One of my summer pleasures is skinny-dipping (swimming naked). One of my favorite pastimes while enjoying the aquatic environment is reading. Using the spare moments to enjoy the books that often I failed to read while my university is in full session throughout the year. Strictly pleasure reading (fiction) for my excursions to outdoor bodies of water (natural or a pool). The subjects aren’t as intense or serious as professional reading or for research!
My surprise discovery!
David Baldacci is one among my favourite contemporary authors and I was very shocked to discover that he had a novel published earlier this summer that I knew nothing about. Several local booksellers that I subscribe to always alert me whenever my designated authors have a release to enable me to order. I had received no information on Baldacci’s newest, Strangers in Time!
It was never featured in my local bookseller (part of a national franchise) that has always promoted this particular author. When I stopped one of the management team as Aaron, my spouse, and I were in the location, they researched the title and were equally unaware of the publishing.
I was very fortunate and lucky to have discovered a copy of this book. Published in April 2025, Baldacci’s latest novel takes place in London, UK, in 1944 during the final days of the Blitz (German bombing). It is the documentation of the friendship that grows between 14-year-old Charlie Matters, orphaned by the bombings of the city and the ravages of World War II, and Molly Wakefield, a 15-year-old evacuee from London in 1939 who is returning to the unrecognizable city from which she fled.
They encounter Ignatius Oliver, a widowed bookseller attempting to heal from his recent loss of his wife. The three join together in friendship, dependence, and support in a dangerous and perilous time. Disaster and doom strike, yet they somehow manage to survive until the peace approaches, when fatality falls upon them.
A World War II historical fiction novel unlike any written by the author previously and presents a very impressionable and memorable story that is captivating, entertaining and refreshing as to the rewards of life.
When I first began university, my major area of study was history. David Baldacci’s Stranger in Time closely aligns fiction, history and suspense into a true work of an inspired mind!
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride: Guys Without Boxers
Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Friday, August 15, 2025, and the proposed topic is: “Tenth Anniversary Today!”
Today’s post entry here on ReNude Pride is the title of the most recent novel from Virginia-native author, David Baldacci. The first edition of ACalamityofSouls was published by Grand Central Publishing in April, 2024. For more than two decades, David Baldacci has been among my favourite contemporary authors. Up until Papa’s death in 2018, whenever a new hardback by Baldacci was released, I always purchased two copies: one for me and the other for Papa. Baldacci, like Aaron and myself, still resides in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Background on ACalamityofSouls:
In my twenty years of reading David Baldacci’s books, I was aware of his Virginia birth and residency but was totally clueless that he grew up in the City of Richmond during the 1960s and 1970s. When my parents and oldest brother emigrated from Greece in the early 1970s, they purchased our family home in the Stonewall neighborhood, located in south Richmond between Semmes Avenue and the James River. The neighborhood where we grew up in was a primarily African-American area and one of the few in Richmond that accepted arriving emigrants. In ACalamityofSouls Baldacci acknowledges that with a “foreign” surname (Italian), Richmond was not a very welcoming municipality. We share that similarity. Same city. Different timeframe.
Richmond, Virginia, has the distinction of being the capital city of the failed Confederacy during the American Civil War over the future of slavery. Up until the arrival of the 21st Century, this fact was blatantly obvious. The undertones of racial inequality and and segregation based on skin colour were broadcast rather than hidden. The inability of the Virginia lawyer, Jack Lee, in ACalamityofSouls to comprehend the extent of the bigotry and hatred evident in 1968 in understood through the experienced eyes of the author, David Baldacci, and through his personal life experiences.
Synopsis:
Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially charged murder case sets a duo of Black and White lawyers against a deeply unfair legal system as they work to defend their wrongfully accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama. The two are professionally joined by chance without any prior legal connection.
Jack Lee is a White attorney from Freeman County, Virginia (fictional), who has never done anything to push back against racism until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy White couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his professional skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already piling up against both himself and his client. He soon recognizes that he is far removed not only from his expertise but also from his obligation to best portray his client as innocent from the verdict in a murder trial.
Desiree DuBose is a Black attorney from Chicago, Illinois, who has dedicated her professional focus in advancing the causes of equality and justice for everyone, no matter their gender and/or race. She comes to Freeman County in rural southwest Virginia and joins with Jack Lee in a fractious and unwieldly partnership in an escalating legal conflict with the best and popular prosecutor in the Commonwealth of Virginia: the duly elected Attorney General. DuBose is cognizant of the reality that powerful archconservative alliances outside the state are uniting to counter the achievements and progress attained by the civil rights movement.
