The thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le […]
I have loved reading for so long that it isn’t a surprise that I’m now running 2 book clubs – one here in Normandy where I live (It’s been going now for over 15 years) and the second one is called the Read Soul Lit Book Club and it’s on its third year over on […]
I’ll be trying to participate in the Runwright Reads Summer Reading Challenge which is June 21 – September 23, 2023. Now I’m already participating in a few more reading challenges but if I could read at least 5 books to tick off five of these 14 prompts I’ll be thrilled. What I’m looking forward to […]
“An irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in America I was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a […]
“So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up […]
June is Caribbean Heritage Month! I always get so excited about reading a huge stack of books by Caribbean authors but somehow about a week or two before I get anxious and torn over which books to put in my TBR stack of the month. As a habit I always put my planned reading for […]
The Classics Club announced #18 yesterday for its 33rd Classics Club Spin! That means I’ll be reading Un Coeur Simple by Gustave Flaubert from my classics list. I’m really excited about that. Love that I’ll be reading another book in French and it’s only 69 pages! If you haven’t heard of this French classic originally […]
I’m back y’all and I plan on staying. I’m going to be participating in the next Classics Club Spin #33. What is the spin you might be asking yourself? write your blog post before Sunday, March 19, 2023, which is tomorrow In the post create a list of 20 classics of your choice that you […]
www.instagram.com/reel/CaKiDB0ABKz/ Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore by Walter Mosley was a book that I enjoyed surprisingly enough. I could feel all the work Mosley did to try to right his lead female character authentically. He didn’t do too badly. This book was interesting and had that vibe of someone trying to do things differently but […]
Day 18: Fave Toni Morrison Character Hands down my favourite Character from a Toni Morrison novel is Pilate Dead from Song of Solomon. What an interesting, touching, and mysterious character. If you haven’t yet met Song of Solomon what are you waiting for. Get to it! You won’t regret it. Song of Solon is also […]
Day 17: Rec from Bookstagrammer This book has been recommended to me by so many people. The cover is haunting to say the least. I’m looking forward to it but I’m afraid it’s going to make me mad as hell. Thanks to @prettybrowneyereader @musical_tati and @jerseyfemme for recommending this one to me. Promise I will […]
Day 16: Cooking/Baking Books: This cookbook was gifted to me by my lovely friend Rosa. This cookbook is going to add some spicy diversity to my cooking. Marcus Samuelsson’s recipes all have an interesting twist to them. He’s an Ethiopian born Swedish American chef and that mix definitely must add some creativity to his cooking.That […]
Day 15: Cuz This is Thriller!: Hands down The blanche Whites series is sone of my favorites. This series follows Blanche White a house cleaner who gets into to some pretty sticky situations and winds up sleuthing throughout the stories. She’s smart and spot on with her commentary which usually touches on societal critique. There […]
Kindred takes place in 1976 and in 1815. Dana a young African-American woman periodically experiences dizziness and black outs which enable her to go back in time to 1815. The experience of going back to the slave days is shocking and terrible for her in the beginning. She is extremely distressed since she has no […]
Day 14: La Vie en Rose Today’s books are in the vein of love and messy relationships. These two books are by another one of my favorite authors, Bernice L McFadden aka Geneva Holliday. I’m not really a romance/erotica reader but I’m willing to give Groove and Fever a try. I’m saving them for summer […]
Day 13: Book Club Recs Book clubs are a fast growing activity these days for avid readers like myself. I know because I have two – Normandy Book Club (in existence for over 15 years) and The Read Soul Lit Book Club (just started at the end of 2020). They were both started out of […]
Day 12: Snackin’ & Readin’: Eating and reading is not my thing. I just can’t bear seeing grease spots or food stains on my beautiful hardcovers. So I usually just drink tea or some kind of drink. I’m a bit obsessive about keeping my books in excellent condition. This picture I took is of one […]
Day 11: Surprise! Being online reading publicly has allowed le to exchange ideas on reading but it’s also give me the chance to meet some pretty awesome people. For me that’s the richest part of creating content on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. As a result, the last biggest surprise I had was this stack […]
Day 10: True Life I began reading The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison last year. It’s been an amazing endeavour reading and learning about him. I have a love of letters and reading epistolary formatted books. Epistolary novels aren’t as prevalent these days as they were in the past. This being said a girl can […]
Day 9: Last #RSL Pic on Phone This is the last pic on my phone, which is the stack of books I used for the Book Spine Poetry video. I’ve had the pleasure of reading all of these books except In Search of Satisfaction by J. California Cooper, An Untamed Stated by Roxane Gay, and […]
Day 8: Book Spine Poetry Enjoy! I invite you to try and make a poem from the titles on your book spines. It’s amazing what you can come up with. Share yours below in the comments.
