Tag: African-American literature

#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 10 Book Spine Poetry

Buffalo Dance The Journey of York – Frank X Walker

Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime – J. California Cooper

He Never Came Home – Regina R. Robertson

Lost in the City – Edward P. Jones

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere – ZZ Packer

Nowhere is a Place – Bernice L. McFadden

A Kind of Freedom – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 9 Want to Reread

There are so many novels that I’d like to reread but the one that comes to mind from an African-American author is Native Son.  I first read Native Son in college for a third year literary course.  I was blown away by the precision in Richard Wright’s writing style.  You will literally go through all emotions while reading this tragic and infuriating novel, which show cases Bigger Thomas one of the most intriguing main characters in an American modern classic.  Native son has to be one of the greatest American classics and should be read by all.  Have you read it?  Were you blown away by it?

“Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.” (Native Son, description from Goodreads)

Native Son – Richard Wright, paperback, 454 pages (Vintage Classics)

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 8 – Short Story Collection

The late great writer and poet, Henry Dumas, has been on my TBR for ages. However I didn’t have any of his books until last year when I purchased this short story collection from Coffee House Press. Note that his work isn’t easy to find these days.  His writing has been deemed brilliant and influential. Through his work he developed themes of the Black Aesthetic Movement which was eminent in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was also influenced by Moms Mabley, gospel, jazz, blues, and spirituals. Sadly Dumas was shot to death in 1968 by a New York City Transit Police officer, while waiting on a subway platform. It is believed that his death was a case of mistaken identity, although there is no proof of that. I can’t wait to get into this one!  Here is his brief and exceptional bibliography:

Poetry for My People (1970) (poetry)

Ark of Bones and Other Stories (1974) (short stories)

Play Ebony, Play Ivory (1974) (poetry)

Jonah and the Green Stone (1976) (novel)

Rope of Wind and Other Stories (1979) (short stories)

Goodbye, Sweetwater: New and Selected Stories (1988) (short stories)

Knees of a Natural Man: The Selected Poetry of Henry Dumas (1989) (poetry)

Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas (Coffee House Press, 2003) (short stories)

Quote: (Themes in this quote = slavery, freedom, capitalism, greed, america…)

“If an eagle be imprisoned
on the back of a coin,
and the coin tossed
into the sky,
the coin will spin,
the coin will flutter,
but the eagle will never fly.”
― Henry Dumas

 

Echo Tree The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas – Henry Dumas, paperback, 381 pages (Coffee House Press)

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 6 – A Modern Classic

This is one of the few vintage Signet editions left from my family’s book collection. It reminds me of my Uncle Lawrence. RIP.  He talked a lot about Claude Brown and this book. I’m due for a reread of Manchild in the Promised Land. I read it the year I graduated from high school and was completely blown away by it.  I then understood a lot better some of the things my uncle was always talking about.  Poignant and inspiring with plenty of lessons to be learned by all, it’s a must read!

“Claude Brown is a black man who made it out of the ghetto who pulled himself up from Harlem, from the gang wars, the crime, the dope pushing to become a law student at one of America’s leading universities.  Mantled in the Promised Land is his story.  It is one of the most extraordinary autobiographies of our time.”  (back of paperback, Manchild in the Promised Land)

Manchild in the Promised Land – Claude Brown, paperback, 429 pages (A Signet Book)

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 5: Historical Fiction

 

I read this one a few years ago when it came out. Very interesting story that is written with a lot of creativity. This was my first book by James McBride and it certainly won’t be my last. I think I might even think about rereading this one. “Henry Shackleford is a slave boy in Kansas Territory in 1856, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forced. When the legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town-with Brown, who believes he’s a girl.” (Inside flap of The Good Lord Bird) .

The Good Lord Bird, hardcover, 417 pages (Riverhead Books)

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 4 – Sign of the Times (Non-Fic)

I decided to go with Another Day in the Death of America because it’s on my 2018 TBR.  It’d a book hat I’m hesitant about reading because of the tragedy it contains.  However, I realize and accept that these stories need to be told. Sadly, gun control is something we still can’t seem to tackle properly in the US. Let’s hope we won’t wait until the number of dead rises far beyond its current number.  “Saturday, 23 November 2013, ten children and teens were shot dead.  The youngest was nine; the oldest was nineteen.  White, black, and Latino, they fell in suburbs, hamlets, and ghettos.  None made the national news. There was no outrage about their passing.  It was just another day in the death of America, where on average seven children and teens are killed by guns daily.” (Inside flap of Another Day in the Death of America) “24 hours. 8 states. 10 young lives lost to gun violence.”

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 3 – A Family Saga

I thought about quite a few novels to suggest for today but the one that stood out is Nowhere Is a Place, which I had the pleasure of reading last year.  I took the time to read through all Bernice L. McFadden’s novels last year.  It was great to see how she has developed over her writing career.  She is a wonderful writer who knows how to create and to grow a character throughout a story.  Sherry is haunted by an unexplained incident from when she was young and it leads her on a discovery of her family as an adult.  It was hard to put this book down.  I was completely engrossed and fell in love with Sherry and her straight shooting, hysterical mother, Dumpling.  This would be a great place to start reading McFadden if you’re interested.  Have you read Nowhere Is a Place? What titles of family sagas from African-American authors would you recommend?