Lee and DuBose are practically exact opposites. Neither one of them alone can halt the official prosecutorial direction towards a guilty verdict and the death penalty. Yet combining together they forge forth towards a balanced and fair trial with the ultimate goal of true justice.
One of my Hellenic (Greek) comrades, a noted NewYorkTimes bestselling author himself, offered this comment on Baldacci’s ACalamityofSouls: “An instant classic. Not just a great American crime story this is a great American novel.” ~ Alex Michaelides ~
I’ve read the entire book – twice; as has Aaron, my spouse. The second reading brought forth details not captured in the initial exploration of the book. Aaron insists that I add here that the ending of the novel is absolutely not the ending anticipated or expected!
One of the aspects of Baldacci’s writing that is very impressive is his use of the interactions of the two attorneys, Jack Lee and Desiree DuBose, to illustrate the subtle use of conversation and the two different views of racism inferred from the same dialogue. Bias and racism are based upon personal experience. Thus, the situation will present different connotations and meanings to all the individuals involved.
Summary:A fitting irony
In his opening Author’s Note, Baldacci writes briefly of Richmond’s infamous Monument Avenue where Confederate celebrities were featured statues. When Richmond native international tennis legend Arthur Ashe, an African-American, died from an AIDS transfusion, a major controversy erupted when plans were announced to erect a statue in his memory along Monument Avenue. The conflict focused that Monument Avenue memorials featured White Confederate images. Ashe was Black even though he was actually born and grew up inside of the City of Richmond! Evidently, he was too “coloured” for the Confederacy!
Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in early 2020, the City removed all the Confederate statuary. Today, Arthur Ashe’s statue is the only remaining one an all of Monument Avenue. A commitment to justice served! Obviously, the others were too White to be featured in the city!
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride
Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Saturday,August31, 2024, and the proposed topic is: “Bottoms-Up! August, 2024!”
We’ve now progressed to the third month of the new year, 2024. In my post entries here on ReNude Pride, in particular regarding new year’s resolutions, I’ve consistently focused on the poor timing for such life changes. The level of commitment to maintain the adjustment simply isn’t at the optimal level during the frenzy of the winter holiday season.
Reduced resolve:
The weather isn’t always conducive to the fluctuation of our daily routine. From seasonal temperatures to frigid temperatures and then to uncertain temperatures while adapting to all the other issues confronting us is not always in our best interests. Additionally, the realities of ice and snow, on a daily basis, often erases any resolve we may have.
Both my spouse, Aaron, and I have observed these result during our visits – jointly and separately – at our local fitness facility. Our job schedules don’t coincide so we visit the center at early mornings (me) or early afternoons (Aaron). The new year begins annually and the workout attendance soars. Everyone starts the new year driven to become fit and toned before the summer season is upon us.
As the weeks pass, the numbers of gym attendees starts to drop. Suddenly, the “fresh faces” at every workout station are gone and the only ones around us are the dedicated few who have been visiting the same exercise facility for as long as ourselves. The usage of the influx of new members noticeably begins to decline by the beginning of February. This year, the decrease in attendance is only now becoming apparent. Delayed!
Exercise!
Yet another example of the futility of the new year’s resolutions debacle. Why attempt to introduce positive improvements when the environment is so unproductive? That’s the reason Aaron and I both advocate Spring Resolutions instead of New Year’s Resolutions.
The arrival of Spring itself mystically promises a successful future. The rebirth and return of a new season of both growth and hope enriches most of us to physically undertake something new. The reappearance of warmer weather and the extension of the hour of natural daylight available daily offer us all encouragement.
Treadmill for health!
Improving our lifestyle and quality of life now seems easier and not as overwhelming. The mindset: I can do this! now becomes reality and not a figment of our imagination. Plus, for some mysterious and strange reason, the ice and the snow just suddenly melt away!
Stripping off his pants for Springtime!
Subtle Reminder: Spring, 2024, begins this month: March!
Consider creating a personal list (brief) of Spring Resolutions!
Keeping our resolutions list concise and simple increases our chances for a successful completion! Instead of over-burdening ourselves, focusing on a limited number of improvements enables us to consolidate our energies and to reduce distractions. Two or three successes are better than a dozen failures and guarantee an increase and a stronger self-confidence! A positive attitude empowers productivity and self-growth!
Fitness bar!
