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Love Is Love: Picture Book for Gay and Lesbian (LGBTQ) People with Dementia by Laurette Klier (Book Review)

 

Love Is Love is a beautifully curated collection of 21 vintage photographs paired with 21 classic love poems to engage and delight LGBTQ elders living with dementia. Nostalgic poetry is an invitation into the past with representation, compassion, and joy. Love Is Love invites conversation and connection, to affirm identity and awaken the spirit within. Designed to read aloud, read along, to share as a ‘picture walk’ with a friend, neighbor, family member, or allied health professional.


The NANA’S BOOKS series is recommended by ALZ Authors and ALZ Speaks. Featured resources in the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Teal Room, NANA’S BOOKS are the winner of a Maude’s Award for Innovation in Dementia Care for Making Connections.

 

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from Reedsy Discovery.  I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 

Love Is Love: Picture Book for Gay and Lesbian (LGBTQ) People with Dementia by Laurette Klier is a heartfelt mixture of poetry and black/white/gray photography. 

Laurette Klier chose poems written by notorious authors in the literary field, such as Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Lord Byron, expressing love between partners in same-sex relationships. Even without the poetry, the love is evident in every single photo. 

A subtle touch. 

A kiss. 

A twinkle in their eye.

A laugh. 

A loving embrace. 

Some photographs also captured couples in a more serious manner, but expressionless faces were the norm in certain periods. 

No matter the tone of the photographs, it was lovely to see a collection featuring same-sex couples from years past. 

My favorite male/male image was of the two gentlemen wearing hats and smoking cigars. They have a look on their face where I imagine they’re holding back laughter, and once the photo was taken, they break out in boisterous laughter. They also have a mischievous look in their eyes. I bet these two men have/had a lot of fun in life.

My favorite female/female photo is the neighbors kissing over their shared fence. I wonder how many times did they meet there? Did anyone know of their passion? I can almost hear their giggles when they call for each other. The woman with one foot up is posed in a famous romance swoon position. Love it! 

I loved all the works of art, textual and visual. 

 

Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤

Amazon Purchase Link

 

 

 

Meet the Author

 

Nana’s Books is an award-winning series designed to engage and delight people living with dementia and their care partners through nostalgic art and verse. Nana’s Books are crafted to ease conversation and to awaken the spirit within. Nana’s Books bring back connection… one page at a time.

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The Christmas House Romances by Jennifer Griffith (3 Holiday Books)

The Christmas Cookie House 

Christmas, love, and a batch of cookies.

Leela Miller’s mom passed away last spring. Now, Leela is desperate to fill Mom’s shoes in the Ladies’ Auxiliary by chairing the Cookie House fundraiser. The hitch: mean-eyed Mrs. Coldicott refuses to host the event at her Society Row home as planned.

Leela must find a new venue big enough and fancy enough to draw in customers, or Mom’s event might get canceled. There’s only one perfect place: the Layton Mansion.

New vet school graduate Jay Wilson has been remodeling the Layton Mansion since he inherited it this summer. It’s almost Christmas, and the house is nearly ready to flip!

If he can get a good price for it, he can buy a partnership at a veterinary clinic out of town.

However, by stipulation of the will, Jay can’t sell the house until he cleans out the attic.

Jay needs help completing the enormous task before his deadline. The beautiful Leela will eagerly help—if he agrees to allow her to use the house for her event. But, when Jay learns that the Cookie House event is the same day as his sale deadline, will he sell the house out from under the girl he might just be falling in love with?

The Christmas Cookie House is Book 1 in the Christmas House Romance series by award-winning author Jennifer Griffith. Other books in the series include The Sleigh Bells Chalet and The Holiday Hunting Lodge. Jennifer writes clean, escapist fiction she calls Cotton Candy for the Soul—light, sweet, gone.

 

 

The Sleigh Bells Chalet 

Christmas, sleigh bells, and dashing through the snow—toward love.

