Sunday, February 26, 2012

Black Kindle is on a roll!!


NUMBER 112 
I am aware that I have not mentioned Whitney Houston in my blog so here I go. I’m hearing about  her life, death, and unfortunately a picture of her in the casket (which I refuse to even think or search for anywhere).  What kind of damn fool would do that?  God, I hope it’s not true (Crazy, just freaking crazy!!).  Everyone and their grandmothers are blogging, writing, picture taking, etc.  It’s time to let that woman rest in peace and let her family grieve in peace.  End of story from me.
I have not been able to catch up with my reading.  I’ve even been away from the volunteer work at the library.  I haven’t stalked anyone about books. I’m not hounding, dragging, kicking and screaming, and pushing books like drug dealers on the corner, and it’s unusual for me.  I am messing up my reputation.  I mean my God, what will people think?  I got to get back on track.
As promised from so many e-mailers, I am returning to the “Drama at Part Time Job in Asylum” story.  It may help if you know the characters and, no I am not using their real names.  It won’t help any old way.  You know these people.  You have seen, heard, worked or even lived with them.  The story is always the same and the outcome may be different by person, but really, come on.  When do they get it?  That’s what I’m wondering, when do they get it?  Never, and I really don’t think they want too.  It’s hard to live in the United States and it’s even harder now without decent jobs.  I understand what they are going thru.  I’ve been there and then I listened because I did not want to drown in that life.  They, to me, are trying, but there are days and stories where I just literally, go, “What the hell are you thinking?”
Let’s get to the characters. Kat is a lovely and somewhat heavy set white woman who is either married, divorced or living with black husband and their two children.  Since I met her a year ago, she has always been very kind and nice to me and knows I have a full time job and cannot always be there.  There are many times where she forgets it.  I have heard stories about domestic abuse from the others at the job concerning her husband, but I have no proof, but I will not judge either way.  I have seen him a few times and I do not particularly like him, he looks sneaky, but I have never seem him be disrespectful to her and their kids and he has always been polite to all us.  I just get a creepy feeling when I see him.  Maybe its stories I’m hearing or maybe he’s really creepy.  I’m still thinking on that.  She is not what I would consider a great leader or boss because she has allowed some of the employees to take complete advantage of her and her lack of gumption.  If you came into this place you would want it clean and not see someone sitting there, with their butt on the sugar container or chatting away on the phone.  I know I have no say so, but I do mention it to her many times and obviously, she knows it but won’t do anything about it.  She is the one who texted and texted me over and over again about the Christmas party, but she was admited to hospital and I never really found out why.  She has a tendency to lie about everything.  She even lied about having breast cancer.  Now, that is really sick and stupid.   Will continue over the next few blogs about my peeps at the part time job.  It get's better or maybe you would think worse.  On to books. 

RM JOHNSON - DECEIT AN DEVOTION - $11.99 - - - I have been a fan of RM since his first book, THE HARRIS MEN - The Harris Men, which is out of print at the moment, but while you are shopping around at used book stores or go to your local library and get a copy.  It is not necessary to start from the beginning, this story will catch you up.  And be sure to check out his other books. 
When Nate Kenny convinces Daphanie Coleman to sign over custody of her newborn baby to the father, his ex-wife, Monica, vows to help the young woman. But Monica is still recovering from a gunshot to the head that put her in a coma. Daphanie hires Austin Harris to help win her baby back, but divorced and lonely, Austin falls for Monica and tries to pull her into a relationship, one she is reluctant to start.  Meanwhile, Caleb Harris, Austin’s brother, must pay back a loan shark to save his family from home eviction. But debt isn’t his only problem, his son has fallen deeper and deeper into crime. And as Daphanie struggles to win back her child, she must decide whether or not she will live by the rules of a man she despises in order to stay in her child’s life.

Mz. ROBINSON - WHAT WE WON’T DO FOR LOVE  (LOVE, LIES & LUST SERIES) - $2.99 - - - This is a series of books and I have not read it yet, but I am always willing to give any African American author a try.  Hey, I also like romance with a little bit of drama in it.  It keeps the story going.