The majority of us lack the financial resources for a bare practitioner-accepting and friendly exercise/fitness accommodation. The result is that we have to contend with a textile (clothed) workout. Hopefully, the .gifs offered below provide us with some sort of inspirational incentive to strive for our very best; whether we are bare or wearing athletic gear!
Treadmill preparation!
Treadmill engagement!
Of course, our fitness-seeker (above) is wearing the minimal amount of gear as we all know that his personal preference is for complete nakedness! No matter how enticing our “treadmill-man” may think his exercise uniform appears, our bare practitioner instincts usually always focus on the examples perceived as being in common with our own: nudity!
Confused!
Confused?
Don’t suffer confusion! We’ve already survived leap year day (29 February, 2024), for this calendar year. Now is the time for us to return to an extrahour of daylight daily! Prepare yourselves and plan in advance. This annual phenomenon is now upon us!
Your watch timepiece!
Daylight Savings Time (DST) begins at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, 10 March, 2024!
Officially, this means that at 2:00 a.m., (local time) physically adjust your time-piece (cock, watch, etc.) to 3:00 a.m. Simple? Hopefully! Please remember to adjust the clock in your automobile! Remember: we are bare practitioners! We don’t have the luxury of unzipping your partner’s pants with the intention of “adjusting” his time! As bare practitioners, none of us should be wearing anything!
Friday footnote!
Friday Footnote: Book Recommendation!
TheGuardians is a fiction novel by John Grisham published in 2019. It is based on an actual legal case of an innocent man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Diligent and thoughtful, it brings emphasis to the serious lack of honesty, integrity and justice in our vulnerable judiciary system.
S scenario that a probable majority of us hopes never happens; no matter our personal feelings on the legitimacy of capital punishment. A recommended read to evaluate and explore!
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride
Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, March 11, 2024, and the proposed topic is: “Maschalagnia II!”
The late same gender loving author, E. Lynn Harris
My BRAT-buddy and current best friend, Jay, and I first met one another at a bare practitioner social gathering on Saturday, January 3, 2009. Within minutes after introducing ourselves, we discovered a shared addiction: we’re both E. Lynn Harris dedicated! Perhaps obsessed would be a better description. In just a couple of hours, our introduction became an acquaintanceship that immediately evolved into a friendship that has remained “fast and solid” ever since.
BRAT represents “barely recognized as textile.” An affectionate yet sarcastic invention of Jay’s partner, Raheem, to summarize our unique relationship in today’s extraordinary world. Click the link: BRAT! to read more.
E. Lynn Harris (pictured above) was a noteworthy and popular male same gender loving author who first published in the 1990’s and tragically died in July, 2009. He was the respected talent who opened the door to the Black gay experience for millions no matter their racial heritage, gender or sexual orientation.
Avatar: Jay and Roger meeting!
Jay and I read and discuss books throughout the year – along with our our interests. For the past several years, I have featured some of those titles here. I try to do a post entry in honour of E. Lynn Harris every year during the early summer so to commemorate his birthdate (June 20, 1955) and the date of his death (July 23, 2009). I think he would appreciate this style of recognition as a justified tribute to his devotion to writing and to the reading of books..
The situation is different for this year’s reading. An acquaintance of mine, Rodney Lofton, died earlier this year. We had co-presented sessions on HIV/AIDS prevention education for the Red Cross and he was a novel author in his work. To learn more, click the link:Our Paths Crossed. Please read for more information.
I had not read Rodney’s novel since it was published in 2009. Aaron, my spouse, Jay and Raheem had never read the book at all. So our “reading group” expanded this year to include not only Jay and myself but our “significant others” as well.
Jointly reading naturally!
Jay had read Rodney’s autobiographical work, The Day I Stopped Being Pretty, A Memoir when I sent to him a copy after sharing with him my acquaintance with the recently deceased man. It was after he finished that we agreed to read Lofton’s next novel in honour of E. Lynn Harris. We both believed that Harris would be comfortable in being remembered by the work of a fellow same gender loving African-American male.
Rodney Lofton posing beside his portrait!
A likeness and painting of author and AIDS prevention educator Rodney Lofton is displayed in the lobby of a charity he served. Below is the cover of the book that is the subject of today’s post entry here on ReNude Pride.
Today’s feature cover!
No More Tomorrows is a moving and poignant love story of two men – one, Mark Jones, is HIV positive; the other, Kevin Williams, is HIV negative. It is also the story of same gender loving men living and loving in the era of HIV/AIDS. Author Rodney Lofton, himself diagnosed as HIV+ in the early 1990’s, composed this – his first fiction novel – with both insight and wisdom. This book was published on June 30, 2009.
