Let's Talk Books

[CrimsonTide4]

Someone To Catch My Drift by Jacqueline Powell

Aspiring singer Nikai Parker is depressed. Her boyfriend has been sent to jail for dating an underage girl, and she feels abandoned and desperate. That is, until her best friend, Sheila, convinces her that a night of clubbing is exactly what she needs to forget her troubles and lift her spirits. While at the club, Nikai's luck begins to improve when she meets a handsome firefighter named Robert Hayes-whom she believes may just be the man of her dreams. As their relationship progresses, Nikai falls completely in love and begins making plans to spend the rest of her life with Robert. However, lady luck has other plans-because Robert is involved with another woman, and this sassy hairdresser named Karen is not going to give up her man without a fight.

About the Author
Jacqueline Powell is a first-time novelist from St. Louis, Missouri. She is currently working on her second novel.

[delph998]

So far I've read...

1) The Upper Room by Mary Monroe
Rating: **** Stars

2) Living on the Edge of Respectability by Suzette D. Harrison (I think she's a soror)
Rating: *** stars

3) The Prodigal Husband by Jacquelin Thomas
In the process of reading now

4) Satin Doll (forgot that name of the author)
Rating ****

Check 'em out!

[skeeliteful]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
Someone To Catch My Drift by Jacqueline Powell

Aspiring singer Nikai Parker is depressed. Her boyfriend has been sent to jail for dating an underage girl, and she feels abandoned and desperate. That is, until her best friend, Sheila, convinces her that a night of clubbing is exactly what she needs to forget her troubles and lift her spirits. While at the club, Nikai's luck begins to improve when she meets a handsome firefighter named Robert Hayes-whom she believes may just be the man of her dreams. As their relationship progresses, Nikai falls completely in love and begins making plans to spend the rest of her life with Robert. However, lady luck has other plans-because Robert is involved with another woman, and this sassy hairdresser named Karen is not going to give up her man without a fight.

About the Author
Jacqueline Powell is a first-time novelist from St. Louis, Missouri. She is currently working on her second novel.

I read this book about a month ago. I don't want to give any info about the book away but I read it in 3 days. It's a pretty good read.

[DztndDiva]

EJD's new novel Theive's Paradise is good. It's different from his other books. Not that his books from last year were mess , but this one is just different compared to the others.

Anyway I'm just ready for his books and e lynn harris's books to become movies so I can see if the director invisioned the scenes like I do.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by DztndDiva
EJD's new novel Theive's Paradise is good. It's different from his other books. Not that his books from last year were mess , but this one is just different compared to the others. He even mentions a little bit (VERY LITTLE)about Greek life (he's an Alpha). Harris is a Kappa but never mentions it his books, unless its in the new one.

Anyway I'm just ready for his books and e lynn harris's books to become movies so I can see if the director invisioned the scenes like I do.

Soror, both Eric Jerome Dickey and E. Lynn Harris are Alphas. Just because he is homosexual does not make him a Kappa.

I agree EJD lightweight redeemed himself from last year's BULL that he wrote. EJD has thrown Greek allusions into his past books as well.

[ladygreek]

Sorors and Sisterfriends,
The Delta National Convention will offer you chances to purchase books by Black authors.

On Tuesday night, July 23 from 7:30pm-9:30pm there will be a FREE Literary Cafe featuring 5 authors who will read from their most current works and sign books. These authors range from new to established:

Pearl Cleage
Tina Ansa
Victoria Christopher Murray
Rose McGee
Venise Berry

In addition the following authors will be selling their books in the Vendor hall throughout the convention. Stop by.