Octavia Ellis is a sexy and independent woman who plays it safe when it comes down to relationships. She lives by one rule: keep it strictly sexual. Octavia is living her life just the way she wants. No man. No issues. No drama. When she meets the handsome Damon Whitmore, everything changes. Octavia soon finds that Damon has become a part of her world and her heart. However, when temptation comes in the form of a sexy- hardcore thug named, Beau, Octavia finds herself caught in a deadly love triangle. She soon learns in life and love, there are no rules and she’s surprised at what she herself, will not do for love.
Mz. ROBINSON - MARRIED TO HIS LIES (LOVE, LIES & LUST SERIES) - $2.99 - - - Shontay Holloway is as faithful as they come when it comes to her husband, Kenny. For eight years she's been his support system physically and financially. She's managed to overlook the fact that he's a woman chaser and even turned the other cheek when he got another woman pregnant. Shontay would rather work it out with Kenny than start fresh with someone new. She's not satisfied but she is content. Is there really a difference? Shontay doesn't think so, but that soon changes when she meets Savoy Breedwell.
Savoy is charming, successful, and has sex appeal oozing from every inch of his body. Shontay is intrigued and captivated by Savoy. Shontay finds herself torn between her vows and the man she's falling for. When tragedy strikes, Shontay learns that the love she thought her husband had for her is nothing more than a cover up for his true intentions. She becomes a woman on a mission. When she's finished, "Till death do us part" may have a whole new meaning.
Mz. ROBINSON - THE LIES WE TELL FOR LOVE  (LOVE, LIES & LUST SERIES) - $2.99 - - - Damon Whitmore is a true go-getter who will stop at nothing to get what he desires. His wife Octavia was no exception. When Damon first saw Octavia he knew he had to have her. He went through great lengths until his mission was accomplished. Now, two years later, he and Octavia share a wonderful and lavish life together. Damon exceeded all of Octavia’s expectations while managing to keep his secrets of deceit and manipulation hidden but what’s done in the dark eventually comes to light and Damon’s lies are slowly beginning to unravel.
When a face from Damon’s past re-surfaces, Damon finds himself facing a life alerting dilemma that could cause him to lose the very thing he fought so hard to build; his family with Octavia. Damon refuses to lose and he’ll stop at nothing, including murder, to keep his family in tact.
Octavia Ellis-Whitmore never thought she would be a one man woman. Living by a no strings attached policy, she kept her encounters with men strictly sexual. When she met Damon everything in her world changed. Octavia opened her heart and fell hard for Damon. Octavia is now living and loving her life to the fullest. However, history has a way of repeating itself and temptation has a way of finding Octavia. When things at home begin to get rocky, Octavia finds herself struggling between remaining true to the vows she pledged to Damon and exploring her feelings for a new and mysterious stranger, a stranger who has a startling connection to Damon and his past.
As the drama unfolds, lies and secrets will be exposed and lines will be crossed on both ends. How far will Damon and Octavia go to protect each other from the other’s transgressions and how many will fall victim to the lies that have been spun in the name of love?
Got to get one in for Black History Year
I recently partnered with Open Road Media.  Which is a company that connects bloggers, like myself and authors as well as their audiences to get you interested in reading and buying more books (That’s my mantra).  I have a few items to share with you over the next few months.  Some, of course, on Black History Month, and as you are aware, I celebrate Black History all year.  We can never get enough of any history.  When you don’t learn from the past, you will repeat the mistakes again and again and not learn what’s important, really important.  Take a look at my first outting and let me know what you think.  Hey, remember to tell your friends about my blog, it’s great for One Dollar a month on Amazon.  What a Deal!!

Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alice Walker, Virginia Hamilton, and others speaking about the importance of storytelling in African American history:
       

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Black Kindle got sick and tired!!! But healthy now!!

Number 111
I know, I know I’m late in blogging.  Sorry about that.  I have been working overtime at both jobs.  Those “Christmas Fiasco People” are at it again, but I will get to that later.
On Friday, Feb 3, I drove to Columbia, SC to see Carl Weber and Eric Pete talk and sign their latest collaboration, The Family Business - The Family Business - $8.98.  I am a huge, huge fan of Carl Weber’s books.  He has the funniest and most Dram-0-Rama books around.  You don’t even believe the stories even after you have read them.  He should be writing reality TV and that’s when I will go back to paying for cable and watch. 
But let me take a few steps back and tell you that when I arrived at the Mall, it took me a while to find it and I noticed the neighborhood and how destitute and somewhat poor it appeared.  Laundromats, liquor stores, small (aren’t they always) Hispanic restaurants and/or stores and a Mall that looks like it has definitely seen better days.  I realize that the economy's down turn has flipped many stores out, but this mall appears to have gone from a thriving economic money maker to a BET/MTV booty call romper room.  Got in the Mall and noticed on the right, a booty call store.  You know, the one with tight and short with your breasts spilling out dresses.  Five inch high heels in the window display with the wildest colors.  The BET store on the left with the same style but less color in clothes, more of a MTV store.  Directly in front of me was the largest weaves-wigs-hair colors-jewelry for your ears, toes, nails, teeth that I have ever seen.  This is a three stores wide area run and owned by the Asian guy who approached me when I entered the store and said hi.  Every type of Beyonce, Rihanna, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, etc. hair you can buy.  Wigs, human or synthetic hair and/or weaves to plait, glue or sew in that’s out there.  It was unbelievable.  Hell, even I brought a wig from there.  Scary!!


I came back outside of the store and saw about 10 young black men with their pants way down, not the usual hanging around your checks a little, but way damn near down their knees showing off, I hope they were washed, Calvin Klein under wares.  I had hoped they were waiting for Carl/Eric since I was just a few feet away from the Urban Knowledge book store. I thought I was late and would run into a long line, but no, they were just hanging around a kiosk that was selling cell phone covers.  


When I entered the book store, half an hour before they arrived, I was the only one and was disappointed.  The store is roomy and the books are well placed and some were on display with the book cover only.  Obviously they are worried about theft.  But the biggest eye opener to me and something I have noticed for many years at other book stores, is that their books were selling two for $10.00 or three for $25.00.  That’s good at times to lure people into your store, but it also means the store is not making enough money and not enough black folks are buying there.  Carl did mention during this talk that he owned the store and wanted to remind everyone to please support it.  Many were surprised that he owned the store, and I was surprised that they did not know.  The store provided a nice brunch for the patrons and one particular lady whose weaved hair style was a circular plait sitting on top of her head with a long plait hanging down her back.  It was either glued or pinned on top because she has pulled her hair back for so long, her hair line was bald and 2 inches back from her face.  She approached me when she saw I had 8 books in my hands, five of them The Family Business and ask if I would give her one of them, then she laugh after I said no and that these were for me and my friends.  She said she was joking, don’t you think because I’m sure it would have looked like a Atlanta Housewives fight of the century if she was not joking. 