Hotel owner Ellery Hart’s business is on the rocks. Rooms are empty, the lobby is ugly, and a huge loan payment is due. Unless she can pay, she will lose her grandpa’s legacy, the Bells Chalet. While her mom would have her marry the rich banker who is holding the hotel’s title ransom, that idea is beyond unacceptable.

Ellery needs brilliant business solution. But how to make one happen fast?

Bing Whitmore has been running the family business, Whitmore Thoroughbred Stables, on his own. But when his heart is broken by two females—horses, that is—he is thrown for an emotional loop, and all he wants to do is quit. Sell the stables. Never look at another horse again.

Instead, his cousin convinces him to take a vacation. They travel nine hours to the quietest hotel he can find—the Bells Chalet. Meeting a beautiful hotel owner makes this escape better than he could have hoped.

When Ellery needs help, Bing wants to do anything to make her smile, even if it means helping her fill the perfectly serene hotel with more guests. But when he learns that her hotel-saving plan involves the very thing he’s traveled so far to avoid, can Bing put aside his pain and help Ellery save her grandpa’s business and the jobs of the employees she loves?

The Sleigh Bells Chalet is Book 2 in the Christmas House Romance series by award-winning author Jennifer Griffith. Other books in the series include The Christmas Cookie House and The Holiday Hunting Lodge. Jennifer Griffith writes clean, escapist fiction she calls Cotton Candy for the Soul—light, sweet, gone.

 

 

The Holiday Hunting Lodge 

Snow, a hunting lodge, and a flight—both to and from—love.

Music composer Jesse Parrish has a dream contract! He’s been signed to write the soundtrack for a film with award potential. This one job could make his whole career. Twelve themes, all due to the producer at Christmas—but he’s completely blocked. He doesn’t have a single theme, let alone twelve.

He needs to get out of Vancouver and somewhere he can think.

Aspiring private pilot Mattie Daines has been crushing on Jesse since before he started dating Mattie’s older sister. His music makes her heart sing—but what kind of creep-o falls in love with her sister’s boyfriend? That’s half the reason she’s been working as an outdoors guide anywhere but Vancouver for the past couple of years.

When Mattie hears that Jesse is desperate for a private plane to take him to a friend’s mountain lodge, she leaps at the chance, if only to prove that she can be around him without her knees going weak.

Mattie whisks Jesse off to the mountains in her plane, but when bad weather threatens the flight, will this dangerous plane ride also threaten Mattie’s firm resolve not to let feelings for Jesse back into her life?

The Holiday Hunting Lodge is Book 3 in the Christmas House Romances series by award-winning author Jennifer Griffith. Other books in the series include The Christmas Cookie House and The Sleigh Bells Chalet. Read all three for a sweet holiday treat.

 

About Jennifer

Finally, a good hair day.

Jennifer Griffith is the award-winning, bestselling author of over twenty novels, both traditionally and independently published. She received a degree in English/Technical Writing and Japanese from Utah State University, and worked as a writer for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives before becoming a mother and switching to writing romantic comedy novels from home. She has done professional editing since 1991 and loves helping novelists take their work to the next level.

Jennifer has written for newspaper, her work appearing locally as well as in The Chicago Tribune and Meridian. Her book Big in Japan has been selected for both high school and college curriculum and has been optioned for film. She’s been a presenter at many workshops and conferences, including Salt Lake ComiCon and the ANWA Conference. She and her husband Gary have five brilliant and hilarious children ranging from ages 18 down to 8, who don’t care if she’s a writer; they just call her Mom.

Jennifer has no plans to write the Great American Novel. She’d rather compose what someone would read on a rainy afternoon with a cup of cocoa, or sitting on a beach chair while the waves crash. Light, frothy, gone.

To learn even more about Jennifer and get a view into her beliefs and what makes her who she is, read her spiritual blog here.

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Authors: Get Inspired with August’s Sensational Selections!

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Authors: Get Inspired with July’s Sensational Selections!

 

 

 

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Authors: Get Inspired with June’s Sensational Selections!

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Photographer: Natalia Mindru

 

 

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