Black Kindle - Pat Tucker & Chinua Achebe

NUMBER 144

Is that a title or what - Pat Tucker - Urban Lit and Chinua Achebe - Literature at it's finest!!!  

I returned all of the books to the library from last month.  Then I turned around to gather more to borrow.  When I got to the register, I was told that I owed $40.00 “Damn, did I owe that much in overdue fees?” I said to myself, not out loud.  I do remember paying on line $2.60, but did not think I owed that much.  Come to find out that this is the yearly fee you pay when you live out of the county.  I live in Berkeley and the library is in Charleston county.  I did remember that, but forgot my year was up.  Oh, well, I will have to wait until payday and see if it is on my “Dave Ramsey” budget. You know I was heartbroken, but I got to stick to the budget to get out of DEBT!!! forever!!!

Now you know what I mean when I say, it is damn, ding, dong hard to stay on this financial plan.  You should only buy “needs” not “wants” and it’s hard when I love to buy books and more books.  That’s why I started using the library more, to get my weekly “drug fix.”  So, I’m forced to go to the local library around the corner from me.  It’s small with an older selection of books.  You won’t find many urban or street lit and not a large selection of African American, but they do have a pretty good selection of books published in the early 90s.  That’s OK, since I will read anything.  Every once in a while, the library will have the newest fiction/non-fiction on the small bookshelf by the entrance, not many copies, but enough. 

Who I don’t like working in the library are the two “old, white women, with dry blue hair flying with a "I'm still living during the confederacy and going to stay in that era attitude.”  I have nothing against anyone being “old.”  I hope I make it that far and father, but these two remind me of “Gone with the wind” characters still living the dream that the confederate will rise again in the South, "give me a break.”  They just don’t get it and on top of moving slow and still using paper to write everything down, their computer knowledge is not much better.  “The old biddies!”  That’s OK, I faced a few times and don’t mind facing them again.  I will get what I want and will ensure they understand that “DC (Me) is in the House” and will not take any crap from them.  I did write a few letters to the county about how they treat minorities and how the selection should be updated and for god sake, get with the program and lend books on the kindle.  

When I went back in there, after my "money failure" the "old biddies" were moved to the back.  There are more computers (boy, do libraries need computers) and a better selection of books.  I have since heard that I was not the only complaint about those women.  Some one must have finally listen.  Until I get my $40.00, will just have to walk to the local library.  That's good thing.  It will help me decrease my smoking and increase my walking.  

On to my books-oh-Rama!!!

I get emails, notices, etc from home (DC) on author sightings, book fairs, etc.  If I’m not able to attend, I get my kid and her dad (who is a professional photographer) to go, take pictures and get me a goodies bag.  They attended the “A Social Affair” with Authors Earl Sewell and Pat Tucker” given by the Sweet Soul Sisters Book Club in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.  Also promoted by my one of my favorite authors, ZANE.  My package just came in the mail and I got the book autographed by both authors with a goodies bag filled with advertisements, candy, etc.  Can’t wait to start reading it, but first I must catch up with my other reading, just too many damn books and not enough time.  I need to retire and marry and very rich man!!!! so that I can have as much time as I want.  Keep dreaming, huh!

I met Pat Tucker at the National Black Book Festival in Houston 2 years ago and brought her book, Daddy by Default (Zane Presents) - $7.59 - - - The gist of it, when bad and stupid woman try to get away with tricking men with the “baby momma” drama and the kids ain’t even theirs.

PAT TUCKER and EARL SEWELL - A SOCIAL AFFAIR: A NOVEL (ZANE PRESENTS) - $9.73 - - - Bored with her humdrum married life, (Is that the theme of 2013?  Everyone is bored with their marriage?  According to what’s playing on TV.  I have seen so many books, TV shows (don’t have a TV, but do see the comments and such on the Internet, getting down and dirty with damn near 

everyone.  Whoa!! what the hell is going on?) thirty-two-year-old Codi Norman is searching for excitement. After teaming up with her best friend, Katina, Codi discovers that the Internet offers both money and an escape from her earthly life. In cyberspace anything is possible, and that is what Codi loves most.

While online, she meets a charming and handsome man named Quinn Hamilton. Sparks fly and the two begin a torrid affair with unpredictable consequences. But their virtual lives collide with reality when their spouses discover their illicit relationship.

A Social Affair: A Novel (Zane Presents)

Got to get one in for Black History Year

CHINUA ACHEBE - THINGS FALL APART - $9.99 - - - My GOD, I read this book while in college.  It was required reading and from my understanding, it still is.  He you want to listen to him, go to NPR - Remembering China Achebe and the Importance of Struggle from 1988.  He will be remembered not by what he did, but by what we have learned.

If you don’t remember, here's a clip from Amazon.  “Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.”