The Reading Diva

Disclaimer: Received an advance copy from Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press and Edelweiss. I am also in charge of a library program in which the author did a virtual program (more on that later). Opinions of my own. TW: murders, kidnappings, missing people, serial killings, drug and alcohol abuse, drugging of a character, mental health issues, attempted suicide, domestic violence Summary: Chloe Davis is a psychologist living in Baton Rouge and is getting ready to marry the love of her life.  She is also the daughter of Dick Davis, a well-known serial killer who is in prison for killing six teenage girls. As the 20th anniversary of Dick's arrest approaches, teen girls begin to go missing again and Chole begins to see parallels. Review: With her debut, Charleston author Stacy Willingham has written a good thriller in A Flicker in the Dark. Even though Chloe has fought hard to create the life she has after her father's arrest, she is barley hanging on. Some would even say ...

Disclaimer: Received an advance copy from Berkley Publishing and Netgalley. Opinions are my own. TWs: prolonged grief, stress from library closing/job uncertainty, death of character Summary: June Jones works as a library assistant in her English village. This is the library where her mother, who died when she was a teenager, worked as a librarian. She's stuck in her grief and the most excitement she gets is seeing the regular patrons every day. But when the library is threatened with closure, June and the patrons get together to work on saving their library.  Review: Let me start off with two quotes from the book from two of the characters, who are regular patrons of the library. "What these management consultant with their calculators and spreadsheets will never work out is that the library is about so much more than simply books. Libraries are like a net, there to catch those of us in danger of falling through the cracks. That's what we're really fighting to prote...

  Disclaimer: Received an advance copy from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley. Opinions are my own. Slight TWs: prolonged grief/guilt Summary: In the second book of The Boyfriend Project series, Taylor Powell is trying to get her personal training career off of the ground. But homegirl is broke. BROKE, BROKE. Jamar Dixon is a NFL player who is trying to get back on the field after a devastating injury. And he picks Taylor to help him with that goal...but he doesn't want anyone to know. They start posing at boyfriend/girlfriend, but what happens when that romance gets a little too real? Review: The Boyfriend Project was one of my favorite books of last year and didn't think Farrah could top that one. But I liked The Dating Playbook more and it's one of my favorites of this year (so far)! I found myself rooting for both Taylor and Jamar in their professional and personal endeavors! I love that despite the fact that Taylor was the trainer and Jamar was the cli...

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from Avon/HarperCollins and Netgalley. Opinions are my own. Slight TWs: racism/microaggressions, chronic illness, mentions of passing of a loved one due to illness and tragedy, mentions of a mass murder Summary: Maya Jackson is working in New York City as a bridal designer, hoping to get a promotion as the top designer at the brand she works for. When her father suddenly falls ill, she heads back to her hometown of Charleston, SC to care for him. While back home, she gets an opportunity to work at a bridal shop, owned by veteran/widower/father Derek. He is trying to save the shop he inherited from his mother. Review: Book based in Charleston. Check. Book that the main character has the same name as you. Check. Awesome cover of a Black bride with St. Michael's Church and Rainbow Row in the background. And a cobblestone road! Check. Actual locations and streets that are in Charleston featured in the book. Check. And a great (and clean) roman...

Thanks to Sourcebooks and Edelweiss for the advance copy. Opinions are my own. Summary: Antonia "Toni" Bennette does not want to be a rock star. She's fine playing her guitar, doing shows in Philly's indie music scene and doing session work. What she wants is to be part-owner of a recording studio. But Toni gets an opportunity of a lifetime when she is recruited to be a temporary guitarist for up-and-coming band The Lillys. But it also reunites her with Sebastian, the manager of the band and her old friend who shared her dreams as a teen. Review: I really like this book! It touches on a lot of issues that many have dealt with, but not all deal with them in a Rock and Roll setting. Toni has modest dreams despite her tremendous talent. She is also dealing with the absence of her mother (who is also a guitarist and abandoned her to follow her own Rock and Roll dreams) and her aloof father. As a teen, she found comfort in her friendship with Seb (who had similar goals), ...

It was taped yesterday but since it's Monday, let's keep the theme going!

Since I started my current job when the pandemic was starting to hit the United States, I have not been able to do in-person library programming. But thanks to technology, I can reach not only the patrons of Charleston County, but around the world through virtual programming. I have been doing a number of book talks, mostly on African American debut fiction.  Here are the two that I did from home. One is about female authors. They are only on Facebook. Women Authors African American Debut Authors The next set of videos were filmed after the staff was able to get back into the library. We have a digital studio in the building and my coworker films and edits the videos (and makes me look good on camera). Fortunately, our communications department has started putting all videos on YouTube as well as Facebook. I recently taped two more videos that will be on CCPL's Facebook and YouTube pages in late March and April. I have to tape them weeks in advance so the communications and outreac...

