Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a reader since childhood and books have simply become a part of my life’s tapestry. They have comforted me in times of stress. They have provided me with ripples of joy. And simply kept me up almost all night. The books that I have recommended underscore the changing cultures of the human condition all centered around three universal themes, faith, mental illness, and family. When drafting my first novel I dived into simply capturing aspects of the human condition. As a mental health clinician I see the many tides of life and how the human condition has many times been couched within family dynamics. 


I wrote

Revelation: A Novel

By Bobi Gentry Goodwin,

Book cover of Revelation: A Novel

What is my book about?

Angela Lovelace is a well-trained social worker. She has been working for Child Protective Services for nearly five years and she…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Woman Evolve: Break Up with Your Fears and Revolutionize Your Life

Bobi Gentry Goodwin Why did I love this book?

This book is all about relationships. It is about a relationship with God and his people and that we are certainly more alike than different. Woman Evolve takes the reader through the story of Eve and shows the reader just how she is relatable to each and every one of us. Eve was human and we are human. She had flaws and we have flaws. Her vulnerabilities are also ours and before we point the blame at her, or anyone else for that matter we can look right back at ourselves and understand how each and every one of us doesn’t necessarily deserve redemption, but God gave it anyway. Want a good read, this book will keep you turning page after page as the reader and author explores just how fallible, alike, and loved we all are.

By Sarah Jakes Roberts,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Woman Evolve as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times bestseller! With life lessons she's learned and new insights from the story of Eve, Sarah Jakes Roberts shows you how past disappointments, struggles, and even mistakes can be used today to help you become the woman God intended.

Who would imagine being friends with Eve-the woman who's been held responsible for the fall of humanity (and cramps) for thousands of years? Certainly not Sarah Jakes Roberts. That is, not until Sarah discovered she is more like Eve than she cares to admit.

Everyone faces trials, and everyone will mess up. But failure should not be the…


Book cover of 72 Hour Hold

Bobi Gentry Goodwin Why did I love this book?

This novel changed the way I looked a mental illness. Campbell was a tremendous author and her prose is clearly highlighted in this heart-wrenching novel about how mental illness not only impacts the sufferer but ricochets and touches everyone around them. 72 Hour Hold is an important timeless work that helps to uncover what many have suspected or even known about what their family members fight behaviorally and in the shadows of their minds. Depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety are real and so are the families they impact. What families experience and what we openly discuss are sometimes two separate realities. Pick up this book and see why Campbell attempts to pull the covers off of mental illness and discover just why mental health matters. As a mental health clinician and author sometimes seeing what the issue looks like can dive deeper that any label. 

By Bebe Moore Campbell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 72 Hour Hold as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "A tightly woven, well-written story about mothers and daughters, highs and lows, ex-husbands and boyfriends.... Universally touching." —San Francisco Chronicle

Trina is eighteen and suffers from bi-polar disorder, making her paranoid, wild, and violent. Frightened by her own child, Keri searches for help, quickly learning that the mental health community can only offer her a seventy-two hour hold. After these three days Trina is off on her own again.

Fed up with the bureaucracy and determined to save her daughter by any means necessary, Keri signs on for an illegal intervention known as The Program,…


Book cover of Feeding the Soul: Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom

Bobi Gentry Goodwin Why did I love this book?

I absolutely enjoyed this book from cover to cover. This book carries the heart and soul of many of the ancestors. It is unapologetically spiritual, charming, heartwarming, and downright funny. 

In a world of fiction and nonfiction as an author, I do believe we can mix it up. This nonfiction book will leave its reader feeling like they just ate a big bowl of gumbo. It highlights the complexities of life, family, community, and self. But, it intertwines the importance of lessons learned, value-added, and compassionate care.

By Tabitha Brown,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Feeding the Soul as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

53rd NAACP Image Awards Winner

You are seen, you are loved, and you are heard!

