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	<title>Merky Books &#8211; The Bell Bookshop</title>
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		<title>The Catch</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-catch-4/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=49825</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life. Clara, a celebrity author in desperate need of validation, believes Serene is their mother, while Dempsey, isolated and content to remain so, believes she is a con woman. As they clash over this stranger, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts - together.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8216;Totally original, entirely compelling and astonishingly well crafted, <i>The Catch</i> solidifies Yrsa Daley-Ward as one of Britain&#8217;s best and boldest voices. A dark and lyrical debut that&#8217;s well worth the wait.&#8217; <b>Yomi Adegoke, author of Slay in Your Lane and The List</p>
<p>&#8216;</b>A fantastic, shimmering work. Ysra Daley-Ward&#8217;s rich exploration of Black womanhood and familial complexities is a must read.&#8217; <b>Irenosen Okojie</b></p>
<p>&#8216;From one of my favourite living writers, The Catch is a slippery shape-shifting delight. Yrsa&#8217;s novel is fluorescently dark and winding; brilliant in its investigation of refractions and meaning.&#8217;<br /><b>Eloghosa Osunde, author of VAGABONDS!</b></p>
<p>&#8216;Yrsa&#8217;s work is like holding the truth in your hands. A glorious living thing&#8217; <b>FLORENCE WELCH</b></p>
<p><b>A darkly whimsical debut about women daring to live and create with impunity.</b></p>
<p>Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life.</p>
<p>Clara, a celebrity author in desperate need of validation, believes Serene is their mother, while Dempsey, isolated and content to remain so, believes she is a con woman. As they clash over this stranger, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts&#8211;together. In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that Black women must make for self-actualization. The result is a marvel of a debut novel that boldly asks, &#8220;How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Reframing Blackness</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/reframing-blackness/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/reframing-blackness/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[In 'Reframing Blackness', art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe challenges this void. Exploring the presentation of Black figures in Western art, as well as Blackness in museums, in feminist art movements and in the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history. Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a much-needed conversation in culture and education.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8216;Akinkugbe is a brilliant new writer and thinker challenging art history. This book is urgent, essential, accessible and it needs to be on every art history reading list&#8217; <b>Bernardine Evaristo</b></p>
<p>&#8216;A sparkling debut. Bold, eloquent, personal and clear-eyed, Alayo Akinkugbe is a major new voice in writing about art, museums and culture. This book will shift your frames of reference, expand your canvas, and give you hope for the future &#8211; changing how you look at art while also making you look again at your ways of seeing&#8217; <b>Dan Hicks, author of <i>The Brutish Museums</i></b></p>
<p>&#8216;Thorough, accessible, essential&#8217; <b>Katy Hessel, author of <i>The Story of Art without Men</i></b></p>
<p>&#8216;To explore a history of Black communities across centuries of art is a love letter to the practice, a gift of knowledge and an ode to those who&#8217;s creative expressions give us much to be inspired by today&#8217;<b> Sofia Akel, cultural historian and founder</b></p>
<p>Since the inception of mainstream art history, Blackness has been distinctly ignored.</p>
<p>In <i>Reframing Blackness</i>, art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe challenges this void.</p>
<p>Exploring the presentation of Black figures in Western art, as well as Blackness in museums, in feminist art movements and in the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history.</p>
<p>Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a much-needed conversation in culture and education.</p>
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		<title>Sunstruck</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/sunstruck/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=48473</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[It's summer and a young man walks through the gates of a luxurious mansion in the south of France. At the dinner table, the Blakes are waiting for him: Annie, the family matriarch and world-famous singer, her inscrutable husband David and their children, Dot, aloof and rebellious, Lily, the man's carefree university friend, and their enigmatic older brother Felix. Between sun-drenched days spent lounging by the pool and nights blurring into endless, opulent parties far from the reality of life in London, a restless attraction grows between Felix and the man. The possibility to be part of a family - and an entire world - in which he doesn't belong is suddenly within reach. But the idyllic haze of the summer slowly fades as they return to the city. While the man struggles with his troubled past and the challenges of navigating Felix's world as a black, working-class person, Felix is tormented by demons of his own.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>AN <i>OBSERVER </i>BEST NEW NOVELIST 2025</p>
<p>WINNER OF THE #MERKY BOOKS 2022 NEW WRITERS&#8217; PRIZE</p>
<p></b></p>