Why was this particular woman bothering me, because she continued getting up to get more food when Carl and Pete talked and did not buy one damn book?  She came with two friends,  an older woman with short, lightly blond hair cut and very beautiful in the face when she smiled; the other, with Diana Ross weaved hair, but it was noticeably done well, with a beautiful smile.  I did talked to those two woman was impressed that they did read one or two of his books and I managed to persuade them to buy his others.  Mrs. plait was just another disappointed black person who pissed me off because she came to eat and not buy one book, not even the three dollars one.  Of course she brought that plait from the large wig store next door.  Pissed me the hell off. 
After the talk and Carl and Pete signed my books, I left Columbia and told the clerk that I would be back next month to buy another one hundred dollars worth of books.  You guys who are my paid subscribers are helping me do that and bring back those book to so many people and I thank you a gazillion times.  You don’t  realize how much I do appreciate it.  Tell your friends about my blog and tell me what you think too.
On to books:
BRENDA JACKSON - THE WESTMORELAND MEN - Books 1 thru 5 - $9.32. Books 6 thruthru 15 - $9.32.  I have been drained beyond drained and could not get the strength to get up and work the holiday weekend.  I decided I needed a break from the jobs, people, shopping for food (just ate what was in the freezer.  I need to clean that freezer one day, I found stuff and it wasn’t pretty!!!).  What I did was re-read all of the Westmoreland books.  Just fell luxuriously into my dream man of the season and exhale.   I got hooked when a friend of mine was asking me to order these books for her and her mother. What the hell is she ordering these books for? Why is there such an obsession with these men? Damn, I found out. Start with the first one, Delaney’ Desert Sheik. I know, I know, Harlequin/Silhouette Romance!!! Please, aren’t’ those the old ones where by the time the girl/guy get together, it’s the end of the book and they are just kissing, yuck!!! Get Ms. Jackson (If you’re nasty), she gets to the point from the beginning. Why wait.
JAMES BALDWIN - IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK - Paperback Used - $3.50 or $10.04 
This is another book I got back over and over again.  Baldwin was and still is the best African American writer on this planet.
Tish and Fonny, young, African Americans are trying so very hard to get a decent job, marry and get a home. They are young and in love in the 1970s New York, which was extremely hard for a black man accused of rape. I will always believe to this day that he did not do it, but this book takes you thru the hell both families go thru to get him out of jail. You've heard it before, her family is supportive and his family is sort of supportive, but his black father had his own hard time. This book, which was written in 1974, should still be read today by young African American boys/men to, hopefully, finally, help them realize that no matter what decade it is, being black is still hard without family, but with support, we can pull through any hell. I know I did. 
HARRIET ANN JACOBS INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL 
WRITTEN BY HERSELF - Free 
A few years ago, in my English class, this was a required reading assignment. I usually know all of the Black history books and their authors, but this was the first time I read her book. It did not feel like a history book, but a good story of how life actually was during slavery and how she survived. There were small hiccups that I did not quire understand. Selling her virginity for freedom, but in those days, did you have a choice? There are, of course, those who treated her like all were treated during that time, but she kept on going. Just like my grandmother did during her time and just like me. This is one of the few books from a woman from that time period who was actually able to record her life. 


Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

MICHELE ANDREA BOWEN - CHURCH FOLK - $9.99
I read this book last year and started looking for her other books. This reminds me of Payton Place for Black folks (For those of you who do not know Payton Place, see the movie with Lana Tuner (Yeah, I know, she’s white), but the movie is good. Essie Lee Lane marries a good preacher. A man who has to deal with sex, greed, politics and bad behavior from members of the Greater Hope Gospel United Church (Long name I know!). You know how we are in church and Bowen’s writing put it out there. A pretty funny book too!
CARL WEBER - TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS - $7.64 - - - Another I read last year and when I saw him in Columbia, SC, I went back again.  Cannot get enough of this writer.  All I can say is, Damn! Damn! I finally did read the prior book, BIG GIRLS DO CRY - $6.09 - Big Girls Do Cry and I’m still shaking my head over and over again.  Man, that Loraine, Leon, and Michael had me up all night trying to get to the end. The bona fide character in the book is Jerome. That mother will have you laughing and pissing your ass off at the same time. I brought a copy for a girl at work and I said to her, “Tell me what you think about Jerome?” That was Monday. By Wednesday morning, the girl was begging for more Carl Weber. I tell you that damn book had me going. 


