NUMBER 109
You know, it was a pretty good week for me. I managed to get lots of things done. I put two carts of books back on the shelves at the library, wrote down authors names I never heard of or did not know they had a second or third book out. Cleaned up at my second job with Pine Sol and Clorox that I brought myself. They have some version of bleach, but it obviously is not working as well as I want it to and part of the kitchen counters still smell and I can’t stand that. You can enter that place and eat off the floor after I clean. I know, it’s just my obsession, but I pretend that I’m a customer and I want it clean too. I know they try to keep up the cleaning, but with so many customers it can get ignored. That’s why when I arrive, they know to stay out of my way or I will run over them with a cloth filled with soap and wash their mouth out. That’s another reason that when I travel, I bring my own Clorox and clean up the room. Have you ever gone to a hotel and the sheets and bathroom were filthy or not up to standards? Even the most expensive hotels are not as clean as they should be, so I bring my own and spray the hell out of the place then wipe around. It may sound crazy, but the next time you check into a hotel, look around and see for yourself. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are many hotels who do a great job.
This is a weird topic. What the hell was I thinking. On to books. My daughter went to the book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Union Station in DC to have my book, SINNERS AND SAINTS by VICTORIA CHRISTOPHER MURRAY and ReSHONDA TATE BILLINGSLEY - $9.99 Sinners & Saints signed. If you recall, their book is on the Top 100 Black Kindle list. Next Friday, February 3, CARL WEBER AND ERIC PETE - THE FAMILY BUSINESS - $9.99 The Family Business will be at Urban Knowledge Book store in Columbia, SC and I will be there getting 5 books signed for me and my friends. He is so funny.
 |
| Carl Weber Victoria Christopher Murray and the Book Club GrOuPiEs in Atlanta |
The following were nominated for the NAACP Image Award to be shown on TV February 17. I read two of them and I think you will really enjoy reading and be introduced to new authors. Just like the Black Kindle blog does. Give you the best of the best.
My “Romance Woman” writer BRENDA JACKSON - A SILKEN THREAD - $3.74 - A Silken Thread
ELIZABETH NUNEZ - BOUNDARIES - $12.62 - - - In an age of reality TV, a husband and wife cling to Victorian notions of privacy, though doing so threatens the life of the wife. Their daughter, Anna, yearns for her mother's unguarded affection, and eventually learns there is value in restraint. But Anna, a Caribbean American immigrant, finds that lesson harder to accept when, eager to assimilate in her new country, she discovers that a gap yawns between her and American-born citizens.
The head of a specialized imprint at a major publishing house, Anna is soon challenged for her position by an ambitious upstart who accuses her of not really understanding American culture, particularly African American culture. Her job at stake, Anna turns for advice to her boyfriend Paul, a Caribbean American himself, who attempts to convince her that immigrants must accept limitations on their freedom in America.
Told in spare and transcendent prose, Boundaries is a riveting immigrant story, a fascinating look into the world of contemporary book publishing, a beautiful extension of the exploration of family dynamics that began in Nunez's previous novel Anna In-Between, and a heart-warming love story.
ReSHONDA TATE BILLINGSLEY - SAY AMEN, AGAIN - $9.99 - Say Amen, Again
TAYARI JONES - SILVER SPARROW - $8.83 - - - A coming-of-age story of sorts, Jone's melodramatic latest (after The Untelling) 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 Jame'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. For all its concern with the mysteries of the human heart, the book has little to say about the vagaries of what motivates us to love and lie and betray.
My book group met her at the National Book Club Conference in Atlanta and she is a beautiful an intelligent woman with a great and I mean great book.
NELSON GEORGE - THE PLOT AGAINST HIP HOP - $8.77 - The Plot Against Hip Hop
MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY - SISTER CITIZEN: SHAME, STEREOTYPES, AND BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICAN - $15.40 - Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America
RUSSELL SIMMONS and CHRIS MORROW - SUPER RICH: A GUIDE TO HAVING IT ALL - $9.99 - Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All - - -
ELIJAH ANDERSON - THE COSMOPOLITAN CANOPY: RACE AND CIVILITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE - $11.69 - The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life
HILL HARPER - THE WEALTH CURE: PUTTING MONEY IN ITS PLACE - $12.99 - The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place - - - I gave a review last year and thought it presented some good tips on getting your life on track without having lots of money, but lots of positive thinking.
TOURE` and MICHAEL ERIC DYSON - WHO’S AFRAID OF POST BLACKNESS - $11.99 - Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? - - - Toure` is coming to the Savannah Book Festival and for the 85th Anniversary of Charleston’s first free library for African Americans in May.
Got to get one in for Black History Year
PAUL JOHNSON - A LOVELY MURDER DOWN SOUTH - $14.95 Paperback - - - This is a real heart wrenching bloody tale of three young ladies coming of age amongst the hustlers, strippers, lesbians, sexual predators and even a serial killer. Atlanta has never looked so good or felt so bad as Lovely Sinclair and her friends Candace and Joy leave broken hearts and dead bodies in their path to the top. "A Lovely Murder Down South" begins a saga that will change how we view the south and elevate urban literature.
No comments:
Post a Comment