NUMBER 141
“The Sanctuary” (Part Time Job at the Asylum) is the same old same old and I’m getting kind of weary writing about them. There are times I feel like I’m reading an Urban Lit book with more actual drama than I care to continue. I will, though, keep them in my prayers and do my best to help them when I can.
I had promised to let you know of four books I’m reading. I’m so behind on my reading because of the many new projects at my regular job. Recently, I was nominated to become a board member of the Friends of the South Carolina State Library. I’ve also been nominated as Vice President of memberships for the Charleston Friends of the Library. I can’t say no, my heart doesn’t know how when it’s this big. I’m also getting ready for the “Bring Your Child to Work day” in April. Each month I buy little things to put into the kids’ bags, like candy, Pez candy, crayons and such as well as the books. Most of the time I get books from our Friends book sale and Amazon. This year I am hoping again that I can give each kid a Kindle. Yes, I know, what the hell am I thinking!!! I just love to see and hear a kid read. The world in their eyes is overwhelming and beautiful. Can’t give up that dream, can I? So, I’m working as much overtime at both jobs to stay on track with my Dave Ramsey Plan and get these books out to these kids.
Commercial Break: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can really see a small prism of light, just enough to catch my attention. The Dave Ramsey Plan works.
It hurts, Oh! It hurts like hell. After you start though, keep your faith going and keep your prayers coming. Keep an accountability, friend, partner, wife, husband, boy or girl friend to help you. Keep your so called “real friends” at bay. I’m talking about the jackasses who are always buying things they don’t need and then ask you to do the same thing. You can get out of debt and stay out. Once again though, it ain’t freaking easy!!!!
I can’t hang out much with my friends. I’m going to have to limit Book Fair trips. Can’t make it to Houston for the National Black Book Festival and may also miss the National Book Club Conference in Atlanta, but as Dave says, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” I’m going to make it and make it BIG!!!
Now on to books (My third love after GOD and my kid). Remember in December I reviewed NICOLE DUNLAP – MISS NOBODY (SHAW FAMILY SAGA) - - - Miss Nobody: Shaw Family Saga, Book 1, she contacted me on her next book. It’s seventh heaven to be contacted by authors and a real respect to post their books. From the last book, Charlene, who gave up her daughter to her Aunt and Uncle in order for her to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, is still haunted by it and beginning to realize how damaged she has caused and how much she will eventually have to face. Her daughter, Raven, begins her search for the mother who abandoned her, gets pregnant around the same age as her mother was when she had her and has to face the baby’s father whose family secrets may or may not hurt the baby. The loving Aunt and Uncle, who raised Raven, got some dirty secrets of their own. You know secrets will surface. They always do and it’s only a matter of time before all of the secrets begin to unravel and I’m sure there will be more. Here’s the next book and a synopsis from the author:
A mother’s love vs A daughter’s revenge. Charlene Shaw has gone through hell. She was raped and left for dead, yet she continued on her quest for fame. She’s a beautiful, desired actress who has found her Mr. Wright. According to the magazine headlines, her life is perfect. There’s just one thing her heart cries for…her daughter, Raven. This might be her hardest challenge yet building a mother-daughter bond she’s prayed so hard for.
Raven Shaw has been abandoned by love. Her mother preferred Hollywood and her childhood best-friend, now ex-lover, disappeared when she became pregnant. Now, she’s adjusted to a “new” kind of love…motherhood. She’s determined that her daughter will have everything she didn’t. The only thing she wants for herself is revenge, even if it means disconnecting from a small piece of her heart that still cares. Raven’s acts of rage slither into her mindset, overpowering her in the form of nightmares and delusions of skeletons long dead.
After Raven’s scandalous ways, can Charlene mend Raven’s heart or will she be pulled down into the abyss? And then, there’s always the option, Charlene can get a little scandalous too!!!
Check out Nicole's website for more on this and her other books - - - nicoledunlap.com
Got to get one in for Black History Year
BERNICE L. McFADDEN - SUGAR: A NOVEL - $12.99 - - - I finally found my copy of this book. I looked for it when I read something about it from the NPR website. Will get to reading it very soon.
Quote from Publisher Weekly, “With her eponymous anti-heroine, debut novelist McFadden breaks the mold of a venerable stereotype. Here, the hooker with a heart of gold is instead a hooker with a past so tarnished no amount of polishing can change her fate. As a baby, Sugar is abandoned by her mother and raised by a trio of prostitutes who run an Arkansas bordello. Turning tricks at age 12, and leaving town four years later to try her luck in St. Louis and then Detroit, brings more degradation, along with an ever-hardening heart. Upon her mother's death in 1955, Sugar is willed a modest home in Bigelow, Ark., but when she moves into town, and supports herself the only way she knows, the female population raises in wrath against her.
All except Pearl, Sugar's next-door neighbor, who more than a decade ago lost her beloved daughter, Jude, to a vicious rapist/murderer. Pearl is struck by Sugar's uncanny likeness to Jude, and is determined to become Sugar's friend in spite of vocal disapproval. Although the two women are opposites in nearly every way, they bring out the best in each other: Sugar convinces Pearl to loosen up and accompany her to a Saturday night juke joint, and Sugar promises to go to church for two months of Sundays. Hypocritical gossip spreads among the townsfolk and tension grows when it turns out that nearly every married man in Bigelow pays a visit to Sugar, leaving the apparently frigid wives planning to run Sugar out of town.
Pearl gives it her best shot to transform Sugar, but both women's painful pasts come back to haunt them in a crescendo of violent reenactments, betrayals and surprising revelations leading to a poignant, bittersweet ending. Readers will appreciate Sugar's determination to come to terms with her past and fashion a viable future".
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