Torn Between Two Lovers

PAMELA SAMUELS YOUNG - THE SETUP - $1.49 - - - I love, love me some Mrs. Samuels Young.  This woman knows how to write a mystery just as good as Mr. John Grishman.  I call her “The Black Woman John Grishman.”  At no time are you disappointed by the story and plot.  It will take you there no matter what.
When a star running back is gunned down by a cop with a questionable history, the city of L.A. is on the verge of a racial explosion. Enter a lawyer who comes to the cop's defense, but a desire for justice has nothing to do with it.
GOT TO GET ONE IN FOR BLACK HISTORY YEAR - Found me a new black mystery writer.  Let’s give him a try and put him on our “Black History Year”   The books sounds like The Godfather with a twist.  I got my copies, do you have yours?
BARRY DAVIS - SWEETS (SWEETS MAYBREY) - $4.99 - Sweets is a mystery set in Philadelphia in 1972. At the time, three powerful forces – racist Mayor Frank Rizzo’s police force, the black street gangs and the Mafia, dominated the city. It was a filthy, corrupt, segregated city of neighborhoods, its residents utterly lacking Brotherly Love. A place of irony – preparing to celebrate the nation’s liberty with the ’76 bicentennial when its young black male residents weren’t entirely free to leave their own block.
Sweets Maybrey is hard. In the language of the streets, this describes an individual who uses fists first and words second, to solve his problems.  Twenty-year-old Sweets has just gotten his life straight after two stints in prison and is graduating high school and has won his first pro fight. He has turned his back on doing bad. But life isn’t that simple. The straight and narrow, where his father wants him to be, is sometimes a shifting path, one that’s real easy to fall off.
Sweets’ father disappears into the vicious Philly ghetto called the Bottom, trailed by police who say he killed a man. That same day, the 60 Lot street gang attempts to recruit neighborhood legend Sweets by using his friend Teddie Banks as leverage. They give him three days to make a choice: Join or watch his straight-laced friend die.
Sweets melts back into the Bottom, quickly regaining his street-smarts while asserting the violence of his nature. He needs these tools to overcome the cops, street hustlers, and random criminals who inhabit the ’hood. Everything he knows tells him that his father is innocent. As more bodies appear, killed identically and each one known to his father, Sweets begins to wonder. Perhaps the cops are right and his beloved father is a killer.
Carefully, clue by clue, Sweets reveals his father, the real man. As he does, he also reveals himself and comes to grips with his own violent past, long submerged, which he now has to bring to bear to save his father, his friend, and himself. Having embraced violence as a means to an end, will Sweets be strong enough to again leave it behind once he uncovers the truth or will the good in him die in The Bottom?
BARRY DAVIS - YOUNG GIFTED AND BAD (SWEETS MAYBREY) - $4.99 - - - It is December 1972. Sweets Maybrey climbs the stairs to his office. He is wounded from an assassination attempt, blood slowing leaking out of his neck. He sits at his ancient desk, awaiting the arrival of the person who orchestrated the attempt on his life. He knows that they are on their way to finish the job. While waiting he considers all that has led him to this point.
Six months earlier Sweets Maybrey was a rich, powerful twenty year old, the new boss of black crime in west Philadelphia. Every week his subordinates pressed envelopes full of pungent cash into his hands, the proceeds from bookmaking, drugs and prostitution. Every day beautiful women offered their bodies for his pleasure. Men twice his age humbled themselves before him. He, seemingly, was a man who had it all.
But Sweets, full of youthful aggression, wanting to show the "old heads" that he was a worthy leader, decided that he wanted more. He went to war over the so called Green Fields, areas outside Philly with a growing black population, hungry for his "goods", but with weak crime organizations. This decision placed him in conflict with his Mafia straw bosses, triggering a second front to his war. Sweets' personal life was no less dangerous as his mentor, bodyguard and fiance all have motive to kill him.
Back in his office Sweets Maybrey presses a damp towel to his neck.  The blood isn't slowing down. He needs to go to the hospital but he does not rise. He will wait, wait until his would be killer shows themselves. Then, he will kill or be killed. Not caring which way it ends, he shrugs, plants his feet firmly on the floor and sets his mind back to the beginning.
BARRY DAVIS - ROSE OF THE BADLANDS (SWEET MAYBREY) - $4.99 - - - Philly crime boss Sweets Maybrey has a body in his trunk and a weapon underneath his seat. He travels in a stolen car to a destination in the Poconos Mountains called Deer Lake. The destination has meaning to him, less so for his 'passenger'. It is a crossroads, a place where he plans to literally bury the past and begin anew. Unfortunately he has a 'tail', a state trooper very interested in a black man travelling in this whitest of places in the early morning hours. Sweets will have to confront him before he can complete his journey, but Sweets, by now, is used to fighting for what he wants and he knows the trooper will not stop him from completing his destiny.
Thus opens the novel Rose of the Badlands, the third novel in the Sweets Maybrey crime series. While considering how to rid himself of the trooper Sweets remembers the tumultuous events of the past year. The disastrous fight with a no talent bum named Bobby Turner that ends with Bobby in a coma and Sweets, guilty for the illegal blow that devastated his opponent, on the hook to help find the man's missing sister, Rose. Turns out Rose is no saint, hooking and stripping her way through the Badlands, Philly's most notorious urban jungle. As Sweets' quest for Rose intensifies, his organization is being threatened by the Marks Brothers, a crew with a silly name but serious intentions and strong connections to The Commission, the head of organized crime in America. Soon, Sweets has no organization and no purpose. He forgets about Rose - he is broken, depressed, lost, and for the first time in his life, scared. The former boss hides in his condo, too afraid to leave. Two unlikely women rescue him – one elderly and white, the other a black wild child not unlike how Sweets used to be. With their help, Sweets slowly recovers, determined to regain his self respect and what he used to have. He makes war on the Marks Brothers but the key to making himself whole, he realizes, is to discover what happened to Rose, fulfilling that promise made long ago.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I miss my DC!!!! Home, books, home!!!

