In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of "biographical fiction" that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century. When fifteen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald's mother dies at the height of the Depression in 1932, the teenager goes to work for the mob to support herself and her family. When the law finally catches up, the "ungovernable" adolescent is incarcerated in the New York Training School for Girls in upstate New York--a wicked prison infamous for its harsh treatment of inmates, especially Black ones. Determined to be free, Ella escapes and makes her way back to Harlem, where she is forced to dance for pennies on the street. Looking for a break into show business, Ella draws straws to appear at the Apollo Theater's Amateur Night on November 21, 1934. Rather than perform a dance routine directly after "The World Famous Edwards Sisters" number, the homeless Ella, wearing men's galoshes a size too big, risks everything when she decides to sing Judy instead. Four years later, at barely twenty-one, Ella Fitzgerald has become the bestselling female vocalist in America. Diane Richards' Ella Fitzgerald is inspiring and intriguing--an emotionally rich, psychologically complex character, a flawed mother and wife who struggles with deep emotional scars and trauma and battles racism, sexism, and colorism as she learns to find her voice on the stage. Ella takes us from the brothels, speakeasys, and streets of Depression-era New York City to the grand hotel suites where Ella, now older and wiser, looks back on her life and finally confronts the demons from childhood that torment her. Compelling and rich in historical detail, Ella is a remarkable debut novel about an extraordinary woman.

Ella: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Richards, Diane

United States

Amistad

Thorndike Press Large Print

Angel Kisses

Susan Scheewe Publications, Incorporated

Surprises and inner secrets marked much of my life. Leaving behind a troubled childhood, I put myself through college and graduate school. I persevered to become a teacher, a school administrator, a counselor; to become “somebody.” I succeeded in achieving my childhood dream: happy wife, proud mother, and founder of a school for struggling students. But the reality was more fragile than I knew. I was a workaholic, blind to my unhealthy lifestyle and skewed priorities; until the night I forgot my daughter’s important concert because I was too busy with other people’s children – my students. My feelings of selfishness crushed me; my work obsession clearly was out of control.\nFinding Emelyn Battersby Hartridge saved me.\nAn impulsive (or guided) decision to go with a friend to a Dr. Weiss workshop on past-life regression sent me on a spiritual journey that would change my life. It led me to startlingly real visions of myself as a young girl immersed in the dancing, dining and drama of a prominent family in a post-Civil War mansion in Savannah, Georgia, more than a hundred years removed from my New Jersey world.\nWhen I visited Savannah as a tourist and saw the house in my visions, I began historical research and discovered Emelyn. Her life matched mine in eerie detail, from her family relationships to the school she founded with a mission statement that could have been plagiarized from mine. But were Emelyn’s goals influencing my life at the expense of my own purpose?\nThe journey didn’t end there. A second surprise was that I have a gift for communicating with those who have died. As I did my first “reading” with an unknown woman as part of a workshop exercise, I told this stranger what I saw and heard from a man desperately needing to contact her. After revealing his messages, the woman shared that I had described her recently deceased husband. His death had left her on the verge of suicide and I knew details of their life that I could not logically have known. As this stranger embraced me, she whispered in my ear: you saved my life. I then knew there was no going back. It would be the first of many such amazing connections from beyond.\nMy journey also required me to confront my own ghosts. I had to understand my father, a cruel, unhappy man who left our family. I had to understand my alcoholic stepfather and my mother who literally dragged me out of their house when I was 15 and sent me away. I had to find a way to forgive before I could own my life.\nToday, I am living my new passion, working in a spiritual realm that eases the grief of losing a loved one. This book is not intended to convince anyone that past lives or mediums are real. Finding Emelyn helped me find my path. I want to share my story in hopes that others will be inspired to listen to their hearts, heal the past, let go of fear and find their highest purpose, whatever it might be.

Finding Emelyn: How I Connected with a Past Life, the Other Side, and My Purpose

Religion & Spirituality

Waterside Productions

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Books by Richards, Diane