Day 7: Black Shelfie Today’s picture is my bottom shelf on my color coordinated bookshelf. It’s my smallest and it’s the first time I decided to arrange my books by color. It’s taken me a while to get used to, but I feel arranging my books by last name is the best. I can find […]
Day 6: #ReadSoul Lit Vibes Nothing more #ReadSoulLit than a bunch of great books by black authors and Maxwell playing somewhere in the background. Click below to see my Instagram reel for this prompt. www.instagram.com/reel/CZo9nQpgh-s
Day 5: Anticipated New Release My most anticipated release is A Woman of Endurance by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa. My goodness check out that fabulous cover designed by Haitian born artist, based in New York, Fabiola Jean-Louis. It’s such a powerful, intense cover that is already speaking to the reader before we even get started with the […]
Day 4: Unexpected Fave Choosing an unexpected fave was very difficult. I was trying to find a book I hadn’t already written about but it seems faves are faves for a reason. We can’t stop talking about them. This was the second book I read by J. California Cooper. The first book I read was […]
Day 3: Home Sweet Home What is Home Sweet Home for an avid reader? Well I guess that could almost be anything. For me it’s lying on the sofa with a hot cup of tea or sitting at the kitchen table with a hot cup of tea. Actually anywhere I can pull out a book […]
Day 2: Top #RSL Book of 2021 It was very difficult to choose just one top Read Soul Lit book from 2021. I read so many excellent books last year. So I decided to pick 3 – favorite nonfiction, favorite fiction, and favorite poetry collection. On to the books…. Yellow Wife – Sadeqa Johnson Yellow […]
Happy Black History Month! For me, Black History Month is everyday, but I enjoy that there is a month where I can devote some exclusive time to celebrating my people and learning even more about them. February is also the month when Read Soul Lit got its wings. It’s the month when we take the […]
I had the pleasure of watching the Stella Prize 2021 Longlist announcement this morning on YouTube. It’s actually the first time I took the time to do that in a while. I don’t think I’ve followed any major literary prize closely since Bernadine Evaristo had to share The Booker Prize win with Margaret Atwood. That […]
Day 10: Book and Bookmark Children of the Night The Best Short Stories By Black Writers 1967 to the Present is an edition I was lucky enough to purchase in a used book sale in Paris for a whopping 1€! The book sale was selling paperbacks for 0.50€ and hardcovers 1-2€. I grabbed this one […]
Day 8: Book with a View Head Off & Split is my Spotlight of the day. Yes! Yes! Wow this poetry collection by the talented Nikki Finney! This poetry collection is a moving read that takes you through African American culture and history. You’ll just want to keep rereading. As a matter of fact, I’m […]
Day 6: Plant and a BookI will always mention Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles May when some ask for recommendations of Black American authors. This book is so damn underrated! I hope one day Eric Charles May decides to release another book. I’d be the first one to purchase it.Bedrock faith has everything […]
Day 4: Young Adult If you’ve been following me for a while you know I don’t really get into Young Adult so much. I feel like it’s written for young people so I don’t have to like it. This being said I had to think on what I had that was different from the typical […]
Day 2: The day’s prompt was Outside. I was so happy to see all the beautiful pics of books in the snow or with snowy backgrounds. Absolutely beautiful! I decided to take a picture of The Living is Easy by Dorothy West in my garden in front of the only beautiful thing left. This was […]
Better late than never! I’m finally back at the beginning of this new year with the Read Soul Lit Photo Challenge. I’ve linked the photo challenge here so that you can follow along. I promise to be back with at least one post a week but this month I’ll be here everyday with my […]
I had the pleasure of reading Blues to Blessings: Moving from Fearful to Faithful by Suzette Webb at the beginning of this year. I don’t usually read books like this which would be classified as self-help, but this one I found interesting and I could see how it could be a big help to a […]
Scrolling through my Instagram feed this morning I came across the announcement of the OCM Bocas Prize 2020 Longlist (9 longlist nominees), which I hadn’t heard of this prize. This OCM Bocas Prize was first launched in 2011 and it awards Caribbean authors who hold citizenship or were born in the Caribbean. Each category will […]
The Women’s Prize 2020 longlist was just announced very late in the evening few days ago. I woke up to the news on Twitter the next day. As disappointed as I was with the prize last year, you’re probably wondering what the heck am I doing on here posting about it this year. I couldn’t […]
This was a great discussion to end Black History Month. We were also blessed to have Leonard Pitts, Jr for the second half of the discussion. He’s really brilliant! This live discussion contains spoilers so if you haven’t finished reading you might want to wait until you do. Enjoy! If you’d like to pick up […]