<p><b>&#8216;Sticky, twisting and dangerous . . . compels, unravelling the fraught strings that keep the elite class together and asking if an outsider can ever truly belong in their fold&#8217;<br />REBECCA K REILLY<br /></b><br /><b>&#8216;This summer&#8217;s hottest read&#8217;<br /><i>SUNDAY TIMES</i></p>
<p>&#8216;Beautifully written and well-paced . . . builds tension as it approaches an exciting revelation&#8217;<br />JACQUELINE CROOKS</p>
<p>&#8216;Very hard to put down . . . A truly gripping story about privilege and perspective from a writer with a sharp pen and a wicked sense of humour whose incredible career is only just beginning&#8217;<br />ORE AGBAJE-WILLIAMS</p>
<p>&#8216;Smart, bracing, sexy . . . I was completely gripped&#8217;<br />JACK PARLETT</b></p>
<p><b>&#8216;A stunning and tender debut. Sultry and compulsive. Full of heart&#8217;<br />SOULA EMMANUEL</b></p>
<p>It&#8217;s summer and a young man walks through the gates of a luxurious mansion in the South of France. At the dinner table, the Blake siblings await him: Lily, his carefree friend from university; Dot, the rebellious younger sister; and Felix &#8211; handsome, charismatic and guarded.</p>
<p>Between sun-drenched days spent lounging by the pool and nights blurring into endless, opulent parties, the man is captivated by Felix&#8217;s restless allure. As his desire grows, the chance to become part of the family and their world of money and power starts to feel within reach.</p>
<p>But the idyllic haze of summer fades as they return to London and the cracks in the Blakes&#8217; careful façade begin to show. With the two men tormented by demons of their own, their bond is increasingly tested and pulled apart at the seams. Their secrets and the choices they make will change not only their lives, but the future of those around them.</p>
<p><b><i>Sunstruck </i>is a dazzling and poignant exploration of race, status and the parts of ourselves we risk losing when we fall in love.</p>
<p>&#8216;Poignant, tender, and wonderfully honest&#8217;<br />CHLOE MICHELLE HOWARTH</p>
<p>&#8216;Rich and complex&#8217;<br /><i>COSMOPOLITAN</i></b></p>
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		<title>Model home</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/model-home/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=45927</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Two bodies lie in the garden of a sprawling property in Oak Creek Estate, a wealthy gated community in Dallas, Texas. The bodies belong to the parents of Ezri, Eve and Emmanuel, who have long since abandoned the childhood home in which their parents remained all these years. A home that has haunted and hollowed them throughout their lives, in a neighbourhood where they grew up as the only Black family, hoping to survive a place that wanted to claim them, expel them and ruin them all at once. In the wake of their parents' death, Ezri and their siblings are forced to confront the reasons they left, the nightmares that have held them captive and the possibility that realities exist beyond those that have forged them. Bold and tender, 'Model Home' is powerful meditation on the power of memory, loss and identity.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>&#8216;Intense, original, and wonderfully unpredictable . . . <i>Model Home</i> is a story of a haunted house and haunted people; profound family secrets lie at the heart of this book as well as, surprisingly, blessedly, meaningful touches of love and hope. Rivers Solomon is an astonishingly talented writer.&#8217;</b> Victor LaValle<i>, </i>author of <i>Lone Women </i></p>
<p><b>&#8216;A startling reimagination of the haunted-house genre. The twists and turns are carefully drawn, with the tension mounting toward a shocking end . . . With this exhilarating and unforgettable work, Solomon proves to be a formidable writer.&#8217;</b> <i>Kirkus</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-</i></p>
<p>Two bodies lie in the garden of a sprawling property in Oak Creek Estate, a wealthy gated community in Dallas, Texas.</p>
<p>The bodies belong to the parents of Ezri, Eve and Emmanuel, who have long since abandoned the childhood home in which their parents remained all these years. A home that has haunted and hollowed them throughout their lives, in a neighbourhood where they grew up as the only Black family, hoping to survive a place that wanted to claim them, expel them and ruin them all at once.</p>
<p>In the wake of their parents&#8217; death, Ezri and their siblings are forced to confront the reasons they left, the nightmares that have held them captive and the possibility that realities exist beyond those that have forged them.</p>
<p>Bold and tender, <i>Model Home</i> is powerful meditation on the power of memory, loss and identity.</p>
<p><u><b>Praise for<i> Sorrowland</i>:</b></u></p>
<p><b>&#8220;A wonderland of fantastical and frightening, magical and real.&#8221; </b>Marlon James<br /><b>&#8220;A fantastical, fierce reckoning&#8230; Sorrowland is gorgeous.&#8221; </b>Roxanne Gay<br /><b>&#8220;Dark, magical and incredibly satisfying.&#8221;</b> Independent<br /><b>&#8220;An exhilarating journey to the outer limits of science fiction.</b>&#8221; <i>Guardian</i><br /><b>&#8220;Intense, original and wonderfully unpredicatable.&#8221;</b> Victor LaVelle</p>
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		<title>Central places</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/central-places/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=36972</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny central Illinois town where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancÃ©. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she's become, from those she left behind.But returning to Hickory Grove is complicated. Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle, her unrequited high school crush, forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>A <i>TIMES </i>BOOK OF THE MONTH AND <i>STYLIST </i>BOOK OF THE WEEK</b><br /><b>A <i>BAD FORM REVIEW </i>PAPERBACK BOOK OF THE MONTH</b></p>
