The Reading Diva

Aphrodite Jones is one of the reasons why I love true crime. One of the first true crime books I read was All She Wanted , which was the story of Teena Brandon, who was killed because she was transgender. The case became the basis for the Oscar-winning movie Boys Don't Cry . Now Jones, who has done trial commentary for a number of TV shows and was a frequent guest on The Montel Williams Show , has a show of her own. On her show True Crime with Aphrodite Jones , Jones get to examine famous crimes that has captured the nation's attention the last 20-plus years. Her first episode will be about Scott Peterson (who killed his wife Laci and their unborn son). Future episodes will feature cases involving OJ Simpson (the second time around), the Menendez brothers and Michael Jackson's child abuse scandal (one of her most recent books examined the case and how much of a joke it was). True Crime will premiere Thursday (March 11) at 10 p.m EST on Investigation Discovery. For more inf...

This weekend (February 27-28) marks the return of the South Carolina Book Festival in Columbia. Many well-known and up-and-coming authors will be there. Several African-American authors will be there including Francis Ray, Clarence Nero and Tiffany Warren. Trista Thomas, author of the "Napply" series was suppose to be there, but I just saw on the festival's Web site that she has canceled. :-( Because of this, I may not go. But I don't rule out the possibility. Most of the events will be at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. For information, visit their Web site at http://www.scbookfestival.org/ . ETA 3/4/10: I did attend the SC Book Festival on 2/28 (Sunday). I hope to have the story and pictures up here by the end of the week. I've been busy with school and work lately.

Hello!! My name is Maya and I am your Reading Diva. I will be writing book reviews, giving you information about books (and events involving books) and other information that I would like to share. I will mostly be focusing on African-American literature (no Urban Lit, yuck), but I will also write about true crime, biographies and any other book that I find interesting. I do have some plans for this blog, such as a book club, but those will be in the future. I live in the beautiful state of South Carolina, where there are smiling faces, beautiful places and Republican leaders who like to find ways to embarrass us. Ever since I was a little girl, I have always love the written word. I love it so much that I graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in journalism. When that didn't work out, I decided to go back to Carolina and now I am working on a Master's degree in Library Science. Besides reading, I like to write, do volunteer work, surf on the Inter...