Day 25 – Drink & Book(s) Today I decided to take a picture of one of my favorite mugs (New Orleans – Bourbon St. mug) and a nice chunk of my ReadSoulLit shelves. It always makes me very happy to drink a great cup of tea and to read a good book. Nothing can beat […]
Day 23 – Eternally Classic Phenomenal Woman Four Poems Celebrating Women is definitely eternally classic….. The video below is of Maya Angelou reciting Phenomenal Woman. It’s hard to believe she isn’t here anymore. […]
Day 21 – December Wrap Up My December 2019 ended with a bang because I was lucky enough to read The Nickel Boys, Red at the Bone, and In West Mills. All three were five-star reads for me. The Nickel Boys was saddening but a wonderfully told story shedding light on the horrors that took […]
Day 19 – Celebrate Good Times I can’t think of a better way to celebrate good times other than with friend, family, great food and drink. So this cookbook Jubilee: Recipes from two centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton–Martin came immediately to mind. I have a thing for cookbooks. I can read […]
Day 17 – A 2010s Classic I couldn’t resist choosing Lighthead by Terrance Hayes. This was the first collection I read. Y him which wasn’t suggested to me by Danielle from Dani! Dany! Danie! On Instagram. I was not disappointed. His poetry is meaningful, intentional, and creative. I know poetry can often times turn […]
Day 15 – Cuz This Is Thriller! Thrillers aren’t the genre I go to the most but they are starting to be the ones that I go to to decompress from all of the serious reads I pick up. I chose Blanche Cleans Up (The Blanche White series #3) by Barbara Neely and A Little […]
Day 13 – Biography or Memoir I chose the memoir by Michaela De Prince called Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. After hearing her story on television many years ago, I was motivated to read her story. I haven’t yet read this one but I have a feeling it’s going to be very […]
Day 11 – 2020 Newbie As every year there are so many new releases and new authors appearing on the scene and 2020 is no different. I decided to go with Stateway’s Garden by Jasmon Drain, gifted to me by Penguin Random House. This debut work is a memoir of connected short stories that take […]
Day 9 – Word Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates was the best representation of Word. This letter written from a black father to his black son is a poignant must-read from Coates. It was recommended by Toni Morrison, who deemed it to be required reading. I hadn’t realized but apparently Coates is […]
Day 7 – Current Read My current reads are keeping me glued to the pages. The Last Thing You Surrender by Leonard Pitts, Jr is the Read Soul Lit 2020 Read Along pick. It is captivating everybody. So glad to discover another interesting black American writer that I hadn’t read before. I’ll definitely be combing the rest […]
Day 5 – It’s a family affair! I have quite a few possibilities on my shelves with this theme but the book that came to my mind first was The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips. Now to be honest, this book has been sitting on my shelves for over 2 years. Why? Because I’m […]
Day 3 – Roots and Books made me start looking deeply into my shelves. Having started this year with the powerful memoir, Heavy by Kiese Laymon. I felt like roots had to be taken figuratively and literally. Combing my shelves I fell upon How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. I forgot I […]
Black History Month is finally here and has taken off with a blast! Here’s where the photo challenge is at the moment for me: Day 1: ReadSoulLit TBR I’m a Booktube Prize judge this year and will be judging the first round which is happening this month. This won’t deter me from picking up these […]
Black History month is nearing and I’m writing today to let you know about what I have planned to celebrate it literarily. Of course I’ll be hosting the 2020 #ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge over on Instagram. Get your books and picture ideas ready. This is one of the best moments to get book recommendations of black […]
Quote: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies…. The man who never reads only lives one.” […]
Today’s my last day of recommendations before Christmas and for the year 2019! Bravo! If you’ve stuck with me until the end. I really appreciate it. My last recommendation is another really big favorite and it’s by one of my favorite authors too. I’m going to be talking briefly about Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat. […]
It’s day 23 and we’re almost at the end of my 24 days of recommendations before. Today I’ve decided to talk about Guy Delisle’s graphic novel Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City. Now this was the first graphic novel I read by Guy Delisle. His wife works for Médecins Sans Frontière, so they were sent […]
I fell upon The White Tiger in 2008 when it won the Booker Prize. Of all the books on that shortlist, it stuck out to me the most. I really enjoy reading about Indian culture. I feel like with every book I read I learn something new about their culture. That’s really stimulating. This […]
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