<p>&#8216;Sharp, swiftly moving, darkly funny . . . [a] compassion filled delight&#8217; <b><i>The Times</i></b></p>
<p>&#8216;[A] sharp, assured debut&#8217;<i> <b>Daily Mail</b></i></p>
<p>&#8216;A sensitive, sharp-eyed, slyly funny novel of venturing back into the foreign country that is your past- and discovering that you can never really shake the places and people that shaped you&#8217;<b> Celeste Ng, #1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts</b></p>
<p>&#8216;Delia Cai fully renders the uneasy marriage between past and present. <i>Central Places</i> is honest about the strangeness and revelation of returning home&#8217; <b>Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of <i>Luster</i></b></p>
<p>Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny central Illinois town where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she&#8217;s become, from those she left behind.</p>
<p>But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey&#8217;s proximity to her family and to Kyle, her unrequited high school crush, forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she&#8217;s worked toward and everything she&#8217;s imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?</p>
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		<title>Just sayin&#8217;</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/just-sayin-2/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=31206</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Malorie Blackman OBE is one of Britain's best loved and most widely-read writers. For over thirty years, her books have helped to shape British culture, and inspired generations of younger readers and writers. The 'Noughts and Crosses' series, started in 2000, sparked a new and necessary conversation about race and identity in the UK, and are already undisputed classics of twenty-first-century children's literature. This book is an account of that journey, from a childhood surrounded by words, to the 83 rejection letters she received in response to sending out her first project, to the children's laureateship.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>The long-awaited autobiography of one of the world&#8217;s greatest children&#8217;s writers, and an empowering and inspiring account of a life in books.</b></p>
<p>Malorie Blackman OBE is one of Britain&#8217;s best loved and most widely-read writers. For over thirty years, her books have helped to shape British culture, and inspired generations of younger readers and writers. The <i>Noughts and Crosses</i> series, started in 2000, sparked a new and necessary conversation about race and identity in the UK, and  are already undisputed classics of twenty-first-century children&#8217;s literature.</p>
<p>She is also a writer whose own life has been shaped by books, from her childhood in south London, the daughter of parents who moved to Britain from Barbados as part of the Windrush Generation, and who experienced a childhood that was both wonderful and marred by the everyday racism and bigotry of the era. She was told she could not apply to study her first love, literature, at university, in spite of her academic potential, but found a way to books and to a life in writing against a number of obstacles.</p>
<p>This book is an account of that journey, from a childhood surrounded by words, to the 83 rejection letters she received in response to sending out her first project, to the children&#8217;s laureateship. It explores the books who have made her who she is, and the background to some the most beloved and powerful children&#8217;s stories of today. It is an illuminating, inspiring and empowering account of the power of words to change lives, and the extraordinary life story of one of the world&#8217;s greatest writers.</p>
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		<title>A new formation</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/a-new-formation/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=30103</guid>

					<description><![CDATA['A New Formation' is an original exploration of the ways in which leading Black British footballers have shaped the modern game.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>A New Formation is an inventive and highly original analysis of the contributions that Black British footballers have made to Black British culture.</b></p>
<p>Calum Jacobs and his co-contributors &#8211; including authors Musa Okwonga and Aniefiok Ekpoudom and sports broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye &#8211; eschew the standard frameworks of trauma and oppression that are foisted upon Black narratives. Instead, they draw upon broader social and cultural history to examine Black footballers in contexts larger than themselves. By engaging with the subtle connections between football and Black cultural expression, <i>A New Formation</i> reveals the vibrancy and nuance of contemporary Black life in Britain.</p>
<p>Featuring interviews with Andy Cole, Ian Wright and Anita Asante.</p>