Number 110
There are so many issues happening in this world that the politicians are, on purpose in my mind, not really talking about or actually solving.  I do believe there is some kind of plot to distract us from the real issues they aren’t addressing.  Real unemployment, real health care issues, drug crime in Mexico. Then there are US companies continually producing fatty foods and then claiming that they have now produced low-fat, low-cal foods, but it doesn’t’ work.  Did you see the disrespect to the President by sticking your finger in his face as if he is a child?  What the hell was that dirty blond bimbo, craggy looking white woman, the Governor of Arizona thinking?  She looked like a complete reality show slut.  On the other hand, the man was smooth and walked away.  You have to when you run into nuts like that; there is just no point in talking to them. 
I do not like many people at my job and it appears she does not like our President, but I have to work with them, so I have to show some professionalism all the time.  I have slipped a few times and said, “what the hell are you doing,” or “Please go back to your desk, stop fussing, do your job or leave for the day.”  There are also times I want to say “Go to hell and stay there.”  You know you cannot do that on the job, you want to though, but unfortunately you cannot.  It seems the world is getting more and more frustrated at our President, Republicans, and egalitarian nuts, at everyone!  Man, do we need some down time so let’s read some exciting books, go to the movies, and watch the sun come up.  Got Books!!!
ROBYN GANT – THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY (IN LAWS AND PLAY COUSINS) $2.99 - - - The night Nubia Jamison caught her husband-to-be in a compromising position prompted a rage that knew no boundaries. She shut down and sold the successful movie production company they ran together and fled the country, refusing to hear his excuses. Now she is in hiding, but is she hiding something as well?
Her best friend Tracie has undergone a dramatic transformation in order to elude Angelo Gonsales, head of the Internet Crime Division of the FBI. He has discovered her identity, and tracked her location. Will she be convicted of her alleged crimes?
"In-Laws and Play Cousins: Three Sides to Every Story," reunites four childhood friends, brings closure to the unfortunate circumstances and renders bittersweet justice for the true villains.
Do you like eye-catching and brawny gladiators, hideous and treacherous dragons?  Do you remember the movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe?  He played a Roman general out for revenge after his family is murdered? Did you get a thrill while watching the fight scenes in the arena?   How about Terry Crews of American Gladiators?  Did you get a kick out of watching him kick but too? 
Do you need something differently sexually charged, romantic and new, instead of the usual vampires and werewolves?  I think I found it while stalking people at the library.  Well, at least for me it was the cover.  I started to read the back cover of the book and went a little further:
ANYA BAST, KRIS STARR, CHARLOTTE, BOYETT COMPO, LENA MATTHEWS (She is the African American writer in this group), N.J. MUNRO and TIELLE ST. CLARE - ELLORA’S CAVEMEN: DREAMS OF THE OASIS VOLUME 4 - $7.69 - - - I picked number 4 because of the cover, the man look good and since I have never read anything like this, what the hell, I’m going to give it a try.  Let me know if you did too.  The book has been out since 2006 and only 8 reviews on Amazon.  Huh, what does that say?   Read the description on Amazon because it’s long and I’m still trying to figure out who and what.  Ok, ok, so I brought the book because of it’s cover, shame on me, just shame on me.
CHERIL N. CLARKE – THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: NEW ORLEANS -$99 Cents - - I have been to New Orleans and this year, besides the Essence Music Festival, there is also the Bayou Soul Writers & Readers Conference -  two days earlier, and I am a big, huge fan of New Orleans.  Here's the link - - http://www.bswconference.com 
In New Orleans, I can get my drink and eat on and on and on.  This is one of many series of stories of a group of friends and their amusing behavior while traveling to different cities to get away from their daily job and labor.  The writer develops the characters right from the beginning and her descriptions of the city before Katrina scene is beautiful.  It’s also a funny.  Hey, I like her style of writing and it was short, endearing, and I’m going back to New Orleans. 
CHERIL N. CLARKE – THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: LAS VEGAS -$99 Cents - - - I just ordered it, so my review will be later.  Here’s an update on the latest “friends who travel.”  The Beautiful People: Las Vegas" returns readers to the lives of four friends whose magnetic personalities and gorgeous good looks rivet our attention. Vanessa, an entrepreneurial executive, reveals shadowed parts of her past and displays talents long ago abandoned; Yen Chu, desperately trying to navigate the waters of self-imposed sobriety, yearns to be disciplined, but doesn't let that prevent her from arranging erotic adventures for her group; party boy Colin, on a quest to have the time of his life, ensures that everyone he meets will have the times of their lives as well; and Donovan, sometimes haughty, and always more conservative than the rest, allows himself to loosen up and succumb to Sin City’s extravagant indulgences.  From glamorous adventures to steamy and sometimes seamy escapades, from the luxury lifestyle to laugh-out-loud humor, Clarke's latest installment of "The Beautiful People" will satisfy the deep cravings of your imagination. (I hope!)
Got to get one in for Black History Year
CONNIE BRISCOE - P. G. COUNTY - $6.99 - - - As someone who grew up in DC and lived in PG County, I grabbed this book and ran when it came out years ago.  There is an upper class, African-American community in PG, Mitchellville, Maryland.  The most affluent and predominantly African American communities in the US.  Yes, I said it, US!!  So, I know when I speak that this book was labled fiction, but the characters, Barbara and her wandering husband (think of the owner of BET, Bob Johnson) and Jolene, a materialist nut and the other woman.  A middle class hair salon owner who lives just outside the fancy community, Pearl, a divorcee, who can’t stand her son’s “white” girlfriend, (think Loretta Devine character and her son in Waiting to Exhale).  Who starts to become attractive to Jolene’s husband, but not on purpose.  As the front cover states, “Peyton Place for the twenty-first century.”  That soap opera did not know that their drama was freaking calm compared to these characters, nothing close.  You know there are secrets and they will surface, they always do and more drama to come.  Reality TV and Lifetime could have used this book instead of some of the crap on TV.  Connie Briscoe is a seriously good story teller and can literally bring the characters to life to the point you start to look around and think, did she write reality TV before it was on TV?  Maybe she saw something we didn’t.  I’m going to bed now to finish reading, KIMBERLA LAWSON ROBY - CASTING THE FIRST STONE - $11.90 - Casting The First Stone.  I had to start from the beginning the "Reverend Curtis Black" drama.  Then I’m going back to re-read P. G. County.  I miss my home DC so much, this will help me remember good and drama times.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012

I just love authors, they are so giving!

