Linda Scallion Bell of Little Rock will review, “The Wind in My Hair,” by Saliva Salam at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 1.
The event will be held in the fellowship hall at First Baptist Church, 6501 S. Hazel St. The public is invited to attend. Door prizes and refreshments will be furnished.
Bell spent her entire career teaching social studies in junior high and high school in the Pulaski County School District, according to a news release.
She was born at Little Rock, the daughter of the late Homer and Mary Ellen Scallion.
She graduated from Hall High School and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Since retirement, Bell has been active in the local Travel Century Club and traveled to more than 150 countries.
Vice president of the Central Arkansas Iris Society, Bell’s entry won first place in the 2018 American Iris Society Show. Bell also serves as a master judge of Iris shows throughout the United States, according to the release.
A member of the “Hot Legs Running Club, Bell runs in the Senior Olympics and the Arkansas Prix Series.
The book to be reviewed, Salwa Salam’s memoir, “The Wind in My Hair,” is a look at the power of the human spirit.
“Salam, a Palestinian woman, along with her entire family was uprooted from her home and forced to flee in the Nakba of 1948 when she was just eight years old,” according to the release. “Intelligent, political, and determined she lived in several middle eastern countries — Damascus, Kuwait, and Vienna — before settling in Italy. In spite of the many obstacles she faced (sexism, racism, and xenophobia) she never settled for second-class status.”
While dying with cancer, Salam began writing her memoir.
“It begins with words that immediately identify and endear her to the reader as sensitive to the small and eternal beauties and joys of life, particularly her own life at that moment. Given her condition and relatively young age, these intimate words are both stirring and wrenching … She tells her life with meticulous and astonishing detail, relating her own feelings about family and friends from childhood on, sibling relationships and family difficulties alongside the historical events of the time,” according to the release.