Kimberly Hirsh

Finished reading: Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey 📚

If the Paris 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony has you dreaming of reads with Parisian vibes, I’ve got a new release for you. Love Requires Chocolate, by Ravynn K. Stringfield, is a coming-of-age story with a soupçon of romance (it has a happy ending but the romance takes a back seat to the coming-of-age). It releases on August 20 and I loved it.

(Full disclosure: Dr. Stringfield was my instructor for a workshop on creative non-fiction writing for academics. We have since bonded over our shared loves of comics and YA fiction, as well as our shared experiences navigating PhD programs and life after them. We’re Internet friends.)

Here’s the publisher’s description:

Whitney Curry is primed to have an epic semester abroad. She’s created the perfect itinerary and many, many to-do lists after collecting every detail possible about Paris, France. Thus, she anticipates a grand adventure filled with vintage boutiques, her idol Josephine Baker’s old stomping grounds, and endless plays sure to inspire the ones she writes and—ahem—directs!

But all is not as she imagined when she’s dropped off at her prestigious new Parisian lycée. A fish out of water, Whitney struggles to juggle schoolwork, homesickness, and mastering the French language. Luckily, she lives for the drama. Literally.

Cue French tutor Thierry Magnon, a grumpy yet très handsome soccer star, who’s determined to show Whitney the real Paris. Is this type-A theater nerd ready to see how lessons on the City of Lights can turn into lessons on love?

What I Loved

I mean, everything? But specifically? Whitney is a list girlie. I love a list girlie. She has Plans. Her fashion is always on point. (Check out Ravynn’s WhitneyCurryCore reel on Instagram.) Her love of theater is palpable. Her knowledge about Josephine Baker is impressive but her commitment to learning more is even more impressive. Whitney’s mixture of confidence and insecurity resonates so hard for this type A- former theater teen.

Whitney herself is enough to make this book awesome. But Stringfield layers in an incredible sense of place. Yes, she gives you plenty of looks at tourist destinations, but it’s the more quotidian Parisian moments that make this feel lived-in. Whitney gets lost in Montmartre. She has a dinner party at Thierry’s family’s home. She explores the streets of Paris. She sings “J’ai deux amours” swinging from a street lamp. (And have you seen a Parisian street lamp? They’re gorgeous.) Oh look, here I am trying to talk about Paris and ending up still telling you how much I love Whitney Curry. Whoops. Well, just trust that this book is full of awesome Parisian places, because Stringfield was a flâneuse herself when she studied abroad.

I love Whitney’s growth, her passion, and her outlook.

I love the romantic elements here, too. Thierry is wonderful. I mean a grouchy footballer whose family owns a chocolate shop? Come on. I mean. (This brought to you partly by my new obsession with retired footballer Zizou and partly by my old obsession with Roy Kent.)

Something that I think is worth pointing out is that Whitney is a Black American looking for the history and culture of Black Americans in Paris as well as Black Parisians of any descent. The importance of this piece of Whitney’s identity adds another layer to the Bildungsroman vibes. As a white woman I don’t feel equipped to discuss all the work Stringfield has done here at length, but I really appreciate her highlighting how important this is to Whitney, the conflicting feelings Whitney experiences about Josephine Baker’s recognition as an artist of Paris coming about after her death, and the contrast between Whitney’s image of how Black people experience Paris and the reality Thierry, whose grandmother came to Paris from Mali to escape trouble caused by French colonialism, shares with her.

What I wanted more of

The adventures of Whitney Curry? This is the first in a series but it’s an anthology series, so the other books will be by other authors and about other characters. Guess I better start writing some Love Requires Chocolate fanfiction.

What I need to warn you about

Not much. There is, as you might have guessed from what I said earlier, discussion of racism.

Who should read this

People who love Paris or think they might love Paris. Theater nerds. Football (i.e., soccer) fans. People who enjoy YA romance. People who like chocolate.

Book: Love Requires Chocolate
Author: Ravynn K. Stringfield
Publisher: Joy Revolution
Publication Date: August 20, 2024
Pages: 288
Age Range: Young Adult
Source of Book: ARC via NetGalley (but I loved it so much I pre-ordered it too)

Sod shared 7 links people shared with him. I really liked the idea that we can learn something about ourselves by looking at that, so here are 7 people shared with me.

1. Before the first days checklist - My friend Casey sent this to me. Teacher Chanea Bond created it. It’s hugely helpful, especially as I’m launching into a very intense time starting my new job tomorrow.
2. My husband Will sent me a news piece from Playbill about Keanu Reaves and Alex Winter starring in Waiting for Godot. This is a sweet spot for our 90s theater nerd hearts.
3. The mother of one of my son’s friends shared this summer camp with me, because my son wants to try a Minecraft summer camp next year.
4. My friend Sean wanted our group chat that’s him, me, and our friend Kit to know about the Haunted Mansion Bar on the Disney Cruise Line ship, the Disney Treasure.
5. Speaking of Kit, he sent me this video about having hobbies. It validated both of our large hobby supply collections.
6. Will let me know that he pre-ordered this special Hyrule Edition of the Switch Lite for me. He likes special editions and I don’t tend to play with the Switch docked, so he’s going to give me this and I’m going to give him my Switch so he can stop having to share one with our kid. Will is the best, by the way.
7. Kit sent me this xkcd comic. I don’t know if that says more about his headspace or what he thinks mine is, but either one works.

Mostly what I learned hunting these down was that I send way more links than I receive, and that’s probably as it should be, because information is my love language.

So here’s a link I sent Will today: Harris campaign launches GOP outreach effort, led by former NC Justice Bob Orr. Will worked as an intern for Justice Orr when Will was in law school 18 years ago. Justice Orr’s politics often are not my fave, but I find this very heartening.

I don’t want my 7-year-old to really understand Interview with the Vampire, obviously, but I did tell him that Taylor Swift is in a feud with an imaginary vampire.

Finished reading: The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler 📚

Read this to prepare for collaborating with teachers at work who want support finding books to work into our literacy curriculum. It’s especially interesting as someone who started her teaching career in the era of No Child Left Behind.

🔖🍔🥤 Read The Enduring Mystery of Cook Out.

A Cook Out Junior Tray with a cheeseburger (mayo only), double fries, and Coke was the first meal I had after giving birth, and it was the best meal I’ve ever eaten. (I can’t remember if I also got a shake.)

Finished reading: Tender Rebel by Johanna Lindsey 📚

It’s me, hi, I’m the one watching the Olympic opening ceremonies 5 days late. It’s me.

💀🪦 I wish I could have gone to Funeral Services Education Camp.

Finished reading: Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey 📚