Before Tabitha Brown was one of the most popular personalities in the world, sharing her delicious vegan home cooking and compassionate wisdom with millions of followers across social media, she was an aspiring actress who in 2016 began struggling with undiagnosed chronic autoimmune pain. Her condition made her believe she wouldn't live to see forty--until she started listening to what her soul and her body truly needed. Now, in this life-changing book, Tabitha shares the wisdom she gained from her…


Book cover of Letter to My Daughter

Bobi Gentry Goodwin Why did I love this book?

This book is written by the late, great Maya Angelou and it is a must-read. As an African American woman the wisdom passed on by our matriarchs is not only needed but essential. Letter to My Daughter, is just that, a letter to me. It encompasses the wisdom of a well-lived life and a strong desire to pay it forward. This is not just a book it is a teaching tool that will leave its reader with a sense of grounding that only a long afternoon conversation with a wise elder can. Grab a glass of sweet tea and glean. 

By Maya Angelou,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Letter to My Daughter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Maya Angelou shares her path to living well and with meaning in this absorbing book of personal essays.
 
Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.

Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less…


Book cover of Esther

Bobi Gentry Goodwin Why did I love this book?

This novel is simply beautiful. It surrounds the biblical character Esther and her unexpected transition from being snatched from her home and dumped into the harem of the king. This novel highlights coping with the unexpected path that life sometimes presents. It is also careful to highlight how culture can influence our experiences and decisions. Esther dives into how this young woman learns to navigate the road less traveled and finds a new one all her own. It is not a coming-of-age story, it is a coming of self story. The power of a woman is clearly outlined in this novel and how being buried under pressure can create a diamond indeed. 

By Angela Hunt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Esther as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When an ambitious tyrant threatens genocide against the Jews, an inexperienced young queen must take a stand for her people.

When Xerxes, king of Persia, issues a call for beautiful young women, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan living in Susa, is forcibly taken to the palace of the pagan ruler. After months of preparation, the girl known to the Persians as Esther wins the king's heart and a queen's crown. But because her situation is uncertain, she keeps her ethnic identity a secret until she learns that an evil and ambitious man has won the king's permission to exterminate all Jews--young…


Explore my book 😀

Revelation: A Novel

By Bobi Gentry Goodwin,

Book cover of Revelation: A Novel

What is my book about?

Angela Lovelace is a well-trained social worker. She has been working for Child Protective Services for nearly five years and she has never had one sleepless night. But after she sees her father’s tattered picture on the apartment wall of a little boy whose addict mother just died, she sets out to uncover the truth. 

While Angela conducts her investigation, she finds her family and personal life spiraling out of control. Her brother simultaneously navigates the ravages of substance abuse, her sister struggles with infertility, and her father simply tries to keep the family together. The Lovelace family must look to their faith in God and each other to discover something they had all along, resilience.

Book cover of Woman Evolve: Break Up with Your Fears and Revolutionize Your Life
Book cover of 72 Hour Hold
Book cover of Feeding the Soul: Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom

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Christmas Actually

By Lisa Darcy,

Book cover of Christmas Actually

Lisa Darcy Author Of The Pact

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Cat lover Traveler Reader Amateur tennis player Foodie

Lisa's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.

Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have a festive theme, specifically set in Australia–sun, surf, sunburn, and prawns. Christmas in Australia is very different from Christmas in the UK, USA, and Canada. We typically wear shorts and t-shirts, eat salad and seafood for Christmas lunch, and play beach cricket in the afternoon. Despite the season, conflicts, secrets,…

Christmas Actually

By Lisa Darcy,

What is this book about?

Time spent with family can be challenging, especially at Christmas actually…

Kate Cavendish is stuck in a rut. That is until a former colleague contacts her and offers her a chance to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a successful photographer.

With her focus pulled in all directions by her children, her pregnant sister, her newly-dating mother, and the niggling worry that her husband might be having an affair, Kate is filled with self-doubt.

Then as the countdown to Christmas begins, and memories of her own childhood resurface, Kate’s anxiety deepens – both personally and professionally. Can she move on…


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