The Reading Diva

Hello! I would like to introduce you to one of my friends, Valinda, who is guest blogging on The Reading Diva. Originally from Washington, D.C., she now calls Charleston, SC home. She is the blogger behind African-American Books on the Kindle , which highlights books that are offered as ebooks on Amazon. A few days ago, she at tend the National Black Book Festival in Houston. Here's her take on the event. I wish I would have known that the Elements were going to be involved. After waiting, saving, waiting and putting off buying anything unless it was absolutely necessary, I was at the airport at 4:30 in the morning anxious and deliriously happy to begin my vacation and my trip to Houston for the National Black Book Festival. “Yeah, baby!, it was on and up, up and away!!! Arrived in Houston a day early to walk around and act like a regular tourist. The city is beautiful. Filled with a huge culture base, malls abound, big and tall buildings and many museums. Of course they have cri...

While I was on vacation last week, I finished A Singular Woman by Janny Scott . It is the biography of S. Ann Dunham, who is President Obama's mother. Scott's purpose of this book was to show that Dunham was more than "a white woman from Kansas". Born in 1942, Stanely Ann Dunham moved around during her childhood because of her father's work. After living in Washington state for a few years (which may have influenced some of her views), Ann moved to Hawaii and enrolled in college. She met Barack Obama, Sr. during her first few days on campus in 1960. Less than a year later, their son was born. After Ann's divorce from the President's father, she remarried an Indonesian man and moved to his home country with Barack. She fell in love with Indonesia, spending most of her life doing anthropology work in the country. She was also able to obtain a PhD while raising two multiracial children by herself (and help from her parents). You can tell by this book th...