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Heidi *Bookwyrm Babe, Voyeur of Covers, Caresser of Spines, Unashamed Smut Slut, the Always Sleepy Wyrm of the Stacks, and Drinker of Tea and Wine*
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Half of the work that is done in the world Is to make things appear what they are not. —E. R. BEADLE
Elise could mimic emotions she didn’t feel on command but had no ability to express the ones that were true.
Public conspiracy theories had exploded after news leaked that Kitty bequeathed her entire fortune—about six hundred million dollars—to Elise and her sisters, Giovanni and Noele.
Why had the White Hollywood icon given her fortune to the Black (“Black” being the key word) daughters of her costar in a sitcom that first aired almost fifty years ago?
The pain that you’ve been feeling can’t compare to the joy that’s coming.
With one’s attention turned outward, one forgets one’s own ability to harness understanding of the truth.
The world forced Negro girls to mature faster than anyone else; the ugliness in the world was inflicted upon them first.
There are two types of people in this world, Mary: people with time to sit under the trees, looking up at the sky and pondering life”—she jostled the gold balls in her hand—“and those who end up hanging from those same trees, looking down on the life they might have had, had they been born different. You were born different, by the grace of God, so you get to choose. Choose the gold-earring life.”
“People can tell you they love you three times a day and still treat you any kind of way when it really comes down to it.”
When people don’t like themselves, it makes them mean. You understand?”
Elise, my name is Mary Magdalene Ledbetter and I am your grandmother. Born in North Carolina to a Black mother, I came to Los Angeles when I was eighteen years old and became a White woman named Kitty Lane Karr.
