Carole V. Bell

2 days ago | bookpage.com | Carole V. Bell

Great Big Beautiful Life takes readers on a suspenseful romantic journey that echoes two of Emily Henry’s most beloved books. The sparkling dialogue and competitive enemies-to-friends-to-lovers frisson between celebrity magazine journalist Alice Scott and her literary darling rival, Hayden Anderson, harkens back to Henry’s adult debut, Beach Read, the first of five consecutive number one bestsellers for Henry.

2 months ago | cltampa.com | Carole V. Bell

By Carole Bell on Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 10:45 am While book bans continue to cause concern, Tampa Bay’s bookworms and hopeful romantics have reason to celebrate. Tampa’s hottest new book store “Steamy Lit” is a romance-centric startup on MacDill Avenue that is more than holding its own in turbulent times.

Dec 17, 2024 | theemancipator.org | Carole V. Bell

In these fraught times, rife with disinformation and grift, one thing we can do is turn to radical books to deliver perspective, catharsis, and strength for the fight ahead. We’ve selected six of the year’s best to help us (and you) think more critically about how race works (and doesn’t work) in America. by Kellie Carter JacksonSome of us still believe that slavery lasted as long as it did because our ancestors lacked the spirit or courage to rebel.

Nov 27, 2024 | theemancipator.org | Carole V. Bell

More than two decades after its publication, “The Emperor of Ocean Park” — Stephen L. Carter’s iconic 2002 political thriller about the death of a controversial Black judge — came to the small screen. Starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, the MGM+adaptation Emperor of Ocean Park debuted earlier this year.

Oct 26, 2024 | latimes.com | Carole V. Bell

Loosely based on Jane Austen’s most explicitly political and critically controversial novel, “Mansfield Park,” Nikki May’s “This Motherless Land” explores clashes of custom and class in a contentious Nigerian and English family. Organized around four pivotal moments in the lives of two cousins — one Nigerian-born and biracial, the other English-born and white — this drama from May, who also wrote “Wahala,” exposes how family ties both bind and divide.