle-a new feature created to promote books we want to share with you. This is our adult equivalent of Shades of Love.

These are not reviews but profiles. Leave a comment or send us a review. If we publish your review, your name will be entered in a monthly drawing to win a book from our Prize Bucket.

Sewing Circle will focus on multicultural literature for adults.

If you want us to feature a book, send us your recommendation. Send recommendations, reviews and questions to [email protected]