Bishop Vashti McKenzie
Dr. Renita Weems
J. L. King
Dr. Marilyn Gaston
Pearl Cleage
Freeman Hrabowski
Tina Ansa
Rose McGee
Victoria Christopher Murray
Venise Berry
Arnitria Karen Shaw
Marjorie Harris
Bonnie W. McDaniel
Alice Johnson
Irene Williams Lawson
Linda Everett Moye
Clarice C. Boswell
Dorothy Winbush Riley
Dr. Nathaniel Brooks Jr.
Vickie Lynn Wilson
Brian Egeston
Stephanie Moore
Clara Adams-Ender
Patricia Haley
Janette McCarthy
New Anna Simone
Wendy Coakley-Thompson
J. Lanell White
C. F. Hawthorne
Lennise Morris
Corey Tate
Jacqueline Thomas
John Dunson
Roxie Dewitt Dawson
Charisse K. Richardson

BTW, we invited EJD but he had a scheduling conflict and we invited E. Lynn. But since his new book will not be released until July 30 he is taking the month of July off to rest up.

[Diva_01]

I know I'm late, but I LOVED Liar's Game!!! I can't believe some of yall didn't like it...now, Thieve's Paradise and the one before that was okay...

[delph998]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4


Soror, both Eric Jerome Dickey and E. Lynn Harris are Alphas. Just because he is homosexual does not make him a Kappa.

I agree EJD lightweight redeemed himself from last year's BULL that he wrote. EJD has thrown Greek allusions into his past books as well.

Is EJD a homosexual too? Just curious. CT4, I'm like you...I totally didn't like Between Lovers by EJD. That's why I was so slow to pick up this next book, but since you all said that he picked it up a notch, I'll have to get that really soon.

Lady Greek, thanks for informing us about that Literary Cafe at the National Convention

[kiml122]

Liar's Games was the first book by EJD that I didn't like. It took everything I had to finish that book. I thought Between Lovers was ok. It was very slow starting, and he mentioned being greek in the book, but didn't mention which org he belonged to. With Between Lovers, am I the only one that thinks that book was semi-autobiographical (if not all)? I don't know, but I just think he has some truth in it.

I read the excert for Thieves Paradise at the end of Between Lovers, and I have ordered it. It does seem to be different from his other books. Hopefully Balck Experience will send my books. They are starting to make me think that they are not about business and are not going to send the books that I have ordered.

I see someone else thinks that EJD is gay too. I thouhgt I was the only one that thought that. I don't have anything to pinpoint on why I think that he is....but I do.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by kiml122
Liar's Games was the first book by EJD that I didn't like. It took everything I had to finish that book. I thought Between Lovers was ok. It was very slow starting, and he mentioned being greek in the book, but didn't mention which org he belonged to. With Between Lovers, am I the only one that thinks that book was semi-autobiographical (if not all)? I don't know, but I just think he has some truth in it.


I see someone else thinks that EJD is gay too. I thouhgt I was the only one that thought that. I don't have anything to pinpoint on why I think that he is....but I do.

I see y'all did a heck of a lot of talknig in my absence.

Kim I think Between Lovers was autobiographical as well. Did anyone notice that there was NO NAME for the man who was an author on abook tour. Too much like EJD.

I am not totally sold on him being gay. He is my favorite male author because he really writes as if he is a studier of humans, our thoughts, actions and words PLUS BROTHA has the bomb love scenes.

[CrimsonTide4]

Sitting in the Front Pew by Parry "EbonySatin" Brown was an off the hook read. I bought it yesterday and finished it in one day. It deals with the death of the father who was loved by his 4 daughters and their grieving as well as finding out a family secret.

[delph998]

I'm going to pick that book up CT4. I luv discussing books on the forum. It's very informative!

[CrimsonTide4]

Yesterday and today I read 2 good books:

1. The Prodigal Husband by Jacquelin Thomas (spritual fiction): She is the author of Singsation, another good read. This one deals with a husband who has an affair, leaves his wife after their child dies, and his return home a year later. The wife is a believer, but the husband is not. Interesting dynamics

2. Sin in Soul's Kitchen by Andrew Oyefesobi: Soror Kelli (yes that one ) bought this for me last year as a birthday (AUGUST 1 ) present and I finished it today. Good read. The major female antagonist is demented and crazy. The major male protagonist battles her and his family legacy while trying to establish himself after graduating with his MBA.