Summary: In this modern-day retelling of Jane Eyre, Jane is a dog walker (and kleptomaniac) in the posh Birmingham (AL) suburbs of Thornfield Estates. She falls head over heels for Eddie, a recent widower who just lost his wealthy wife and her best friend in a boating accident. But when questions arise about the accident, will it cause Jane to lose trust in Eddie? And why is her former roommate John blackmailing her? Is Jane her real name? And what's that noise in the house? Review: I know there's been a million retellings of Jane Eyre. But if you like your Jane with some suspense and a little bit of thrills, you may like this book. If you read the original, you might have find yourself rooting for Jane and coming around to Mr. Rochester. But none of these characters are likable, in my honest opinion. Not even Jane. Not even the nosy neighbors. They all got secrets and character flaws that makes you not root for any of them. So if you like unlikable characters, you may like t...

Note: Received an ARC from HarperCollins. Opinions are my own. Happy Pub Day to The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson! Summary: It’s 2008 and Barack Obama has just been elected President of the United States.  In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle  is a married  engineer  and her husband wants to start a family. But she had a child as a teenager and walked away from her small hometown in Indiana, promising not to look back.  But  for  her to move forward, she must return to her hometown, confronting her family and  befriending  a  White boy named Midnight, who is  adrift  and looking for connection.   Review: Let me start by saying that I liked this book. I thought it was well-written and the storyline flowed.  I liked Ruth, her brother Eli and Mama, her grandmother (even though I didn't agree on what she did).  I also like some of the minor characters (Corey and the Cunninghams, Natasha, etc). And there are issues of race, class...

New books came in the mail last week, so it's time for another edition of Mailbox Monday! Two of the books featured today are ARCs from Harper Books  for books that will be released in October.  The other is a book I won on Facebook several weeks ago through DAW . Forgotten All The Stars in Heaven The Book of Phoenix Do you see any books that you would like to read?  Hit me up on the comments section!  Thanks to the publishers for the books!

Relax in Paradise Julian Bond and  Russell Poole . Congrats to the nominees of the First Novel Prize  and the St. Francis College Literary Prize ! Sir Elton is not here for banning LGBT books . Other writers are not here for Jonathan Franzen's recent comments . Remember the story about Pat Conroy opening a gym?   A medical scare inspired him to live a healthier life , which eventually lead him to open the gym. Attica Locke talks about writing for books and for the small screen . Here is a new review of The Turner House . This fantasy book written by an African-American man (and with an African-American narrator) sounds interesting. R.L. Stine says  he doesn't like to read nonfiction books . One writer admitted that she hasn't read most of the classics .  I feel you, sister. A new children's book claims to get children to sleep in minutes and people say it works. Soccer star Cari Lloyd will be releasing a memoir . Ballerina Michaela D...

More books came in the mail, so it's time for another edition of Mailbox Monday! These books arrived in the mail two weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around writing about them.  All three books are from Harper Books and will be released next month. The Art of Memoir Where Everybody Looks Like Me A Free State Do you see any books that you may be interested in?  Hit me up in the comments section!  Thanks Harper for the ARCs!

Today's Friday Reads is God Help The Child by Toni Morrison.  My book club is meeting for the first time in a while on Sunday and this is the book that was selected.  I'm more than half-way through and I'm still trying to figure out where this book's going.  It seems like several of the members have read it and enjoyed it. At least the place we're having the meeting has awesome food. Relax in Paradise Ann McGovern,   Brook Stephenson  and David Nobbs . A 100-year-old J. R. R. Tolkien book will be published . Another deceased author that will also have his work published is Truman Capote .  There will also be a book about his friendship with Harper Lee. Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay TOGETHER  in one article, interviewing each other. Roxane is also working on a Young Adult novel that will be released in 2017. James McBride's next book will be about James Brown . Romance writer Beverly Jenkins talks about her frustration when she st...