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		<title>The things that we lost</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-things-that-we-lost/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=28493</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Nik has lots of questions about his late father but knows better than to ask his mother, Avani. It's their unspoken rule. When his grandfather dies, Nik has the opportunity to learn about the man he never met. Armed with a key and new knowledge about his parents' past, Nik sets out to unlock the secrets that his mother has been holding onto his whole life. As the carefully crafted portrait Avani has painted for her son begins to crack, and painful truths emerge, can the two of them find their way back to each other? 'The Things That We Lost' is a tender exploration of family, loss and the lengths to which we go to protect the ones we love.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>AN <i>OBSERVER</i> BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2023</b></p>
<p><b>WINNER OF THE 2021 #MERKY BOOKS NEW WRITERS&#8217; PRIZE</p>
<p>&#8216;Secrets spill and relationships sour, sacrifices are made and promises are broken, as plot twists propel the narrative forward to a dramatic finale.&#8217;</b>&#8211; <i>The Guardian</i></p>
<p><b>&#8216;An assured debut from a vital new voice. About family, grief and belonging, Patel weaves an intricate story that will stay with you.&#8217; </b>&#8211; <i>Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby and The Good Immigrant</i></p>
<p><b>Nik has lots of questions about his late father but knows better than to ask his mother, Avani. It&#8217;s their unspoken rule.</b></p>
<p>When his grandfather dies, Nik has the opportunity to learn about the man he never met. Armed with a key and new knowledge about his parents&#8217; past, Nik sets out to unlock the secrets that his mother has been holding onto his whole life.</p>
<p>As the carefully crafted portrait Avani has painted for her son begins to crack, and painful truths emerge, can the two of them find their way back to each other?</p>
<p><b><i>The Things That We Lost</i> is a beautifully tender exploration of family, loss and the lengths to which we go to protect the ones we love.</b></p>
<p><b>&#8216;Brilliant.&#8217; </b>&#8211; <i>Candice Brathwaite, author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother and Sista Sister</i></p>
<p><b>&#8216;Incredibly moving, this is an immersive novel focusing on grief but also love and relationships. I fell in love with Avani and Nik, characters so real I could hardly believe they&#8217;re fictional. Jyoti Patel is a hugely exciting new writer.&#8217; </b>&#8211; <i>Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets</i></p>
<p><b>&#8216;A thoughtful meditation on family, grief and the lengths we&#8217;ll go to protect the ones we love.&#8217; </b>&#8211; <i>Good Housekeeping </i></p>
<p><b>&#8216;A deftly assured debut novel about a fractured family and how words left unspoken can be more devastating than the truth.&#8217;</b> &#8211; <i>Red Magazine</i></p>
<p><b>&#8216;One of the best books I&#8217;ve read this year.&#8217; </b>&#8211; <i>gal-dem</i></p>
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		<title>Just Sayin&#8217;</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/just-sayin/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/just-sayin/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[The long-awaited autobiography of one of the world's greatest children's writers, and an empowering and inspiring account of a life in books. It is an account of her journey, from a childhood surrounded by words, to the 83 rejection letters she received in response to sending out her first project, to the children's laureateship.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>&#8216;It&#8217;s very candid, and movingly so&#8230;. Not only in Blackman a grafter- even more, and in the face of more, than we already knew. She&#8217;s someone with whom you do not mess. Good on her. She&#8217;s earned it&#8217; </b><i>The Telegraph </i></p>
<p><b>Malorie Blackman is one of Britain&#8217;s best and most beloved children&#8217;s authors, the landmark Noughts &#038; Crosses series included amongst her many books. Her journey to becoming a writer was a long one, but throughout it all she retained a sense of wonder and humour. </b></p>
<p>Before her BAFTA award wins, her OBE and appointment as Children&#8217;s Laureate in 2013, Malorie was a young girl from South London who fell in love with books and found a home in her local library and a world of words at her fingertips. From embracing her alternative way of seeing the world and all its fascinating differences and possibilities; to her desire to share that passion with others by becoming an English teacher but being told no by her careers advisor because of her race; to the doctor who told her she would be dead by thirty when she was diagnosed with sickle cell, and the eighty plus rejection letters she received from publishers before her first ever children&#8217;s book was published. Her life&#8217;s journey &#8211; has been an eventful one &#8211; marked by trauma, trials, and triumph, yet in spite of all the many setbacks in her life, she held fastidiously on to her dream of becoming a writer.</p>
<p>Malorie charts her life not in a succinct order of events, but against the principles which have motivated her journey and reasons for becoming a writer &#8211; wonder, loss, anger, perseverance, representation, and love. Each tenet has played a unique role in inspiring her writing, her deep resolve and infectious zest for life.</p>
<p>Through this lens of extraordinary experiences Malorie offers insight into the nature of growing up in post-war Britain, why we must protect the arts, the fraught navigation of our healthcare system, and surviving structural and societal racism.</p>
<p><b>Funny, frank, and full of life lessons, <i>Just Sayin&#8217;</i> is the deeply personal and vividly compelling story of a natural storyteller, her incredible life which defied expectations and inspired a generation.</b></p>
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