\n Some of Avant\u2019s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.\n <\/p>\n
\n
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author\u2019s mother, who was murdered in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words \u2018Think you\u2019ll be happy,\u2019 \u201d Avant writes, “but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.\u201d The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. \u201cOne of my first thoughts,\u201d she writes, \u201cwas, \u2018Oh God, please don\u2019t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.\u2019 \u201d Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the \u201cBlack Godfather\u201d due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up \u201cin a house that had a revolving door of famous people,\u201d from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. \u201cI don\u2019t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,\u201d writes Avant. \u201cAnd I recognize my unique upbringing\u2026..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.\u201d The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author\u2019s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers\u2014e.g., \u201cI don\u2019t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother\u2026so I\u2019m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable\u201d; “Success and feeling good are contagious. I\u2019m all about positive contagious vibrations!\u201d Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer \u201cthat everything is in divine order.\u201d Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, \u201cWe have to always find the blessing, to be <\/i>the blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of Avant\u2019s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n
Pub Date:<\/b> Oct. 17, 2023<\/p>\n
ISBN:<\/b> 9780063304413<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Page Count:<\/b> 288<\/p>\n
Publisher:<\/b> HarperOne<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Review Posted Online:<\/b> Aug. 17, 2023<\/p>\n
Kirkus Reviews Issue:<\/b> Sept. 15, 2023<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Share your opinion of this book<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n