The Reading Diva

My friend Valinda, who wrote about her trip to Houston here , is back to talk about her recent trip to the National Book Festival . She was also one of my travel companions to the National Book Club Conference . Make sure you also check out her blog , especially those on Team Kindle! I left Charleston early Friday morning, September 23. I heard it was going to rain, so I thought I'll get a good jump. God had other plans. It rained from SC to DC and I mean it rained. Can you imagine what my little car (I have a Nissan Cube) and yes, it looks like one of those cars in London (a place I love). But the main reason I own one is that my Durango , which I had for years, finally gave out and too much work had to be done to it and it started to costs too much money. So, I traded it in and got the Cube. Don’t laugh, that sucker gets 31 miles per gallon and I can fill it up with $25.00 and drive a week and a half. So, you now know what my car looks like if you were looking at it from an a...

Several months ago, I read Janet Jackson's autobiography/advice book, True You . Now we hear from her big sister LaToya in Starting Over . Seeing the cover, you would think that this book was totally about Michael. But it's not. The book is pretty much divided into three parts: her marriage and being taken away from her family, leaving her marriage and putting her life back together, and Michael's passing and her theories about his untimely death. LaToya first met her future husband, Jack Gordon, in the mid-80s. At that time, Latoya was still being managed by her father. Somehow, Jack schmoozed his way into her life (and pretty much conned Joseph in the process) and became her manager. Then her decade of hell began. LaToya was in a very abusive relationship with Jack and was beat constantly. All those things that she did during that time period (Playboy, Psychic Friends, the Paris shows, accusing Michael of messing with children) was all Jack. And if she didn't c...