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Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime
J California Cooper
(USA: Anchor Books, @VintageAnchor, 1996)
Whether through her stories or her legendary readings, J California Cooper has an uncanny ability to reach out to readers like an old and dear friend. Her characters are plain-spoken and direct: simple people for whom life, despite its ever-present struggles, is always worth the journey.
In Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime, Cooper’s characteristic themes of romance, heartbreak, struggle and faith resonate. We meet Darlin, a self-proclaimed femme fatale who uses her wiles to try to find a husband; MLee, whose life seems to be coming to an end at the age of forty until she decides to set out and see if she can make a new life for herself; Kissy and Buddy, both trying and failing to find them until they finally meet each other; and Aberdeen, whose daughter Uniqua shows her how to educate herself and move up in the world.
These characters and others offer inspiration, laughter, instruction and pure enjoyment in what is one of J California Cooper’s finest story collections
UK:
USA: NewPages (independents) | Amazon
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Recommended by:
Halle Berry, Actress, Model and Influencer | Wikipedia: Halle Berry; IMDb: Halle Berry
Halle is an American actress who won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic drama film Monster’s Ball (2001, Amazon: UK | USA). As of 2019, she is the only woman of African-American descent to have won the award. Halle was one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood during the 2000s and has been involved in the production of several of the films in which she performed.
Halle is also a Revlon brand ambassador and influencer. Before becoming an actress, she was a model, having entered several high-profile beauty contests: in 1986 she finished 1st runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and 6th in Miss World. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992, Amazon: UK | USA), alongside Eddie Murphy, which led to further roles in films, such as the family comedy The Flintstones (1994, Amazon: UK | USA), the political comedy-drama Bulworth (1998, Amazon: UK | USA) and the television film Face of an Angel, also known as Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999, Amazon: UK | USA), for which – in 2000 – she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, among other awards. She continues to star in high-profile films, notably playing the character Storm in the X-Men movie franchise (Amazon: UK | USA).
Along with other A-List celebrities, Halle successfully fought in 2006 against the Cabrillo Port Liquefied Natural Gas facility that was proposed off the coast of Malibu. She said, ‘I care about the air we breathe, I care about the marine life and the ecosystem of the ocean.’ In May 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the facility. Hasty Pudding Theatricals gave her its 2006 Woman of The Year award. Halle took part in a cell-phone bank campaign for then Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, in February 2008. In April 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci’s ‘Chime for Change‘ campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness of women’s issues in terms of education, health, and justice. In August 2013, Halle testified alongside Jennifer Garner before the California State Assembly’s Committee on Judiciary in support of a bill that would protect celebrities’ children from harassment by photographers. The bill passed in September 2013, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.[
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