Monday, April 25, 2011

Number 64
I know some are getting bored with my “Black History Year” stance.  They are wondering if I’m going to take this thru out the year.  Yes! so “Get over it.”  Unless you change racial colors on a regular basis, I’m sticking to Black History Year.  As I have stated before, we are all we got, so let’s continue to show people we are as bad as they come.
On that note, I’m angry and very sad.  I just finished reading, KIMBERLA LAWSON ROBY’S – A Deep Dark Secret: A Novel – 9.99 - - - A Deep Dark Secret
I read thru it pretty fast because I was getting more and more upset.  I should not have read it in bed.  As soon as I fell asleep, I dreamed about my best, best, best friend Melanie, who I have not seen nor heard from in over 20 years.  I use to walk to her house in the morning so we could walk to school together.  She lived in a small house with her mother, dad, two brothers and once sister.  As a matter of fact, I also had two step brothers, whose father I truly, truly did not like and he did not like me.  I use to hear before I knocked on the front door, screams and rumbling from the mother and father arguing and the Melanie trying to get ready for school.  As soon as I knocked, the noise stopped and Melanie or her mother would open the door. 
I don’t know if I have a six sense or what, but I never felt comfortable around her father.  I would come in the house and he would be sitting down on a run down, fake brown suede sofa and his hands dangling between his legs, looking at me saying, “Good morning, little one, ready to walk to school?”  I was respectful as my grandmother taught me and just said, “Yes sir,” and gave him an “I know what you are doing and if you think your stinking ass is going to try it with me, you have me and my grandmother to deal with” stare.  I did not like that man one iota. 
Then my dream moved to present time and I was in court because I saw a story in the paper about a woman who stabbed her father numerous times and killed him, (Yes, I guess I got this from some TV show or book I read.  It’s amazing how dreams are created).  The woman was Melanie.  She would not look up.  Just kept her head down and hands cross.  I just looked at her and cried.  I also felt the deep, deep hurt and anger from her.  I woke up suddenly crying and pissed and crying again.  I’m still looking for her and won’t stop.  So much of my life growing up was with her and I miss her and cry for her all the time.  This book is about a little girl being sexually abused by her step father and it just rose those memories for me again and again.  
Sorry I’m so down, but that book opened up more than I wanted it too.  Let’s get to some books to help me feel better and blessed.  I am truly blessed.
HILL HARPER - The Conversation: How Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships - $9.99 - - - Only 34 percent of African-American children today are raised in two- parent households, a sharp contrast to 1966, when 85 percent of black children were raised by two parents. In provocative but heartfelt words, Hill Harper takes on these urgent challenges, bringing a variety of issues out of the shadows. In The Conversation, Harper speaks to women and men with clear-eyed perspective, covering topics such as: The roots of the breakdown in the black family, The myth that there are no mature, single, black male professionals, what women can do to alleviate the "heaviness" they sometimes attach to dating, what men can do to break the cycle of being a player and other concerns in the black community. 
I learn each and every time when I peruse bookstores, book fairs, volunteering at the library, new authors.  I happened to download and listen to - ANITA D. DIGGS – DENZEL’S LIPS - $4.47 Denzel's Lips - - - Welcome to Hercsville, Long Island, where everyone is young, rich, and beautiful and they are tripping hard.  Four women, who else, are searching for love, sex, and sanity, go figure! 
Asha Mitchell Seabrook is hot, young, and married to the very wealthy Nick Seabrook. But as rich as her man is, he just can't seem to satisfy her insatiable appetite for money or sex.  Dr. Penelope Brewster is a successful clinical psychologist, who is trying to keep the children of Hercsville's power elite in good mental health--and out of trouble. But Dr. Penny has her own demons.  Glamorous, famous, and deeply troubled, Nancy St. Bart might be a successful soap opera actress, but she's also nursing some dangerous obsessions. And Denzel is just one of them.  Shareeka Ellison is as beautiful as the home she perfectly keeps. But her millionaire husband has turned into a man she doesn't know anymore--and one who might just destroy everything she's worked so hard for. 
To enter someone's home and find pictures of Denzel Washington covering every inch of the walls, should be a clue that "the elevator is not going up and when it does, the sucker just stops."  I just knew there was a problem with Nancy and her "Denzel" fixation. 
I did not realize that this is the 2nd book in a series about Asha Mitchell and her half sister, Saundra Patterson, so I brought the first one – THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GAME - $6.99 The Other Side of the Game.  The second book does bring you up to speed a little, but I’m one of those who have to know what started it and why Asha is such a slut!  Shareeka reminds me of one of the “Housewives” on those TV reality shows.  Just crazy and ghetto as can be.
Asha is a department-store buyer who sports designer clothes and believes that men can only be a part of her life sexually and financially. Saundra is preparing to marry her high-school sweetheart, Yero. They live a holistic lifestyle and support each other's dreams. Since her mother's death, Saundra has lived with her father, Phil. He is a police officer who has lived with a terrible secret since he was in the first grade. Phil has been dating Evelyn for six years but always has an excuse for postponing their engagement. Evelyn is also a police officer, and she has helped Phil raise Saundra. When Saundra discovers her father's secret, it affects the relationship she has with the two most important men in her life, her father and her fiancé. It will take a lot of honesty and forgiveness for Saundra to keep her relationships with both men.