 

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 1 – #ReadSoulLit TBR

I don’t usually make TBRs because I have a lot of trouble following them.  Remember I’m Fickle Fred. I’m totally capable of quitting a book for no apparent reason, sometimes even when I’m enjoying it.  I know strange. So my TBR list for February is eclectic but interesting – Tar Baby by Toni Morrison, A Red Death by Walter Mosley, Buffalo Dance The journey of York and When Winter Come  The Ascension of York by Frank X Walker, The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis, Halsey Street by Naima Coster, and Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore by Walter Mosley.  There is one debut novel, one Middle Grade, 2 Poetry books, 1 detective novel, and a great American Classic, which is a reread.  I feel like if I can manage to get through all of these then I can maybe work in a 400+ page book towards the end of the month. Big plans! Let’s see if I can keep my eyes on the books I’ve chosen. I’m mostly looking forward to rereading Tar Baby.  It’s been a long while since I picked it up.  I remember it sparking some lively discussions in college.  I hope it will do the same during our discussions on Goodreads. So what are you picking up this month?  Will you be exclusively reading African-American authors?  Are you joining me in reading Tar Baby?

 

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#ReadSoulLit Read Along 2018 Announcement

I’m an affiliate for The Book Depository. It would be much appreciated to click the link below if you’re interested in picking up any of my recommendations. It will help fund my incessant book buying, reading, and reviewing.
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Literary Goals in 2018

                  

Hello All! I’m back and ready to write.  I took a very significant break from this blog and from my YouTube channel.  Needless to say, it was a lot.  I was everywhere and nowhere and that wasn’t what I wanted.  Having taken the time to reflect and to make some changes to my blog, I feel I’m more clear-headed about what I want to achieve through blogging.  But before I tell you all about those goals, let me take you back briefly through my year reading in 2017 because despite not blogging I was reading.

Now my reading goals for 2017 were specific and sadly I didn’t accomplish them completely.  However I’m still pretty happy about what I read and how much I read. I had a goal to read all of Bernice McFadden’s novels and I failed.  I read all of her novels except, My Name is a Butterfly (out of print but is being released this year :)) and Finding Amos.  I didn’t reread The Book of Harlan and Glorious.  Although, I’m sure I’ll reread The Book of Harlan one day.  As for  the others I read for the first time, they were all very good and each had something special about them. They are like her children.  McFadden really has a way with telling a story and inventing characters.  Of all the ones I read I think Glorious is the book I least preferred and that was because I felt it was too short.

I encourage you all to take a year to read one author in order of publication.  It’s a wonderful way to learn about writing and how an author hones her/his skills over time.  We are all passionate readers but when we sit down to write we forget about the challenge of the exercise of writing.  It’s not easy and it is quite a solitary activity for most of the time.

My next challenge was to read more Caribbean authors.  Unfortunately I didn’t read as many as I wanted to, but I’m not giving up on that one.  I also wanted to read more pages last year than I did in 2016 but failed at that too.  I was short about 200 pages. Oh well but I read 59 books and almost got to the page count so I read more big books this year.  That really showed for my Goodreads Big Book challenge last year when I read 13 and had pledged to read 10.  I was really happy about that.  I read some great big books and only 2 of them were disappointing – American Pastoral by Philip Roth and Small Great Things by Jodi Piccoult.  Let’s just try not to dwell on those 2.  Two duds out of 59 ain’t bad!  Lastly I pledged to read at least one Russian novel and that just never happened.  Every time I culled my shelves for something to read, I skipped right over the Russian novels – too daunting.  One day…

Now on to my goals for 2018, I have set my Goodreads challenge to read 60 books this year.  I usually set my goal at 50 and always go over.  I hope this will push me to read more and watch less YouTube and television.  I’m primarily looking forward to increasing my page count significantly.   Next challenge will be to read more Caribbean authors. I hope to read at least ten. My last reading challenge is to participate in #readingblackout which is spearheaded by Denise D. Cooper at Art Books Live Denise D. Cooper on YouTube.  She’ll be reading only African – American writers this year.  I’ll be joining her for January, February, and March.  I may join in again later on in the year.  If you’re interested I encourage you to join in too if only for a month.

You know #readsoullit will be going on in February in honor of Black History Month as usual with a photo challenge on Instagram and a read along on YouTube.  I’ll be posting on that shortly.  Now another literary challenge will be for me to keep a bullet journal of my reading and my life and most of all to continue writing the novel I’ve been working on.  I’d really liked to write more and to eventually get to the point where I finish something – short story collection, novel, etc. anything!

 

So that’s all on what I’m reading and on what I’m doing literary wise for the year.  I hope I haven’t once again bitten off more than I can chew but I think I can make these challenges work for me.  What about you?  Have you decided to make any plans to read or to write something?  Or are you one of those people who clams up once the challenge has been announced?  If you are no worries.  I can be like that sometimes too.  You know I’m Fickle Fred. 😉

Happy New Year to you all!!! I wish you loads of excellent reading and writing in 2018!!!

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