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.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I'm now stalking people at the Library again!!

NUMBER 108 
While volunteering at the library last week, I saw a young black man, probably around 20 years old, walking around.  You know I put on my “Batman/Black Kindle Cape” and walked over and asked if I could help him.  It does help me a little to have my official “volunteer” badge when working because as my daughter tells me all the time, “Mommy, stop walking up to people and saying hi and asking them if they read and if they would like to read.”  I can’t help it.  So, once I confronted the young man and asked what he was looking for he stated, “Oh, I don’t know, something different.”  “Hey, I say, do you like urban like Nikki Turner, Zane, Erick S. Gray, and Wahida Clark?”  You see, I just assumed that since he was a young black man, he wanted to read the “street/urban lit.”  As usual, I made an ass out of myself and him.  He told me, “nah, I’ve read those and tired of them, need something else.”  I was pretty happy in hearing that and proceeded to take him back and forth thru the shelves of the library and gave him some books to browse through.  He was impressed with my knowledge (I am too if you really want to know.  I’m really good!!!) And I was impressed with him.  I’m not trying to down grade urban lit, but there are times, especially with the nasty titles, that it gets old and it does not give us a clue to what our people went thru just to get a book to read and not trash.  What do you think?  Are you tired of Urban/Street Lit?  Or do you see some great stories written and some malevolent stories.  Hit me up with an e-mail and let me know.  Here’s some Urban lit with a few Urban Christian thrown in.
KIKI SWINSON – WIFE EXTRAORDINAIRE - $5.99 - - - Two couples decide to sign up for a show called Trading Wives which is a ghetto version of the reality show Wife Swap. Instead of reaping a whopping $50,000 at the end of the show, this show will only shell out $10,000 after spending seven days in the other wife's household; but before these two couples are able to claim their prize money, one wife doesn’t want to return home, so fist fights will erupt and there will be a lot of bloodshed. In the end who will end up with whom? 
Now, tell me something?  How come the women on the cover of these books have the longest weaves in history?
SEAN A. WRIGHT – A GANGSTERS MELODY – 99 Cents - - - Loving the one who loves the streets is a dangerous game. There's a war brewing. Bodies are piling up. Money is being stacked up. Loyalties are being tested. How will a displaced small town girl handle the pressures of living the big city life and all that comes with it when the trail of murders, drugs and blood-money leads to her doorstep?
K. ELLIOTT – ENTANGLED (REAL IN THE STREETS) - $2.99 - - - Unprotected Sex, Murder, Disloyalty and Payoffs all included in this street-life thriller. Entangled is a Love Story between a Major drug trafficker and a history teacher. The subplots include a Black DEA agent with divided loyalty. He wants to do his job and rid the streets of drugs but on the other hand he knows that the system is corrupt and it targets minorities.
TERESA D. PATTERSON – EX-BOYFRIEND - $2.99 - - - Review from L. Romich “book Nympho”  - After finding her boyfriend, Terrance in bed with another woman, Vicki Holiday decides that she will not accept nor forgive him. So she decides to break the relationship off. Unfortunately, Terrance does not accept the fact that Vicki does not want anything more to do with him.

Terrance soon realizes that old saying "you don't know what you got, until it's gone" is so true. He wants Vicki back and he will stop at nothing to have a second chance with her. He begins by following Vicki around, stalking her, sitting outside her house, spying on her and her friends; he even vandalizes her property and threatens any man that comes near her. Terrance adapts the mindset that, if he cannot have her, nobody will!