ANITA D. DIGGS - A MEETING IN THE LADIES ROOM - $5.86 (The total price for shipping and the paperback) or you can get it in audio book format for free if you join Audible).  I joined Audible and it costs $14.00 a month, but I am able to download (borrow) many books thru the library on my iPod.  If you are not interested in the Audible book it costs $23.95.
Jackie Blue is looking forward to meeting with the Black Pack, a group of black professionals in Manhattan's publishing world that gets together to commiserate about the hardships of being a very small minority in a primarily white realm of trust fund babies. Jackie is especially looking forward to seeing hunky Victor, but she finds out that he was seen buying lingerie for his girlfriend. As upsetting as that is, things are about to get much worse. Her white boss is murdered, and Jackie is the last person to see her alive. Jackie has been secretly going to her boss's home to help her husband, Craig, with his book about famed black comedienne Moms Mabley. The book is terrible because Craig doesn't understand why the woman was an icon, but Jackie holds her tongue, then she's upset when her boss denies her the promotion she expected. Now that her boss is dead, Jackie is suspect number one. Diggs provides an absorbing portrayal of the publishing industry.

ANITA D. DIGGS - A Mighty Love - $6.94 (shipping and the paperback) - - - Mel and Adrienne Jordan's relationship begins to crumple when they lose their daughter in a fire. They are so devastated by the accident that they escape from the marriage. Mel moves in with his sister, Debra. Her lifestyle and acquaintances make it easy for him to be lured back into his former life of women, drugs, and alcohol. Adrienne goes to live with her brother, Dan, and his wife. They provide unconditional support and suggest professional counseling for the couple. Rather than seek help, Adrienne and Mel move into an apartment and attempt to put their marriage on track and their lives back together. Attempts at reconciliation and forgiveness seem futile. But eventually they realize that their marriage is worth saving. Even with the cliff-hanging, abrupt ending, this is an entertaining story about people dealing with real emotions, thoughts, and behavior.
NINA FOXX - No Girl Needs a Husband Seven Days a Week - $9.99 - - - A husband can be good for a number of things: 1. Companionship (when he's home), 2. Household repairs (if he's handy) and number 3 - Good loving (if you're lucky), but no girl needs a husband seven days a week! And why the hell not! I’m asking!!!
Marie needs her "stay-at-home husband" to clean the house and babysit the kids, so she can take care of business coast-to-coast and enjoy some harmless flirting on the side.  Mai's perfectly content to be the perfect wife to a successful corporate superstar throwing lavish parties and organizing gala charity fundraisers. But it's funny how quickly everything can change with just a single phone call from prison!  And high-powered ad exec Kennedy believes the best husband is no husband at all. Hot encounters with a succession of studs keep her going strong as she climbs to the top of her profession.  Hey, that may not be so bad!!
A spouse is fine as long as he doesn't screw up the rest of your life. Now three lovely ladies who think they have this "husband" thing all worked out are about to learn that, when it comes to love and marriage, "perfection" can always be improved upon. And it's going to be one wild ride!
BLAKE KARRINGTON – ALL OR NOTHING – 99 cents - - - The Streets Of Charlotte,North Carolina serve as the back drop in this sizzling portrayal of street life in the hood. Lead character Shantell Byrant has lived the hard knock life, blessed with a gorgeous figure and good looks, Shantell decides to use what she got to get what she wants.
BLAKE KARRINGTON - Country boy – 99 cents - - - Country boy is a fast-paced, action packed urban drama set in the dirty south. The story takes you away from the bright lights of the big cities. Where drug deals take place on city blocks and Street corners, to the backwoods, dirt roads and trap houses of the south.  Q a well known and respected hustler faces all the problems that come with the life. Torn between Van, a childhood love who has been down from day one, and Tee, the well educated and upscale women he believes he needs. He wished all he had to worry about was the law.  Follow Q and his close knit team of hustlers, through all their trials and tribulations.

Got to Get one in for Black History Year -
J. CALIFORNIA COOPER - LIFE IS SHORT BUT WIDE - $11.99 - - - With another multigenerational, wonderfully crafted Midwest ensemble cast, Cooper (Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns) presents the town of Wideland, Okla., through the eyes of folksy nonagenarian Hattie B. Brown. This community sentinel, though sometimes short on memory, acts as tour guide and historian, introducing the town at the beginning of the 20th century, when the railroad first arrived and, with it, a growing population. Among the new residents, Hattie introduces the industrious, loving African-American cowboy Val Strong and his Cherokee brother-friend Wings; Val's hardened but beautiful wife, Irene Lowell; and their two strong-willed daughters, Rose and Tante. Following the Strong family and their associates through the better part of the 1900s, Hattie finds history running roughshod through their lives, crushing some and strengthening others, introducing new generations and obstacles to love, home and happiness. Cooper's characteristic motherly wit carries an appealing raft of characters through a world tougher than it is tender, but touched with beauty and wisdom. 




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