The Reading Diva

More books arrived in the mail over the weekend, so it's time for another edition of Mailbox Monday! All three books were given by Harper Books and will be released in June. Love May Fall Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County Spectacle Do you see any books you would like to read?  Hit me up in the comments section!  Thanks to Harper for the ARCs!

I'm starting off today's post with a picture of Eric Jerome Dickey and myself at the 2011 South Carolina Book Festival.  I know you are wondering why I have this picture up.  One, his latest book One Night came out this week.  And two, I will be seeing him again tomorrow at the Sandhills Books-A-Million in Columbia!  So we will most likely take a new picture together that won't have Eric's locs. And I'll be carrying a few more pounds.  Learn more about One Night here , here and here . Relax in Paradise William Price Fox  and Frederic Morton . Congratulations to the winners of the Pulitzer Prize (shout-out to the hometown paper, The Post and Courier ) and the L.A. Times Book Prize ! Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner Gregory Pardolo is getting use to his sudden fame .  And I didn't know his brother was in City High ! Another author who released a book this week was Attica Locke.  She talks about Pleasantville here (with Rachel Ho...

Relax in Paradise Gunter Grass and Edwardo Galeno . Congratulations to all of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominees , the Pen Award nominees and the  International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards ! Haruki Murakami and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche made this year's  Time 100 Most Influential People list . The American Library Association named the most challenged/banned books of 2014 . It also shows that authors of color are the most affected by book banning attempts. Tavis Smiley has been winning lately.  His latest book, My Journey with Maya (which he talks about here ), will become a Broadway play.  Now Death of a King will be adapted for TV . This looks like an ordinary press release about TVOne's future projects .  But if you scroll down to the end of the movie section of the article, you will find that TWO of ReShonda Tate Billingsley's books will be movies next year. Can someone ask BET what happened to the Let the Church Say A...

The last few weeks has been a roller coaster.  My grandaunt passed away last Friday, while I was still mourning the loss over a classmate who died suddenly.  I was also fighting something that was going on in my nasal passages (the doctor said a virus, I say it was allergies).  On top of that, the shooting of Walter Scott happened and when the video came out, the whole incident blew up.  I hate that my hometown will now be associated in the same vain as Ferguson, New York City, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Sanford. Thank God local and state law enforcement took quick action on this or it would have been a ton of chaos on the streets.  Ironically, news of the first video came out when I was having dinner with Lisa from Reads for Pleasure (who was in town on vacation), who lives not far from Ferguson.  And it has been a busy month with work and sorority events. I also decided earlier this week that I was not going to go t...

More books arrived in the mail last week, so it's time for another edition of Mailbox Monday! All of today's books come from Harper Books  and will be released next month. Orient Disclaimer After The Dance Which one of these books you look forward to reading?  I'm excited about After The Dance, especially with the Gayes being back in the news due to the Blurred Lines verdict and Marvin's birthday was just a few days ago.  Hit me up in the comments and tell me what you think! Thanks to Harper Books for the ARCs!

Congratulations to the winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Awards ! BuzzFeed is launching an emerging writers fellowship . Will you be in the DC area soon? Sign up to take part in the Maya Angelou stamp dedication . Speaking of Maya, Tavis Smiley is developing a Broadway play based on his new book that discusses his friendship with the legendary poet. Here's a review of Stuart Scott's memoir . Here we go again: Amazon and Harper Collins are negotiating a new contract .  And it may get ugly. Waiting for Empire to come back?  Here are some book recommendations from the New York Public Library and Book Riot . Wish I would have been able to attend the Terry McMillian/Bernice McFadden talk in NYC and the Bocas Literary Festival in Trinidad and Tobago. Paul Beatty has gotten a lot of press for his new book The Sellout.  Here is an article from The Root . Speaking of The Sellout, this essay compares the book to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly . T...