No More Tomorrows begins at the end. Mark Jones awakes from, another restless and sleepless night that he has endured for weeks. It is when he if fully awake that he realizes that this day is his very last day of life. Twenty years after being diagnosed with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Mark spends his morning reflecting on his life and love of Kevin Williams.
Facing a life of living with HIV, Mark opts to get busy living instead of the direction to get busy dying. Whereas tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us, de decides to host his own “celebration of life” party where he meets Kevin, who becomes the love of his life. Kevin, learning that Mark is living with HIV faces his own dilemma – pursuing his attraction to Mark and “going the distance” with him or avoiding the situation altogether and safely keeping himself uninvolved.
Mark and Kevin: in love!
The subtitle of No More Tomorrows is aptly “Two Lives, Two Stories, One Love.” Kevin and Mark not only commit to a relationship together; they also develop a deep and sincere love for one another. This novel shares their bromance from beginning to end – and beyond.
Throughout the book, Kevin and Mark give their individual perspectives on their relationship and the strong bond and devotion that engulfs them. Lofton’s story is both positive and promising, even as Mark confronts his final day and dedicates a legacy for his love.
No More Tomorrows concludes with Kevin on the first anniversary of Mark’s death. This brief epilogue brings a moment of profound sadness into a celebration of love and smiles – and a tear of joy!
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride
Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, July 25, 2022, and the proposed topic is: “Tan-Lines: Tell-Tale Signs!”
I apologize for this last-minute post entry for today. My first-cousin’s (Michael) soon-to-be spouse, Ropati’s, father died and they had to fly to Tonga (South Pacific – Polynesia) in order to attend his funeral. His death was totally unexpected and the family was frantic trying to organize the service. There was a boating accident that caused his demise.
Michael and Ropati live in Virginia, approximately three hours by automobile from Arlington. They needed care for there dog and her two puppies. I am providing the service for them and Aaron, , my spouse, is continuing with his job in the trauma center.
I had a hasty departure and the posting proposed for today, In Memory of: E. Lynn Harris, will publish this upcoming Friday, July 22, 2022. With all the packing and last-minute tasks, I didn’t have the necessary time to sort through my notes for today’s post entry. I apologize for being caught totally unprepared.
Loading my car!
Since Michael and Ropati departed, I’ve had three trips on the expressway between Arlington and Norfolk, Virginia. As of my last inventory, I think I have all the material that I need in order to complete my post entry for Friday. Again, I regret any inconvenience this situation has created.
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride
Author’s Note: The next post entry for here is planned for Friday, July 22, 2022, and the proposed topic is: “In Memory of: E. Lynn Harris!”
Social nudity is a term often used to describe a social environment or setting where most, if not all, of the interacting (socializing) persons are voluntarily bare or clothes free. It is not to be confused with a situation where nakedness is mandatory or required whether the gathering or assembly is also mandatory or required. Social nudity is a free choice made by all the participants at the event or gathering.
My summer daytime returns to a normal routine of solitude this weekend as my friend, Jay, flies back to his home tomorrow. It was terrific having him here this week and the time passed much too quickly for us both. We did manage to read three of the four of John Grisham’s books on our list – “A Time To Kill,” “The The Pelican Brief,” and “The Client.” We didn’t have the time to read “The Firm” so last night we went to a local bookstore and we each bought a copy to read this weekend – me, bare, riverside and Jay while flying home.
One of my favorite personal past-times of the summertime is always the freedom to read whatever I want in my most comfortable position: bare! It is an activity that can be enjoyed whether alone or in a group of others. It is something that requires very little aside from a book or magazine and a pair of glasses. Of course, sunscreen and a thermos of beverage is necessary and that’s all.
Naked hugs! Yesterday, January 3, 2019, was a very special day for my friend, Jay, and myself. It was the tenth anniversary of the day that we met and for the both of us it seems as though we were the best of friends from the first moment that we met. For those reading here, I’ve written several posts on the circumstances surrounding our first meeting and its aftermath that were posted here last year. In case you missed those posts, I’m offering those links below.
The late E. Lynn Harris was one of my favorite contemporary authors of gay and bisexual fiction. His stories first came to my attention in the early 1990’s and he remains one of my all-time favorite fiction writers to this day, despite his sudden death in the summer of July, 2009. His novels entertained and introduced modern readers to the almost invisible lives of Black same gender loving (gay) and Black dual gender loving (bisexual) men during a time when there were, literally, very few examples of them in any form of print media.
ReNude Pride: Guys Without Boxers! 