The Reading Diva

Today marks the unofficial start of summer. And with summer comes sand, surf, cookouts and new books to read! Some of the books I look forward to reading this summer include: Silver Sparrow : I follow the author, Tayari Jones, on Twitter and this book has received a lot of praise from the lit world. It's about two sisters who don't know about each other because their father's a bigamist. Money Can't Buy Love : Connie Briscoe is back with her latest one. A woman, who is down on her luck, wins the lottery. But is the grass greener on the other side? Just Wanna Testify : In my last post, I talked about the awesomeness that is Pearl Cleage. In this latest one, we return to the West End of Atlanta, where Blue Hamilton encounters some supermodels who bring trouble to the neighborhood. The Kid : This is Sapphire's sequel to Push ( Precious for the movie goers). The book follows the journey of Abdul, Precious' son. You may want to read the description at your ow...

Unless you have been living under a rock, the last episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show aired today. And everyone has been discussing her impact on culture. I remember when she came to Charleston after Hugo and did a show at the King Street Palace (now condos). Here she is with the News 2 Crew for a promo (Rob Fowler, the guy with the mustache, is still on the station). And when they show her face on the jumbotrons at Obama's inauguration, you can only imagine almost 2 million people calling her name at the same time. But since this is a blog about books, I would like to talk about the impact of Oprah's Book Club. When I was in college, the book club was at its height. So I decided to get on the bandwagon and try to expand my reading choices. A book that was a big deal when it was selected (at least in South Carolina), was Jewel by Bret Lott . Lott, a professor at the College of Charleston, was inspired on how his mother raised his sister (who has Downs Syndrome). Even tho...

Earlier this week I finished Tyrese's book How to Get Out of Your Own Way . I was mulling over whether I should review it for this blog. After some encouragement from one of my fellow bloggers (Thanks Jeanette!) and some interesting tweets that came through about the book, I decided to take write a review. First off, this is NOT an autobiography. It is promoted as such, but only the first chapter (where he talks about his childhood up to the point of the famous Coca-Cola commercial ) is autobiographical. The rest of the book can be classified as self-help and/or advice. On Twitter, Tyrese claims that he wrote the book by recording it to his iPhone. He then gave it to the ghostwriter so she could type what he said out. There is no way on God's green Earth that it happened like that. The book was too polished, to the point that it did not sound like him while you were reading it. Anyone who follows him on Twitter and has seen him on interviews would figure that out. I hop...

As some of you may know, today is Janet Jackson's birthday. And in honor of her, I'm reviewing her book, True You . Growing up, one of my favorite things to do (besides reading) was watch videos. And she was one of the artists I loved watching. One of my favorite videos (and songs) from her is Pleasure Principle and I still wonder to this day how she jumped off that platform. I also loved playing her music (to the point that the Rhythm Nation tape popped) and got to a chance to see her during the Velvet Rope tour. As we know, the last few years have been tough on Saint Damita Jo. Nipplegate, albums not selling as well, and loosing Michael. It would be enough to make anyone scream . But she also taken this time to go back in the acting business and be in a few movies (with the help of Madea, I mean Tyler). And with David Ritz, she has wrote a best-selling book. True You is part biography, part advice book in which Janet shares her personal struggles with weight and self-e...

Almost two weeks ago, Steve Harvey was in Charleston with Kirk Franklin. Even thought I do listen to his radio show, I did not have any plans to go. I've already seen three concerts this year (Prince, Kem and Lauryn Hill) and going to at least another one this summer (Sade). I was heading to Myrtle Beach for work when I read in our local newspaper that Steve was going to be signing books at the Waldenbooks at Charleston Place, scheduled the day before the concert/comedy show (the signing was on a Friday, at 6 p.m.). I was just finding out on Thursday. This Waldenbooks is probably smaller than others AND it is in the middle of downtown Charleston, right in the heart of the tourist area. Also, it was on a Friday evening I knew I was going to be back by then, but I also had an event with the sorority. I made a personal decision not to attend. I didn't want to deal with downtown traffic, tourists, paying for parking and being squeezed up in a small bookstore just to see him. ...

So now that graduate school and graduation is over (now I am The Reading Diva, MLIS), I actually have time to sit down and read books that don't contain anything about library science. I got a chance to read and finish Daddy By Default by Pat Tucker . Parker and his wife Roxanne just suffered another miscarriage. After leaving the hospital, Parker gets pulled over by the cops, only to be arrested for unpaid child support. Problem is, he doesn't have any kids. Parker's best friend James is going through a difficult divorce from Serena, the wife from hell. In the middle of this is their young daughter, Semaj. Things go from bad to worst when James finds out he's not Semaj's father. And there's LaChez. She's probably never worked a day of her life. Instead she pimps her children's fathers and the government to get money. She gets wrapped up in a fake child support scheme that may cost her her freedom. I give props that this book was a quick and interest...