NUMBER 104
Now, back to the story of the “freaking up Christmas with my part-timers.” Let me make a correction, the party was December 17, not this past weekend.
After the book club meeting with JAMES W. LEWIS, author of the second book, SELLOUT - $2.99; I asked my friend to join me at the party. I go home and reheat the dish for the party and drive on down to the store. My friend is texting me and asking where am I, but of course I don’ t read it because I am driving. When I turned the corner of the street where the store is, I don’t see anyone and it looks as if it’s closed for the night.
I drive around and park right next to my friend who proceeds to tell me that two of the co-workers closed the store and left. So I stated, “you mean they left?” “Yes, and they said hi to me because they know I’m your friend.” Well, we get out of our cars and stood in front of the store. I’m thinking, maybe I got the wrong store or place and re-checked my phone. No, the text does say 8:30pm at the store. Maybe everyone is just late.
My friend and I continue to stand there and after about 15 minutes, I call the co-worker who had just left and ask where is she. She stated she was on her way back with her sister, but they left to pick up a friend. Then she asked if anyone was there, I said no, but will call her back in 10 minutes since she is coming back. We are still standing there and it’s getting cold outside and another 20 minutes go by. Remember, the party started at 8:30pm and it’s now 9:15 pm and nobody, I mean no got damn body has shown up. Oh, I’m not mad, I’m just thinking once again the manager, who has a bad reputation of lying has lied again. When I check my phone, after I call another co-worker who did not answer the phone, I see another text from the manager stating that when she left work earlier, she was not feeling well and went to the hospital. The hospital wanted to keep her overnight, so she would not be making it.
It is now 9:30 and still not a got damn soul showed up. I’m standing here with my friend, a hot dish and a Christmas card with money. “Sorry I say to my friend, let’s go and sit and enjoy coffee at Starbucks, my treat.” She asked me was I going to leave the food in my car. I wasn’t going to do that so I took it two doors down and gave it to the guys working late over there. I took the Christmas card out of my pocket, tore the card up and pocketed the money. What kind of freaking, bull dozier crap was that?
Oh, you know the next day, after church, I returned to the scene of the crime. Lord and behold, the manager was there and told me that she told them at the hospital that she could not stay overnight and went home at 2am in the morning to be at work at 6am. Now, do you believe that shit?!!! I did not and still don’t. The other co-worker who “went to get a friend” and she just happened to be my “secret santa” told me and the manager that next year she was going to make everyone come or have their pay docked. Do they really think I’m the most ignorant person on this earth? I said nothing, just went on my business, worked and left for home. Happy that I donated the food and kept that money in my pocket instead of giving it to ungrateful, stupid, don’t read, lying ass people. I cannot believe the utter disrespect to me. If no one wanted to have a party, they should have just cancelled it. I did not need to waste my damn money or time. But you know what? I’m just going to pray for them and spend the money on books, hahaha!
Here are the books I brought. Some I brought two or three paperbacks to give away. Now, that’s spending my “hard earned, part time killing myself to get out of debt and stay out of debt butt.” It’s OK, it all comes out right at the end. Freaking nuts!!!
ALICIA SINGLETON - DARK SIDE OF VALOR: A SUSPENSE NOVEL - $9.99 - - - Lelia Freeman created a life for herself after growing up homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. When the horror has passed, Lelia vows to make a better life. Now, Lelia spends her life trying to save children. As the director of ChildSafe Shelters, she is summoned to Washington and asked to serve on a committee that aids the children of a war-torn African nation. Life takes a dramatic turn when Lelia uncovers terrible corruption and is kidnapped for her knowledge. Her fate is in the hands of Elijah Dune, a mercenary stuck in the past. Haunted by the loss of his daughter, Elijah is the only one who can save Lelia, but he believes she is to blame for his daughter’s death.
TAYARI JONES - SILVER SPARROW - Kindle - $1.99 and Paperback $11.04 - - - I brought two of her books for friends.
A coming-of-age story of sorts, Jones'sUntelling) chronicles the not-quite-parallel lives of Dana Lynn Yarboro and Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon in 1980s Atlanta. Both girls-born four months apart-are the daughters of James Witherspoon, a secret bigamist, but only Dana and her mother, Gwen, are aware of his double life. This, Dana surmises, confers "one peculiar advantage" to her and Gwen over James's other family, with whom he lives full time, though such knowledge is small comfort in the face of all their disadvantages. Perpetually feeling second best, 15-year-old Dana takes up with an older boy whose treatment of her only confirms her worst expectations about men. Meanwhile, Chaurisse enjoys the easy, uncomplicated comforts of family, and though James has done his utmost to ensure his daughters' paths never cross, the girls, of course, meet, and their friendship sets their worlds toward inevitable (and predictable) collision. Set on its forced trajectory, the novel piles revelation on revelation, growing increasingly histrionic and less believable.
