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Miami Street Book Nook, 5450 Miami Street, South Bend, IN (2026)

05/03/2026

“Lionesses. Us. Can’t you just see it Ellie? Someday, you and me — we’ll do great things. We’ll live life for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Shir Zan. Strong women who make things happen.” - Marjan Kamali, The Lion Women of Tehran

Some books just leave a mark … beautiful stories that invite us into worlds unlike our own, with characters so inspiring, that they never leave us. The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali, is one such story.

It’s 1950, where we meet young Ellie and Homa, in the vibrant, beautiful city of Tehran, the capital city of Iran. It was a time of great growth and promise for women to learn, to work, to become more than just wives and mothers. And Ellie and Homa find great comfort, joy, adventure and camaraderie in one another, as their friendship grows.

But often as things change, so do relationships. And this story takes a heartbreaking turn due to the increasing tension and turmoil taking place in Iran, but also within these young women’s lives.

This story is a beautiful, heart-wrenching one of love, loss, friendship, betrayal and grace as two women find their way in a changing world. While the story is based on two fictional characters, many of the historical references are based on real events that highlight the true spirit and courage of Iranian women’s fight for freedom.

It’s a beautiful love letter to the brave, tenacious women of Iran, who continue to fight for their rights, despite knowing the violence they could endure because of it. And knowing while they may never see the change they wish to see, they continue fighting for the generations to come, in hopes that one day, they can truly live free.

“I recently read a theory about ocean waves. This theory says that while to our eyes waves appear suddenly on the shore, their abruptness is an illusion. Waves begin their journey thousands of miles out at sea. They accumulated shape and power from winds and undersea currents for ages. And so when you see the women screaming in Iran for their rights, please remember, that the force and fury of our screams have been gathering power for years.”
- Marjan Kamali, The Lion Women of Tehran

04/13/2026

“I wasn’t there when Mike Mike was shot. I didn’t see him fall or take his last breath, but as his mother, I do know one thing better than anyone, & that’s how to tell my son’s story, & the journey we shared together as mother & son. After Mike Mike died, I believed we would have justice. I waited for the police to right the wrong, I waited for the county to bring justice to Mike Mike, I waited for the DOJ to discover the truth. The system has failed my son. It has failed me & it has failed all of us. But, now, I know that I can’t wait for anybody else to make change. I must make change, myself, that will be Mike Mike’s legacy; that will be his justice. That’s the truth of it.”
- Lezley McSpadden, Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown

Never have I read a more moving, heart-wrenching memoir of a family come undone by violence, poverty, insurmountable obstacles, yet had unbelievable perseverance in their bones.

The brutal, & often times, saddening honesty of Michael Brown’s mother, Lezley McSpadden, will break your heart, but will make you shout out loud as she fights the powers that be to seek justice for her son, killed by a police officer in Ferguson, MO in 2014.

Her story is one of many heartaches, as she endures a pregnancy at 15, domestic abuse at the hands of her partner & the choice to drop out of school. Yet her sheer will keeps her pressing forward to raise strong & healthy children, even if it meant doing it alone - which she does, with every ounce of love in her heart.

After her oldest son, Mike Mike, was shot & killed by a police officer, she writes fervently about the hours, days & months where she fought to seek justice, & the painful moment when she learns the grand jury would not indict the man who killed him.

It’s a tale as old as America; the system yet again failing to deliver justice, but this time, it ignited a movement across the nation. McSpadden, along with thousands more, marched across the country to carry on his legacy in the fight against injustice & racism. Not only is this book a call to action for us all, but an incredibly moving story of the undying bond between mother and son, that only a mother can tell.

