Black Literature – Brown Girl Reading

#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 26 Book and Music

Here’s another book that is on my 2018 TBR by an African-American writer called Jedah Mayberry. It’s a coming of age story. “It’s a lushly told reflection on a young man’s passage into manhood.” (back of The Unheralded King of Preston Plains Middle) Check out the video below with an interview with Jedah Mayberry talking about the inspiration he had for this book.

The Unheralded King of Preston Plains Middle – Jedah Mayberry, paperback, 315 pages (River Grove Books)

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.
http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=browngirlreading

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 25 First Letter of Your Name

It wasn’t easy finding a title that starts with the letter D in my collection of books. In the end, I found two, Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor was one of them. I decided to go with Daughters of the Stone by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, which is on my TBR for this year, since I’ll be focusing on reading what’s on my shelves. This was Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s debut novel published in 2009 and is apparently her only novel to date. Daughters of Stone follows five generations of Afro-Puerto Rican women through their physical and spiritual journey, starting in the 1880s. Check out the video below where Llanos-Figueroa reads an except from her novel and talks about how and why she wrote it.

Daughters of Stone – Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, hardcover, 323 pages

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 24 #ReadSouLit TBR in March

I’m going to do my best to stick with these, although I might change something. I’m so difficult about sticking to TBRs. My reading goals for March are to read for #marchmysterymadness and for #readingblackout. There are a few new ones on this stack I need to get to, especially The Obama Inheritance, which I’ll be buddy reading with Morgan Gayle. A big Thank You to Three Room Press for sending it to me for review. Another big Thank You to Dutton Books for sending me an ARC of Bad Men and Wicked Women too. I will also be buddy reading White Butterfly with Monica from Monlatable Book Reviews. She has an excellent blog you should definitely check out. I’m so happy Freshwater arrived today because I’ve been anticipating it. Are you planning on reading some mysteries next month? If so, which ones? Check out the video below with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton reading an excerpt from her debut novel A Kind of Freedom. Below that is a short clip of Attica Locke introducing her latest book Bluebird, Bluebird.

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 23 Cool Shoes and a Book

I just received this special edition of The Darkest Child last week. This new cover is perfect. I’ve been hearing so many people rave about this book as well as saying how mad it made them. It’s a book that’s going to put us through a lot of emotions. Sounds like a book for me. I’ll definitely be reading this one this year. Oh and those cool shoes are my daughter’s platform Converse.

Delores Phillips was born in Georgia in 1950 and sadly died in 2014. She graduated from Cleveland State University with a bachelor of arts in English. However, she worked as a nurse in psychiatric hospital in Cleveland. The Darkest Child was her debut novel.

The Darkest Child – Delores Phillips, paperback, 387 pages (Soho Press) This special edition has an introduction written by Tayari Jones.

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 20 Middle Grade

I had to choose this one especially since I finished it a few days ago. The Mighty Miss Malone is my first Middle Grade read of 2018. Hope it won’t be my last. I can see why its author Christopher Paul Curtis won the Newberry Medal. This was not my first read from Curtis. I read and enjoyed The Watsons Go to Birmingham -1963 a few years ago. Christopher Paul Curtis is an author who writes historical fiction very well for young people. As you know I’m usually not a fan of YA but for some reason Middle Grade just warms my heart. Do you like to read Middle Grade and/or YA if so why and what titles have impressed you the most? Check out the video below of Christopher Paul Curtis talking about his writing and how he got started. It’s inspiring!

The Mighty Miss Malone – Christopher Paul Curtis, hardcover, 307 pages

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 19 Currently Reading…

Halsey Street – Naima Coster, hardcover, 320 pages (Little A)

Tar Baby – Toni Morrison, paperback, 306 pages (Vintage)

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 17 Must Read Mystery

I had to choose Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series. It starts in 1948 Los Angeles. Easy Rawlins is the main character. He’s a nice fair man with good intentions. He’s also very seductive too. Even though, he can sometimes get himself in quite a lot of mess. You’ll be routing for Easy right from the beginning and until the end. Another important part of these books is the way Mosley writes about race relations between whites and black. This adds to the realism of the books. The setting always gives a particular unsettling feeling, with a mystery to crack. When the story gets really good, Mouse appears. Mouse is Easy’s crazy good friend. I’ve read the first 2 of this series – Devil in a Blue Dress and A Red Death. They were both excellent! I can’t wait to get to White Butterfly next! Have you got any mystery books or series to recommend? Drop them below.

The books in the picture above are the Washington Square Press Series edition.

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 16Anticipated New Release(s)

Like who doesn’t want to read any of these four? Awesome! I’m expecting loads from all four of them. I hope not to be disappointed. These should all give me lots of food for thought. Which new releases are you anticipating?

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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)

#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 7 – Fave Secondary Character

Mawu was the character that broke the sanity of the beginning if this novel. Slave women that accompany their masters on a retreat to Tawawa House. The seediness of this novel made me so mad, but the arrival of Mawu made the other slave women think of freedom for the first time. She was strong and fearless. This story saddened me but I enjoyed the texture that Mawu added to the dynamic of the story. It is definitely a must read for the uniqueness of the story. You can click Wench to see my review. Have you read this one? What did you think?

“Tawawa House in many respects is like any other American resort before the Civil War. Situated in Ohio, this idyllic retreat is particularly nice in the summer when the Southern humidity is too much to bear. The main building, with its luxurious finishes, is loftier than the white cottages that flank it, but then again, the smaller structures are better positioned to catch any breeze that may come off the pond. And they provide more privacy, which best suits the needs of the Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their black, enslaved mistresses. It’s their open secret.

Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars at Tawawa House. They have become friends over the years as they reunite and share developments in their own lives and on their respective plantations. They don’t bother too much with questions of freedom, though the resort is situated in free territory–but when truth-telling Mawu comes to the resort and starts talking of running away, things change.” (Goodreads description, Wench)

Wench – Dolen Perkins-Valdez, paperback, 290 pages (Amistad)