More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Christine just jumped right in and expected you to know exactly where she had landed.
I’m sure you know Josephine worked as a spy to help France in WWII.
Who is Josephine Baker?
wtf everyone knows her lol
And maybe they could find out why the woman had decided to take this story to her grave.
forbidden secret?
I’m probably old enough to be your father.”
“And my wife is dead, so I don’t think she cares much.
love his dark humor
Her mother’s death had changed everything and she’d woken up more times than she could count, wishing she could turn back the hand of time.
“We’re, all of us, homesick because earth is not our home. Heaven is.”
Sometimes the longing was just that bad.
“I just wanted to remind you that, as an American, I think it’s time for me to leave this country.”
better before shit gets real
Only English at Madame’s request so that Madame could strengthen her grasp of the language and so Claire could continue to learn it.
Elly had informed Madame and Claire that she had finally seen the man she was going to marry just so she could stop being asked whether or not she was trying on purpose to die miserable and alone.
He had declared afterwards that he’d heard better singing on Easter Sunday and seen better dancing at the juke joint down the street.
always a hater
“Grant be findin’ ’em. I swear he’s like the Pied Piper of black folks. Come on in, girl. What you waitin’ on?”
Did the woman ever just decide that for one day she wasn’t going to be glamorous?
“I said, Grant has a way of finding us in this country.”
nice to have others like you around
“Years and years. You’d think I’d be used to this by now but it drives me crazy every time.”
at this point dang
“Who are you spying for? Who is Josephine spying for?”
“Do not think that because you are not from here that you will escape what is coming. If you don’t help us, we’ll find another way.”
“Everyone wonders if they would have been a Harriet Tubman but now, we both know you’d have been one of those folks happily singing in their cabin.”
getting real fast
“Words are empty. They are meaningless.”
“You brought up Harriet Tubman. You made it personal. You don’t know me. You don’t get to say things like that to me.”
And we’re colored, Miss Baker. I have great doubts that the Germans will look too kindly on us despite us being American.”
“Money does not change skin color.”
doesnt change anythijng
You’re a woman—which Germans greatly undervalue. Then add the fact that you’re colored and an American and now you have a recipe for the least suspicious person in the room.
Fact #3: She was not French, and she owed this country zilch.
If you did the same thing you’d always done, you certainly could not expect different results.
If she wanted to live, it would seem she would have to be willing to die.
“I am working with a department whose sole focus is weaponry. Every assignment I give you would be toward the purpose of stopping leaks about guns, ammo, et cetera.
not the most dangerous area
“Butterfly of the night?” “A moth.”
“Moths can be quite interesting in their own way.”
Spying, pretending, risking life and limb.
“Grant, is a relic.”
The way I figure it, we colored folks have always lived dangerously.”
“Her mama named her Freda Josephine McDonald,”
“Her family calls her Tumpy, something to do with Humpty Dumpty and her being a fat baby,”
“She’s one of three on her mama’s side. There’s Richard, Margaret, and there was Willa Mae. Willa Mae died a few years back. Botched abortion,”
so common in this time
“Jo doesn’t have much in the way of schooling. Supposedly she could barely read and write when she first got here in 1925.
If your cousin is Josephine Baker, you cannot flinch every time she says or does something that clashes with your upbringing.”
If you have a problem, tell Grant, and I will happily board a ship back to the States. Now, I’m going to sit over there in that chair and wait for Miss Baker.
say that sis
Mei was name-dropping, perhaps to show that she knew important people too. Well, name on, Elly thought.
And did she want him to get in trouble with Uncle Minor and Aunt Tabitha who had lectured him no less than five times on how he never should have asked a single young woman alone in a foreign country to do a job most men didn’t want to do?
Dear Elodie, it began, I have lived these years without you and now I feel as though I hold my breath in anticipation of seeing your face.
“In Paris, you can do anything, become anything. And I’m gonna make the most of this time and do something great.”
“He doesn’t want just any Tom, Dick, or Harry going through his things. VIP. Very important person. I’ll do it.”
Dear Lord, she prayed, if you get me out of this sight unseen, I will read my Bible more.
Lord, I will read one of the big books from the Old Testament: Isaiah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel, she promised God as the men moved closer toward her. Focus, she told herself. Don’t let this be for nothing.
thats a promise lol
They weren’t anything remotely precious to behold.
thats why coloreds were special everywhere else
“The traitor is not the lieutenant?”
There are things—believe it or not—important things that we actually need to address. Now, should something ever happen like last night and you can’t reach me, there is a line you can call. But you must speak in code. The code changes daily but there’s still a pattern to it.”