03/19/2026

When I begin to lose, hope, I read. I try to write, create. But mostly, I have this idea in my head that if I can help ease the pain for someone else, hope can somehow, be rebirthed. The world and its monsters often keep me awake at night. I imagine that is a sentiment of many. But when I open a book and read the words of historians, poets, overcomers, other world creators, I am often reminded that we can find so much hope and joy in stories … Through words of writers who have all gone through difficult moments, yet somehow, found a way to keep bringing hope and magic into a maddening world. While I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, I hope this day brings you some peace, comfort and maybe a little hope to light the way. And if you need a little help, to find an extra dose of hope today, I added some new stories to the library, along with some bookmarks I made and photo cards with some poems I wrote, written on the back. If you’re in the area, please come take one if you’d like, and grab some cookies too! 💛 And to all my pen pals, I have more snail mail coming to you soon. If you’d like to be added to the list, just head to my website and send me your info securely, at the link below. 🤗

https://withlovefromemmy.com/lets-be-pen-pals

03/12/2026

“… r**e victims are never meant to win. We’re not meant to survive at all. If we make it through the r**e without drowning in our own blood, law-enforcement, the justice system, and America itself are there to finish the job. To quiet our voices and sever our tongues. To betray us a second time. All I see is red. I am fuming with rage. I do not accept this. I do not accept this fate. That’s what it means to be r**ed … Your anger is your pain. And your pain is your power. Anger drives us to places we can’t imagine, both good and bad … In the dead of night, I remember what hunger feels like. I remember, too, that at the bottom of Pandora’s box remained one last thing: Hope. Hunger for justice is my hope.”
- Amanda Nguyen, Saving Five; A Memoir of Hope

Did you know that the conviction for r**e in the United States is one percent? That means for every 100 r**es, only one person sees justice. Deplorable, right?

There are many statistics within Amanda Nguyen’s story that will downright enrage you. Yet with the odds stacked against her, she pursued justice with fervor. Not only for herself, but for every person who tragically will become a victim of sexual violence.

As a standout Harvard University senior, set to graduate and move on to fulfilling her dreams to become an astronaut, Amanda’s story took a tragic turn in 2013. She was r**ed on her college campus and left to navigate the justice system, receiving shock after shock at how little survivors ever see true justice.

She tells her story through the eyes of her younger selves as she moves through the five stages of grief, not only for what she endured at Harvard, but also as she confronted the violent turmoil of her childhood.

Her memoir will break your heart, but the hope she weaves through her words and her activism is inspiring. Her fight for herself and survivors everywhere brought her to the floors of Congress and in 2016, they unanimously passed the Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act. “The Survivors' Bill of Rights Act of 2016 (H.R. 5578), signed in Oct. 2016, first established federal statutory rights for sexual assault survivors. It mandates the right to a free forensic exam, 20-year r**e kit preservation, and notification before kit destruction. These rights apply to federal criminal cases.”

Her story is a tribute to her perseverance, the power of healing through activism and the resilience to keep moving forward, even in the most dire of circumstances, to truly change the world.

02/28/2026

Did you know that Angie Thomas’ book, The Hate U Give title was inspired by Tupac?

“Pac said Thug Life stood for “The Hate U Give Little Infants F*cks Everybody. T-H-U-G-L-I-F-E. Meaning what society gives us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out. Get it?” – From, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

In an interview with Cosmo, she talked about the title and what it meant, saying, “When we were trying to figure out a title for the book, I came across a YouTube clip of him discussing THUG LIFE … When I saw him explain what it means, it hit me that that’s not just in my book, but that’s what we see in society. When these unarmed black people lose their lives, the hate they’ve been given screws us all. We see it in the form of anger and we see it in the form of riots. So when I saw that in the video, it was like a sign.”

You might not know this, but Tupac was also a brilliant poet. A book of his poems was published posthumously and every single poem has meaning behind it. There are many favorites, but the poem that has the title of the same name of his book, The Rose that Grew from Concrete, definitely stands out.

If you have the opportunity to read this book of poetry and Angie Thomas’ novel, please pick them up at your local library or favorite independent bookstore! And if you’re in the South Bend area, please come grab them from the library.

02/26/2026

“People like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.”
- Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

I read this book a few years ago and recently watched the film of the same name and the sting of this story truly never leaves you.