**If you want more book reviews, send cash fast. I registered for a library card today but if the library is out of the book, I cannot read it. ***

[CrimsonTide4]

Body Images, Then and Now

By Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor


Those of us who are—all in one body—a woman, a person of color and a person of working class or poor origin, already know about the discomforting gaze that seeks to consume or "objectify" us for prurient entertainment or derogatory judgment. Those of us who fancy ourselves members of the Black female intelligentsia may feel we know about even more—everything from Saartjie Baartman (the Venus Hottentot), who was displayed in 19th century Europe as a sexual freak, to rapper Lil' Kim, who uses the sexual freak badge as a modern marketing tool. But all of us, and all who care about representation and culture, must read "The Black Female Body: A Photographic History" (Temple University Press)," by Deborah Willis and Carla (NICE NAME ) Williams.


Filled with carefully chosen images, many rare and some never produced for mass distribution, this 228-page volume is a groundbreaking, scholarly yet accessible analysis of how the Black female body has been represented in photography from its inception to the present. Using aesthetic, social as well as historical approaches, Willis and Williams illustrate how the photograph—which can create a false sense of reality and authenticity—has been a powerful means of reinforcing the European view that darker peoples of the world are inferior. As an extension, the images, especially those of nude, partially nude and undressed women, helped create a justification for colonialism, slavery and sexual abuse of Black women. They write: "Above all else, [the Black woman's] image, and especially her body, was understood to represent that which could be dominated and that which could be possessed, especially sexually."


It isn't always easy to look at this book. The 1850 images of two African American female slaves, Delia and Drana, made to strip to the waist for the camera are heartbreaking. While frontal and profile images seem designed to type the unsmiling women as ethnographic specimens, they actually mark the women's subjugation and humiliation. So while "The Black Female Body" is beautifully produced and the sort of volume usually considered a "coffee table book," I do not think it is the kind of book to lay around the home to be leafed through casually, especially by children. Many of the pictures, if allowed to speak for themselves, subvert the book's purpose and allow perpetuation of negative images without a deeper understanding of the manipulation behind them. Our children should see these images but only if we also explain to them what they are seeing. This book isn't all eye candy.

Williams and Willis, a MacArthur fellow, have compiled a tour de force of images and text that will make you think differently not only about African and African American history but also about the unique struggles that Black women have within that larger history. Depending on your relationship with your body, you may find yourself negotiating painful memory or a defiant new territory of freedom. By exploring also how Black photographers, and Black female photographers in particular, have reclaimed Black female images and bodies through their work, this book does not leave us in a state of victimization. In some sense, "The Black Female Body" is the antithesis of "Reflections in Black," the massive 1999 exhibit and book by Willis. By chronicling images taken of Black people by Black people, "Reflections in Black," lets the subjects speak. In contrast, images in "The Black Female Body," particularly those in the first sections devoted to "Colonial Conquest" and "The Cultural Body", often do not allow such voice. The focus here—while reaching to include supporting material from essays, films and even comedy—does not waver from the taboo and beautiful Black female body, and the various gazes upon it.

Esther Iverem's film reviews also appear on BET.com

-- May 24, 2002

[kiml122]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
Kim I think Between Lovers was autobiographical as well. Did anyone notice that there was NO NAME for the man who was an author on abook tour. Too much like EJD.

Yes I did notice that as well. As a matter of fact I flipped back through the bookw hile reading it to see if I had missed the name of the male lead. I kind of thought that book was some what autbiographical.

I just read Addictied by Zane last week. REad it in 2 days, that book was a trip. The ending was way out there.

I'm reading Thieves Paradise by EJD now, in the beginning I wasn't feeling it, but I'm only chapter or two from finishing and it has turned to out to be ok. I must admit, some of the things in that book as well were/are a trip.