"Dr. Lester is a storyteller who weaves notable civil rights leaders, historical events, and personal memories that will keep you turning pages and will serve as a model for the challenge of the diversity, equity and inclusion work that continues to this day."--Story Circle Book Reviews

"This intimate, brave memoir is also one that many women will recognize as their own: a lifetime spent trying to heal others and the world, only to discover one must start with oneself."--Robin Morgan, editor of Sisterhood Is Powerful
"Exceptional. It is a real challenge to write a memoir that is intellectually deep, psychologically
sophisticated, and politically principled that is also engaging, accessible, funny, and tender. Loving before Loving certainly is all that. What a remarkable ride." --Becky Thompson, author of A Promise and a Way of Life
"This book is the real deal, the way it was. A good book for folks to grow on. I love it! Bravo!"--Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple
"Vividly written and profoundly moving, Joan Lester's journey--as wife, mother, activist--is politically insightful and prescient. Since her vigorous and heartfelt observations and analyses are generative and healing, this memoir is needed now when our racial conflicts, always profound, continue to intensify."--Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt