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Book Summary and Reviews of Love, Rita by Bridgett M. Davis

Love, Rita by Bridgett M. Davis

Love, Rita

An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

by Bridgett M. Davis

  • Publishes:
  • Mar 11, 2025, 384 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A searing tribute of sisterhood and family, profound love and loss from the acclaimed author of The World According to Fannie Davis.

In Love, Rita, Bridgett M. Davis tells the story of her beloved older sister, a vivacious woman who in leaving home to attend Fisk University and then becoming a car test driver, an amateur belly dancer, an MBA, and later a popular special ed teacher, modeled for her younger sister Bridgett how to live boldly before her own life was tragically cut short by lupus. A brave and beautiful homage that both celebrates the special, complex bond of sisterhood yet also reveals what it is to live, and die, as a Black woman in America.

This moving memoir, full of joy and heartbreak, family history and American history, uses Rita's life as a lens to examine the persistent effects of racism in the lives of Black women—and the men they love; it is essential reading for fans of Jesmyn Ward, Kiese Laymon, James McBride, Linda Villarosa, and Tressie McMillan Cottom.

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This information about Love, Rita was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

Bridgett M. Davis is the author of the memoir, The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life In The Detroit Numbers,New York Times Editors' Choice, named a Best Book of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews, and featured as a clue on Jeopardy! She is author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow, and Shifting Through Neutral. Davis is also writer/director of the award-winning film Naked Acts, which was recently re-released to critical acclaim. She is Professor Emerita at Baruch College (CUNY) and the Graduate Center, where she taught creative, narrative and film writing. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the LA Times, among other publications. A graduate of Spelman College and Columbia Journalism School, she lives in Brooklyn with her family.

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