The story follows 16-year-old Starr, who lives in a predominantly Black, low-income neighborhood, but attends a wealthy, mostly white private school. On a daily basis she must navigate two different worlds; where she comes from and the world where privilege is on display. But her life changes in a moment, when she is the witness to her unarmed childhood best friend Khalil being killed by a white police officer during a traffic stop. As Starr struggles to find her voice within her dueling worlds, she must also confront racism, police brutality, and social injustice within her community. As the story of Khalil’s death becomes a national headline, Starr finds the courage to tell what really happened and becomes a symbol of bravery and a voice for her friend.

This story is so powerful, moving, and leaves readers with the belief that the power of your voice can truly make a difference, even when we are afraid. It’s a call to action, that speaking out about injustice is always the right thing, even through adversity.

02/10/2026

“We need to understand the dangers posed by the politics of fear and anger that create systems like our capital punishment system and the political dynamics that have made some courts and officials act so irresponsibly … He was a poor man in a criminal justice system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent … We need to learn about human dignity, about human worth and value. We need to think about the fact that we are all more than the worst thing we have done … and right now, wherever you are, whoever you are, you can reach out to your fellow man or woman and bring your own light to the dark places.”
- Anthony Ray Hinton, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

You don’t really know how you feel about death row until you read a story about a person, wrongfully convicted, who sits there, for decades, waiting to die. Anthony Ray Hinton was just 29-years-old when he was wrongfully convicted of killing two people in Alabama and sentenced to death row in 1985.

He spent his first years on death row in a state of despair, filled with anger toward all those who had sent him to die. But that wasn’t the way his story would continue. Through his own acceptance and resolve, he not only learned how to survive on death row, he learned how he could live there too. He became a beacon of light among his fellow inmates, not only helping to bring hope to them, but also to himself.

After serving 30 years behind bars, with the help of Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative, Hinton was fully exonerated and released in 2015.

It’s another book that will change you, if you let it. 💛

“... the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, but justice needs help. Justice only happens when good people take a stand against injustice. The moral arc of the universe needs people to support it as it bends. And yes, it also needs people to pick a side … Justice only happens when good people take a stand against injustice.”

02/06/2026

“I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery … Slavery was a long slow process of dulling … That’s history. It happened whether it offends you or not. Quite a bit of it offends me, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
- Octavia E. Butler

Imagine being pulled back in time, only to discover it’s a nightmare you never thought you’d have to live? That is what Dana, the heroine of this story, experiences as this book begins. This story weaves a tale as improbable as it is heart-wrenching on a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. Butler is a master storyteller, who always invited her readers into the dark realities of the past, so you could feel them, live them and hopefully, never repeat them. I don’t want to reveal too much about this story, because it is one you should read and let each revelation shake you too. Another story that will stay with you, long after its final pages.

02/04/2026

“I feared not just the violence of this world but the rules designed to protect you from it … I did not tell you that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay. What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

Written as a letter to his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates tells the story of what it means to be black in America. With experiences and revelations of his own, while at Howard University, on Civil War battlefields and speaking with mothers who have lost children as American plunder, it’s an honest rebuke of the “American Dream”. Told with such honesty, sorrow, and a wave of hope, it’s a story that should be required reading for everyone.

02/03/2026

“Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice … The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”
- Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

If there was ever a book that will change your life, this is it. It’s a story you won’t soon forget and it will have you asking yourself many questions about America’s justice system. While deeply flawed by racism and bias, disproportionately harming the poor and minorities, this story is one of hope, compassion, and a commitment to justice. It pleads to our humanity and shows that we can overcome this broken system by recognizing everyone’s shared humanity. This story will sit with you long after you’ve read the final words.

If you’re not familiar with Bryan Stevenson, and the Equal Justice Initiative, please check out opportunities to learn more about Just Mercy, the book and the film, along with the incredible work they continue to do on their website: https://eji.org

Miami Street Book Nook

05/03/2026

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