The Reading Diva

A brand-new literary event is happening in Columbia, SC this weekend and the Reading Diva is going! The African-American Literary Festival will be at the Columbia Conference Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. I glad they picked this day because Carolina's football team is off this weekend, which means no traffic for the two hours I will have to drive. The event is hosted by the SistahFriend Book Club , which has book clubs in various parts of the country. The event will feature some well-known names in African-American Literature. Authors include Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant , Mary Monroe , Donna Hill and Marissa Monteilh . There will be author signings and forums, vendors and activities for the little ones. By Sunday afternoon, I will have pictures and highlights from the festival. I promise I won't take as long as the SC Book Festival.

Note: There are pictures from this event. They are on my old digital camera, since I bought a new one a few months ago. My old camera is at my parents' house, so I will post them once I get the camera. I know the SC Book Festival was back at the end of February. But since I am attending two more book festivals before the end of the year, I feel that I need to post about the one I went to before I went to the new one. So a few things that I remember from the book festival: There was one guy who was selling a lot of self-published books, mostly African-American themed. But what drew me to his booth like a moth to a flame was the big Obama book he was selling. I collect Obama items, so this was up my ally. It was a long coffee table book of the front covers of African-American newspapers when Obama won. I started to think that I would buy this for myself and a friend that is a bigger Obama collector than I am. And then he told me the price: $70. Then this Chris Rock skit came into m...

After 16 days, a missed book club meeting, two big class assignments, helping with a play with my sorority, and countless events than one does while decorating a house, I have finally finished Terry McMillan new book Getting To Happy . Since it has been 15 years since I have read Waiting to Exhale (I read twice in high school - including once before I saw the movie), I had to picture the main characters as what they played in the movie . For example: when I read Savannah's part, I thought of Whitney. It helped me keep track who was who. Since I know that some people haven't read the book, I'll give some thoughts about the book without giving it away. To me, it felt like most of the main characters have not learned anything in the last 15 years. I think one character was not in the book because of what happen to the person who played him/her (in the Waiting to Exhale movie) in real life. And I'm not talking about Whitney. Why were the teenage girls, particuarly Sp...

So, here I'm am, at my local Kmart (and yes, people still shop at Kmart). I happen to glance at the book section and found this. I know sometimes publishers release books before the date they are suppose to be released, but I just checked Amazon and this book is still due to be released on Tuesday. I don't know what the deal is, but this may be good for those who can't wait to read the book. If I didn't pre-order it from Amazon and if it wasn't cheaper (they were selling it for $20 and got it for $15 at Amazon), I would have actually bought it. I've waited more than five years for this book, so a few days more won't hurt me. It may benefit some members of my book club. :-)

not to go to the Eric Jerome Dickey book signing in Columbia. This morning, my body nicely reminded me that I am in my 30s now and I would be pushing it if I decided to go. So after class tonight. I will go home, watch Big Brother and some Gamecock football, and maybe finish Tempted By Trouble. And most importantly, sleep.

Since September is here, fall book festivals and author appearances are popping up. Since I live in the great state of South Carolina, here are the events that I either want to go, may go or will go. Tomorrow night(September 2) at 7 p.m., Eric Jerome Dickey will be at the Sandhills Books-A-Million in Columbia. I really want to go to this, because he is one of my favorite authors and one of the very few I haven't met. There are two things that are stopping me. One is that I have an online class from 5-7. But I could be MIA and watch it on video later. But the professor says it's mandatory (emphasis on the an). This is the second reason: Even though I am a very proud alumni of the University of South Carolina and love Gamecock football (despite the highs and lows), I know that traffic is going to be hell. And this is the first game. And there will be drunk people on the roads on my way back. So I'm still thinking about whether I should go. I did drop him a line on Facebook to...