Loving vs. Virginia Credit: Courtesy of Chronicle Books

By now you know the story, right? It was a movie, too — but it was real life first, best captured in this book. Before I sent this to my mom, I read it through. I didn't expect to read the whole thing — I'd just returned from a book conference and had, no joke, eight tote bags of books to go through, but Loving vs. Virginia kept my interest.

We reviewed the movie last year, but the book, as you might suspect, goes deeper and tells more of the story. We won't rehash the whole thing, but here's the gist: A black woman and a white man get married, except it's illegal for them to live together. There's jail time and cops who are truly racist militants and, even though the Loving family (yes, that's their name) didn't intend to, they became civil rights heroes.

And here's my mom's typical short but sweet review:

Everyone needs to read this true story, especially people who didn't live in a time when mixed marriages were illegal in most states. Excellent writing, great illustrations, informative reprints of history.

I read this in one day and hated to put it down at meal times.

Be sure to read this book yourself.

This article appears in Jun 8-15, 2017.