The Reading Diva

Note: this blog post has spoilers for two books.  About three years ago, I read In Love With A Younger Man by Cheryl Robinson.  It's about 43-year-old Olena Day trying to decide between two younger men.  Matthew is 25 and has his life together at a young age. Jason's 32 and a retired football player. While reading this book, I really wanted Olena to get with Matthew because he seemed to be a pretty decent guy.  Something about Jason always seemed off and I wasn't feeling him. At the end of the book, Olena finds out that Matthew is the son of a man she dated in college (and got pregnant by, which resulted in an abortion).  That leaves her with only Jason, who just found out he has prostate cancer . So when I heard a sequel was coming out, I was happy, but cautious.  I was hoping that Olena had enough sense to give Matthew another chance. But based on the description of The One , I wasn't holding my breath. This book starts out with Olena nursing J...

Last year, I wrote this extensive list of which books I was looking forward to reading over the summer.  But this year, I don't have that kind of list.  This summer, I will be trying to read as many books that I have bought from festivals, signings, Friends of the Library events and just plain old bookstore visits/B&N Website browsing (for the Nook Color). Here are some major media outlets that are featuring their summer reads list. More will be added as they become available: NY Times USA Today (Interactive) NPR Good Housekeeping Journal Sentinel (Added 5/29/12   I got 99 books....) Chicago Tribune (Added 5/29/12) Wall Street Journal (Added 5/29/12) Entertainment Weekly (Added 5/29/12) Library Journal (Added 5/29/12) NY Daily News (Added 5/31/12) Entertainment Weekly (Added 6/1/12) Publishers Weekly (Added 6/8/12) LA Times (Added 6/8/12) Oprah Magazine (Added 7/5/12) Daily Candy (Added 7/5/12) Learnvest (Added 7/5/12) ...

Wonderful.  That is the best word I can use to describe the 16th Annual South Carolina Book Festival .  I had so much fun and got to a chance to meet (and re-meet) some wonderful authors during this two day event in Columbia.   After waking up early Saturday morning and driving about an hour an a half to the Capital City, I arrive at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.  And the first person I see when I arrived is Kwame Alexander.  And he notices that I'm wearing my Capital Bookfest tee.  I also met with my friend Valinda (who was volunteering at the festival) at the door and she took pictures.  For those who have seen these pictures on my Facebook page realize that I am not smiling in that one.  When Valinda took the other picture, it looks like I'm frowning. But I was getting ready to smile when she took that picture. After greeting Kwame, Valinda and I went to see Kimberla Lawson Roby.  She talked about her new...

It's time for the South Carolina Book Festival !  I will be heading to Columbia (also known as the Capital City and Gamecock Country) tomorrow to take up two days of authors, books and more books. This is my first time going in two years . I'm so excited because this year because several of my favorite authors are going to be there. Kimberla Lawson Roby will be there Saturday morning and Zane will be speaking in the afternoon. (Side note: to be honesty, I think the author of 50 Shades of Gray took Zane's M.O.) I will also get to see Miranda Parker, who I had a great chance of meeting last year at the National Book Club Conference . Acoustic Rooster will also make his way to the Columbia Convention Center as  Kwame Alexander will take part in this year's festival. On Sunday, I finally get to see and meet Eric Jerome Dickey! He's one of the few famous African-American authors I haven't met. So when I found out he was coming, I nearly passed out (seriously). ...

About ten years ago, I read Fifth Born .  It's about Odessa, a St. Louis girl who experienced mistreatment from her mother and sexual abuse from her father during the 1960s and 1970s. It was a book that I highly enjoyed and it has stuck with me to this day. When I read from another blogger that there was a sequel , I wanted to read it.  My local library didn't have it, but I was lucky that my employer offers a ILL service where books are shared among the colleges in the state.  One of the community colleges had the book and it was sent my way. ( MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read the first book, you may want to skip to the end.) I was so glad that the sequel rehashed the end of the first book.  Odessa finds out that her assumed crazy aunt Ella Mae (who lives in Mississippi) is her real mother and that she was a product of rape (the aunt was raped by her father).  Odessa is left in Mississippi after she confronts her parents, especially her fathe...

Last month, I started on a journey to read ten books in thirty days.  I thought I was on the way of getting there, but I failed. I read four books. The third book I finished was Diamond Life , the sequel of Platinum .  It's about the lives of hip hop stars and their spouses/lovers and some, if not all, of them were inspired by real life stars.  I actually enjoyed this one a little more than Platinum, but my only complaint is that one of the characters that was highly featured in Platinum wasn't in Diamond Life much. And if the real life inspiration to Bunny is anything close to the character.... The fourth book I finished was Redefining Diva by Sheryl Lee Ralph.  This book is mostly a biography, but gives pearls of wisdom along the way. I had a chance to meet Soror Ralph at Regional Convention last year and she is just as sweet and gorgeous in person. I think what messed me up was that I read a lot of books that were long and needed more of my attention rath...