#BlackLoveBooks Challenge Day 8: #WCW

Three words: Waiting. To. Exhale. That was my introduction to Terry McMillan. I loved the book, the movie, and the soundtrack. I had absolutely no business reading McMillan’s novel about four grown women’s romantic issues while I was just a high school student. Thank goodness my father never monitored my reading. I couldn’t relate to Savannah, Bernadine, Robin and Gloria’s love lives, but I became engulfed by their stories all the same.  I even wondered if I’d experience any of those issues when I was  “old” and in my own relationship. Well…

I enjoyed reading her other titles as well. Disappearing Acts, Mama, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, Who Asked You? and I Almost Forgot About You. Admittedly, I haven’t read The Interruption of Everything and Getting to Happy, the sequel to Waiting to Exhale. They’ve been on my shelf for years. My TBR list is and always will be ridiculous.

My sophomore (junior?) English teacher didn’t think it was appropriate that I wrote an essay on Mama. Although I can’t recall what my exact thesis was, I liked Mildred Peacock as a mother and defended her. I do remember going back and forth with my teacher about my final grade.

I was pissed off reading Disappearing Acts and again when I watched the movie  with Sanaa Lathan and Wesley Snipes. Why, oh why couldn’t Franklin get his shit together? Whoopi Goldberg produced and starred in the Lifetime adaptation of A Day Late and a Dollar Short. Among other feelings, I was glad I didn’t have asthma. And, last not least, who could forget that love scene between Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs where one tear rolled down her cheek in the movie version of How Stella Got Her Groove Back? As I read I Almost Forgot About You I saw it play out as a movie in my head. I would buy a ticket for opening weekend.

My McMillan collection is incomplete. I have no idea what happened to my copies of Stella and Dollar. I hope whoever borrowed and never returned them enjoyed them as much as I did. Considering the fact that I made Omar Tyree, the “brother in Terry McMillan territory,” my #MCM (Man Crush Monday), I had to make Terry McMillan herself my #WCW (Woman Crush Wednesday). Humble brag: I met McMillan and got an autographed copy of I Almost Forgot About You when she made a book tour stop at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York. 

This post is in correspondence with the Instagram #BlackLoveBooks Challenge by @booksandbrunchbookclub