The book is a page-turner. The story flowed nicely. Despite it being a page-turner, I would have liked to see more development and suspense with the story and its characters. I also felt as though there could have been more action within the story. All this said, I really enjoyed reading Ms. Patterson`s novels. My favorite novel to date her is, PROJECT QUEEN, now that book was a definite five star read! I eagerly anticipate reading more by Ms. Patterson.
MEESHA MINK & DE’NESHA DIAMOND – DESPERATE HOODWIVES: AN URBAN TALE - $10.99 - - - The title only hints at the freaky-deaky content in the first installment of a street lit series that could also qualify as urban erotic horror. In Atlanta, Bentley Manor is a cage for four young women. Aisha, whose pampered lifestyle takes a big hit after her dealer husband gets locked up, goes to dangerous lengths to keep up her ghetto fab image. Devani is single and, at her mother's direction, plans on tricking NFL star TyrikNiobia Bryant and Adrianne Byrd, hold back little in this cautionary tale dripping with sex, vice and yearning.
LEIGH MCKNIGHT – SATISFYING THE WOMAN IN ME - $2.99 - - - Beautiful, well educated Teyona Carter has everything a woman desires; a beautiful home, designer clothes, shoes, fabulous jewelry and loving husband who is an extremely successful doctor who pampers his wife, providing everything she needs, except an orgasm. Teyona’s sexual frustration is at its zenith until a young, sexy and vibrant plumber enters her home to repair a lead in her upstairs bathroom.
MIASHA & LISA WU HARTWELL – WHEN THE CAKE IS MADE - $9.99 - - - Three Women, three disaster weddings, one dress burning ceremony and a connection that is deeper than anyone could imagine.  Sheryl, a battered and broken beauty, finally musters the strength to leave her abusive husband. Now all she needs to do is win custody of their daughter. Remarrying a man who can help her do just that seems to be the answer until her ex shows up at the wedding to show her once and for all who has control. Leslie, a no-nonsense, materialistic, opportunist is fed up with her married boyfriend, Frank. But that doesn't stop her from giving him one more chance. And this time he proves his love for her is real with a proposal and access to his Titanium American Express Card to plan the wedding of her dreams. But in the nine months it took to plan her perfect day, her fiancé was busy making a third baby with his wife. Will Frank join his wife in the labor and delivery room or will he meet Leslie at the altar? Angie, an independent, free spirit, seeks out a man for protection after a dangerous encounter with a stalker. She is set up with Bobby Fuller, the host of a popular wedding show. Although they hit it off, she later realizes that it isn't a man she wants. Too bad this realization comes at the couple's live broad casted wedding ceremony with hundreds in attendance and millions more watching. Written with Miasha’s trademark gripping action combined with the celebrity lifestyle Lisa Wu Hartwell knows all too well, this story exposes the dark side of wealth, fame, and power. A heart-wrenching tale with explosive twists that heighten anticipation of what every page will reveal, When the Cake is Made will have you on the edge of your seat to the very end.
Got to get one in for Black History Year
One of the books I gave the young black man at the library was, NATHAN McCALL - MAKES ME WANNA HOLLER: A YOUNG BLACK MAN IN AMERICA - $11.99 - - - I attended years ago the Free Library Event in Philadelphia.  Of course I bundled up my daughter in the car and drove from DC.  That is where I first met Nathan McCall.  He was sweet and very pleasant, where as the other authors were not so pleasant, but maybe they were tired or frustrated.  It was to me a time where it was still new to many black authors selling their books and trying to get their books sold worldwide.  He impressed me and talked to me and my daughter for an hour or so.  I will always thank him for taking that time to talk to me and I will always buy his books for myself and others.  I will say that parts of this book is disturbing and you may get angry at some of the things he has done in the past, but people make mistakes and can change and grow.  Maybe he has?
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Saturday, January 21, 2012

New Year, New Drama!!

NUMBER 107
Well, I’ll be ding dong.  Didn’t know my “Top 100 Black Kindle List” was going to receive so many comments.  Not bad comments, just, “I didn’t know that list exist.”  “I didn’t know I made the list and thank you,” and the best one was, “why are there old books on this list? Shouldn’t these be only 2011 books?”  I told her no.  This list represents the Past, Present and Future of books by us for us.  We cannot forget the ones who struggled during the worse and best of their lives.  The ones who started Urban/Street Lit, slave narratives, Harlem Renaissance, Blaxploitation (I still love me some Shaft!!!, ‘what a man, what a man, what a mighty fine man!!),  are still struggling to get keeping it strong.  We need more and more black writers to tell their stores.  Not the ones in Urban, but good old fashioned stories of love, liberation, rage, damage, drama in the church.  You name it, we got it, and we are different.  No other race has as many stories to tell of every type of human drama than black folks.  We may not have money or fame, but we got a heart and soul that no got damn body can take away.  We got SOUL!!!  Let’s get to some books.
TRAVIS HUNTER – DARK CHILD (ZANE PRESENTS - $9.99 - - - I was volunteering at the library when I ran across this book.  Always looking for black male writers and after reading the back, I think I’m going to like, I mean love it.  
Urban Brown is a white man who grew up in the dark recesses of the inner city where he was the victim of torment, abuse, abandonment, deception and murder. Urban overcame his horrid past to live a peaceful and prosperous existence in his upper-class community. He has everything a man could ask for: a career, which he loves; a sprawling estate and a drop-dead gorgeous fiancée, Sierra. Then out of the blue, he receives a phone call that changes his life.  Jamillah is Urban’s sister, and unlike her brother, she wasn’t able to overcome the horrors of her past and turned to drugs to ease the pain. Life on the streets is hard enough, but once a baby comes along, she tries to sell him on the black market. Urban won’t hear any of it, and he and Sierra resolve to raise the child as their own. But upon further investigation, Urban realizes that his sister is involved in a dark and sinister scheme to steal black babies from poor girls in small, rural towns and sell them to the highest bidders. As Urban digs deeper and deeper into the kidnapping network, he gets dangerously close to the heart of the matter and is disgusted and disheartened by what he discovers. 
TRAVIS HUNTER – SOMETHING TO DIE FOR: A NOVEL - $9.99 - - - At the start of this touching novel from Hunter, Nasir Lassiter, a once promising college basketball player, returns to his old Atlanta neighborhood after serving five years of a life sentence for a murder he didn't commit. He tries to reconnect with the most important people in his life, but his mom, Marcy, has become a drug addict, while his girlfriend, Ayana, has taken up with Alonzo, a successful businessman. Nasir is especially surprised to discover that he has daughter by Ayana, Brandy. In his quest to learn the truth about the past, Nasir must fight to confirm his love for Ayana and save Brandy from an unexpected threat. Once again Hunter skillfully reveals the heart beneath the tough exterior of an African American man.
SHELIA GOSS – THE KANDIE SHOP (LOVE BITES) – 99 Cents - - - OK, so it’s just a cute and short love story.  Give it a try.  Sweet and sour not only describes Kandie Taylor's latest candy concoction, but it describes her last relationship. She vows to never date another professional athlete.  Trent Lee Davis, former NFL star, finds Kandie intriguing. Will he be able to tackle her barriers?  Can Kandie resist the chocolate-licious urge every time she sees Trent, even though he's an athlete?
MARY MONROE / VICTOR McGLOTHIN – BORROW TROUBLE: “NIGHTMARE IN PARADISE” and “BAD LUCK SHADOW” - $8.69 - - - Monroe (God Don't Like Ugly) and McGlothin (Down on My Knees) each contribute a short novel to this curiously packaged product. Monroe's Nightmare in Paradise features 31-year-old Renee, a second grade teacher and self-proclaimed "Miss Goody Two-Shoes" who, with wild best friend Inez, goes to the Caribbean to "get loose." Frustration with her own meek nature and an admission by Inez—she slept with Renee's husband before they married—propel Renee into a one-night stand that results in her arrest for prostitution. When husband Leon won't pony up the fine, Renee is jailed for three months—plenty of time to decide who stays in her life. Monroe's earnest melodrama suffers, however, from its proximity to McGlothin's dazzling Bad Luck Shadow. Set in 1946, the story's hero is Baltimore Floyd, a dashing scoundrel with charisma to burn. Fleeing Harlem and a gambling debt, Baltimore steals into a neon-lit Kansas City, where he holes up in old love Franchetta's cathouse and plans the take down of a high-stakes card game. McGlothin's tale is sophisticated and sexy, with the plotting and pacing of first-rate noir. 
TIMMOTHY B. McCANN – EMOTIONS - $5.75 Paperback - - - McCannJoi Weston is forced to give up her dreams of a Hollywood career when the Tinseltown powers that be decide she's too long in the tooth to star in a feature film. Frustrated, she moves to Florida, where her husband of 18 years, Phillip, is launching a political career. Despite the couple's occasionally rocky past, Joi trumpets: "I'd never have an affair." Famous last words. Enter slightly younger hunk Michael Brockmier, an aspiring writer with his own identity crisis: unable to get his work published, he becomes part of a scam in which he's the front man for a more talented but reclusive writer. When Joi and Michael meet, passion ensues, threatening Joi's marriage even as it affords the lovers the opportunity to come to terms with their lives. McCann gets the celebrity downside of successful authorship in the current publishing climate right, but scores with little else. Most of the Composition 101 admonishments Michael receives could be leveled at McCann as well. No metaphor goes unmixed, no cliche unused; cardboard secondary characters and Hallmark-ready platitudes round out the list of offenses. A neat ending in which everybody finds redemption may supply instant gratification, but it falls far from offering true satisfaction.
K. ELLIOTT – DILEMMA – 99 cents - - - Tremaine is good for Natalie—well at least on paper—but Natalie has a secret. She craves women and it’s become a feeling she can’t resist.  Natalie meets Jaharie, a beautiful biracial woman, who wants a relationship with a man or a woman. Love is the only thing that matters to her. Natalie is thoroughly intrigued with Jaharie. She wants her, but being with a woman full-time isn’t what Natalie has in her plans and she knows her mother will never approve. She wants a husband, children, a ‘normal’ life, and is on track to acquiring this.