Relax in Paradise Carol Brown Janeaway and Alan Cheuse . Congrats to the nominees of the African-American Literary Awards Show ! Publishers Weekly has suggestions on what you should read this fall . NPR was able to compile 100 great romance novels based on listeners' and readers' recommendations. A bookstore is giving refunds for those who didn't like Go Set A Watchman. A female author got a rude awaking when she tried to publish a book in her name and a male nom de plume .  Guess who got the most inquiries? Judy Blume came to the rescue of a man who accidentally gave away his wife's copy of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." Steve Hamilton left his publisher a few weeks before his new book came out, based on (what he felt was) lack of publicity for the new book.   Luckily he was able to find a new publisher . N.K. Jemisim was able to get a review for her new book in the New York Times ! Walter Mosley writes about how Louisiana...

Book News out of Charleston this week: A woman wrote a letter to the local paper's editor complaining about a book her daughter (who will be a freshman at one of the local high schools) had to read for English class.  Her complaint was that it was too vulgar and that the book should be off the summer reading list (even though the child could have read another book off the list).  To make a long story short, she got her way and the school pulled the book almost three weeks before school starts.  One, if her daughter doesn't know some of that stuff that's mentioned in the book, she will by the time she graduates.  And if I was a kid or a parent of a kid who read that book and it was pulled from the reading list, I would be ticked.  Just because one parent has a problem with it doesn't mean that other parents feel the same way.  Here are reactions from the local library's YA department and the author of the book .   There is a campaign to raise money ...

Relax in Paradise Chenjerai Hove , E. L. Doctorow and Tom Moore . Prayers go out to Alan Cheuse , who was seriously injured in a car crash. Congrats to Deborah Johnson for winning the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction! Is Go Set a Watchman an indictment of the limits of liberalism ? Sebastian Junger is writing a book about how solders deal with stress after returning from wars. Pledged, a book about how it goes down in (mostly white) sororities, has been recently updated.  Author Alexandra Robbins talks about how some sororities deal with sexual assault claims . Reshonda Tate Billingsley talks about stereotypes and violence while promoting her new book Mama's Boy. Edwidge Danicat talks about how she wrote her first Young Adult novel . Toni Morrison talks about the inspiration behind The Bluest Eye . Nigerian author Dillibe Onyema talks about the many authors that have come from his home country . A new book discusses the impact of the late 60s-early 70s PBS...

Congrats to Tracey K. Smith, who was named director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing ! Ida B. Wells was honored with a Google Doodle  yesterday. Is there a third Harper Lee novel out there ?   A fourth ? A Charleston native spoke about his feelings after reading Go Set A Watchman and how it relates to his family and life.  And Jabari Asim has been rethinking his thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird. Another book that received a lot of hype this week was Ta-Neishi Coates' new book, Between the World and Me.  Based on his Facebook post, Dr. Cornell West wasn't a fan (and Michael Eric Dyson told him to get over it).  And this guy from the New York Times missed the damn point. Booksellers and authors are demanding the federal government investigate Amazon over anti-trust violations. Publishers Weekly is already talking about fall releases.   And The Million has also dropped their list of books to look forward for the rest of the year. ...

Many people are awaiting Tuesday's release of Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman , which is the "sequel" for To Kill A Mockingbird.  PBS will be showing the American Masters episode chronicling Harper's life tonight and will include an update about the new book.   Here is a picture of Harper receiving a finished copy of the book.  And you can read the first chapter here . Relax in Paradise James Tate . Congrats to the Andrew Carnegie Award winners ! Congrats to  Chimamanda Ngzoi Adichie, who is expecting a little one ! Congrats to Lawrence Hill, who was honored with the Order of Canada . The huge news that is coming out of my home state is that the Confederate Flag is FINALLY off the Statehouse grounds. THANK GOD. This recent interview of Percival Everett (who is releasing a short story collection) and his thoughts on the Confederate Flag were…interesting. Speaking of the flag coming down, poet Nikky Finney wrote a passage to commemorate this day. ...

More books came in the mail last week so it's time for another edition of Mailbox Monday! All of the books today came from Harper Books .  Two will be released in July and everyone knows the third book. Crooked Heart You Don't Have to Live Like This To Kill a Mockingbird (to reread in time for the release of Go Set a Watchman) Do you see any books that you would like to read? Hit me up in the comments section! Thanks to Harper for the ARCs!

More books came in the mail last week, so it's time for another edition of Mailbox Monday! I was suppose to receive both of today's featured books from Harper Books several months ago when ARCs were available.  Since they ran out of the ARCs, I was able to get the finished copies!  They are: Pleasantville  (the sequel to Black Water Rising , which I loved several years ago) Finding Samuel Lowe (which was written by a soror) Do you see any books you would like to read? Hit me up in the comments section!  Thanks to Harper for the books!