VICTORIA CHRISTOPHER MURRAY - THE DEAL, THE DANCE, AND THE DEVIL - $9.99 (another one I brought two books from my “Christmas fiasco Party in paperback $7.48) - - - What would you do for five million dollars? Adam and Evia Langston have lived in their own little garden of Eden since the two married at the age of seventeen. Working their way up from the humblest of beginnings, the Langston’s have thrived beyond anything they could have ever imagined. Now they live in the finest home, drive the best cars, and indulge in all the trimmings that signify their massive success, but then the recession hits and rips apart the family’s financial stability. Unable to support their three children and other relatives, Adam and Evia find themselves drowning in financial trouble and teetering on the brink of complete disaster. With nowhere to turn, the Langston’s have no idea what to do. Until Shay-Shaunté, Evia’s multimillionaire boss, comes to the Langston’s with a five-million-dollar offer that seems so hard to refuse. Will the Langston’s make this deal? Or will they recognize that the glitter of five million dollars may be far from gold? Sounds like that movie, Indecent Proposal, with Demi Moore and Robert Redford.
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE - PURPLE HIBISCUS - $7.93 Paperback - - - Fifteen-year-old Kambili's world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home.
When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father's authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways. This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.
ESTHER LAMNYAM - LOVE UNDER THE KOLA NUT TREE - - - $9.99 - - - A devastating accident brings to light a long-kept secret that now threatens to tear apart a family. When 5-year-old Micah Walker is hit by a car, the esteemed Dr. Morgan discovers that the boy’s father is not his biological parent. Find out how an act of infidelity opens onto a mystical path of spiritual awakening in a new, unconventional romance novel. After marital counseling fails, a visiting African queen begins to teach the Walkers and their friends also experiencing heart wrenching relationship drama laws and secrets of nature and ancient truths concerning men and women. These laws are constant, can’t be plea bargained, or manipulated. It is a journey that branches onto unexpected paths. This spiritual quest leads the queen to Dr. Morgan, who has a secret of his own that will restore the balance of power between men and women.
LOVE UNDER THE KOLA NUT TREE. What City Moms Didn't Tell You About Creating Fulfilling Relationships
Let’s get out of the “mad-men” mood and start thinking now, before the new year begin, more positive. It’s going to be a great new year, you’ll see!!
JAMES ALLEN - AS A MAN THINKETH - FREE - - - As a Man Thinketh" reveals how our thoughts determine reality. Whether or not we are conscious of it, our underlying beliefs shape our character, our health and appearance, our circumstances, and our destinies. Allen shows how we can master our thoughts to create the life we want.
Got to stick on one for Black History Year.
LAWRENCE HILL - THE BOOK OF NEGROES - $19.99 - Paperback - - - Kidnapped as a child from Africa, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned freedom in Nova Scotia. But the hardship and prejudice there prompt her to follow her heart back to Africa, then on to London, where she bears witness to the injustices of slavery and its toll on her life and a whole people. It is a story that no listener, and no reader, will ever forget.
MARILYN HERBERT - Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses The Book of Negroes / Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill: The Complete Guide for Readers and Leaders (Book Club in a Box: The Complete Package for Readers and Leaders) - $6.39 - - -
The history and terror of black slavery has been well documented in literature and film. Lawrence Hill’s new book doesn’t lessen the awfulness of the times, but adds a unique human dimension. Hill has created an uplifting and highly educational story about a shameful part of history. The Book of Negroes is sold in the United States under the title, Someone Knows My Name. Aminata Diallo was born free in Africa in the eighteenth century. She had a rich and lovely childhood until the day she was captured by slave traders and marched off to the coast in chains. Along with thousands of others, Aminata was destined for North America as a slave to white owners. She was eleven years old. Hill tracks Aminata’s story through the circle of her life. We travel with her to South Carolina, New York, Nova Scotia, London (England), and even to Freetown in Sierra Leone. Each step of the way, we learn about the horrors and immorality of slavery. As we look at and listen to these diminished people, we observe how they courageously work at overcoming the psychological hardships and limitations imposed by their imprisonment. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.
RACHELLE ROGERS KNIGHT - READ, REMEMBER, RECOMMEND: A READING JOURNAL FOR BOOK LOVERS - (That’s me all the way!!!) - - Spiral-bound - $10.87
MARY ANN SHAFFER AND ANNIE BARROWS - THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PIE SOCIETY - $10.00
This book is not by an African American, but two white women, and one died recently. So please do not get the impression that you don’t need to read this book because its not “black,” it still represents a time in our history, as in slavery, that evil roomed and it was stopped because “good men/women did do something to stop evil.”
There are always books that make you angry, hurtful, pissed beyond pissed and then turn you around with so much love and positive admiration, you wonder if you could ever live through what they had to live through. It’s not slavery, but it’s close, damn close, memories told thru letters of survival, death, heartache, lies, and so much hurt during at the end of World War 2 with remembrances of the Holocaust. Don’t think you may not be able to read it because it deals with so much evilness, it’s the power of Juliet and the people she writes to and about and they write back of their spiritual and mental power to love and forgive.
I started reading this book on a Friday and did not leave my house for anything until I found out who survived and who found love and compassion. One particular character that I cried and cried over, gave her life to stop a Nazi jerk from beating her friend because she needed to go to the bathroom and take care of a feminine nature. My heart got filled with so much anger and a few letters later it got filled with so much love. I’m still reading it over and over again to just keep that compassion and love in my heart for everyone. Please, please read it. Books can change your life and this one will also.
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