She plans to keep Jaharie a secret until she meets Tamala, a powerful, successful attorney and very attractive Lesbian who wants to take Natalie away from both Jaharie and Tremaine. Tamala has the savvy and financial power to woo Natalie right into her arms. Their relationship works for a while, until a past lover of Tamala’s vows to kill Natalie if she doesn’t stop seeing her. Natalie fears Tamala’s deranged lover but doesn’t leave until she learns a huge secret of hers.
Got to get one in for Black History Year:
SISTER SOULJAH – The Coldest Winter Ever - $7.99 - - - Another classic African American.  If you have never read any of her work, you need to read this one.  I met her last year while she was touring on her latest book, MIDNIGHT  - $7.99 Midnight, with those Pom Poms in her hair and I thought she was taller, with big eyes and soul oozing from her skin.  The girl is black, beautiful and intelligent with funk. 
Hip-hop star, political activist and now writer, Sister Souljah exhibits a raw and true voice (though her prose is rough and unsophisticated) in this cautionary tale protesting drugs and violence among young African-Americans in the inner city. Winter Santiaga, the 17-year-old daughter of big-time drug dealer Ricky Santiaga, is spoiled and pampered, intoxicated by the power of her name and her sexuality. Riding high on the trade, Santiaga moves the family out of the Brooklyn projects to a mansion on Long Island where things start to disintegrate. Winter's mother is shot in the face by competing drug dealers, the FBI arrest Santiaga and confiscate the family's possessions. 
Then, while visiting her father at Rikers Island, Winter discovers her father has a 22-year-old mistress and a baby boy. For the first time, Winter feels anger toward her father and pity for her fallen mother. Being the ruthless hood rat that she is, however, Winter leaves her weakened relatives behind and sets off to regain her stature and reinstate her father. Attracted to power, intolerant of those without it, ill-equipped to deal on her own and predisposed to make all the wrong moves, she deceives and steals from those who help her and yet, somehow, she remains a sympathetic character. Winter's obsession with money, possessions and appearances, her involvement in the drug trade and the parade of men she uses lead her down the wrong path. Sister Souljah herself appears as a "fictional" character who voices her belief that Winter's vices are shared by many, and that greed, drugs and violence devalue the lives of urban youth. Souljah peppers her raunchy and potentially offensive prose with epithets and street lingo, investing her narrative with honesty albeit often at the expense of disciplined writing. But this is a realistic coming-of-age story of debauchery with a grave moral. 
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