Look What Finally Showed Up?

Tomi Adeyemi‘s best selling book finally made it to my front door. I ordered it over two weeks ago, but I am guessing that it just to longer than normal for Book Depostiory to process the order for the book. It is a hot little tome right now! I am super excited to dive into it next weekend ♥️.

Here is some info about the book:
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for an enemy.

You can find out more about the author at :
http://www.tomiadeyemi.com

Newest Aquistions....

🤓 New Book Alert*****

I wanted to share with you my most recent acquisitions! 

1) A.D. 30 by Ted Dekker:

 A sweeping epic set in the harsh deserts of Arabia and ancient Palestine. A war that rages between kingdoms on the earth and in the heart. The harrowing journey of the woman at the center of it all. Step back in time to the year of our Lord...A.D. 30.

The outcast daughter of one of the most powerful Bedouin sheikhs in Arabia, Maviah is called on to protect the very people who rejected her. When their enemies launch a sudden attack with devastating consequences, Maviah escapes with the help of two of her father's warriors--Saba who speaks more with is sword than his voice and Judah, a Jew who comes from a tribe that can read the stars. Their journey will be fraught with terrible danger. If they can survive the vast forbidding sands of a desert that is deadly to most, they will reach a brutal world subjugated by kings and emperors. There Maviah must secure an unlikely alliance with King Herod of the Jews. 

But Maviah's path leads her unexpectedly to another man. An enigmatic teacher who speaks of a way in this life which offers greater power than any kingdom. His name is Yeshua, and his words turn everything known on its head. Though following him may present even greater danger, his may be the only way for Maviah to save her people--and herself.

2) Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington: 

This groundbreaking study documents that the infamous Tuskegee experiments, in which black syphilitic men were studied but not treated, was simply the most publicized in a long, and continuing, history of the American medical establishment using African-Americans as unwitting or unwilling human guinea pigs. Washington, a journalist and bioethicist who has worked at Harvard Medical School and Tuskegee University, has accumulated a wealth of documentation, beginning with Thomas Jefferson exposing hundreds of slaves to an untried smallpox vaccine before using it on whites, to the 1990s, when the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University ran drug experiments on African-American and black Dominican boys to determine a genetic predisposition for "disruptive behavior." Washington is a great storyteller, and in addition to giving us an abundance of information on "scientific racism," the book, even at its most distressing, is compulsively readable. It covers a wide range of topics—the history of hospitals not charging black patients so that, after death, their bodies could be used for anatomy classes; the exhaustive research done on black prisoners throughout the 20th century—and paints a powerful and disturbing portrait of medicine, race, sex and the abuse of power.

 

3) Thin, Rich, Pretty by Beth Harbison- this lovely book was a gift from my buddy Angel, I will put it on my summer reading list! Here is the synopsis:

Twenty years ago, Holly and Nicola were the outsiders at summer camp. Holly, the plump one, was a dreamer who longed to be an artist. Nicola, the shy, plain one, wanted nothing more than to be beautiful. Their cabin nemesis was Lexi. Rich, spoiled, evil Lexi. One night, Holly and Nicola teamed up to pull one daring act of vengeance. But they never considered that this one act would have repercussions for decades. 

Today Holly is a successful gallery owner who has put her own artistic dreams on hold. She still struggles with her weight and for approval from her overly critical boyfriend. Nicola is an almost-famous actress who believes that one little plastic surgery fix is just what she needs to put her over the edge into fame. And Lexi . . . Lexi is down on her luck and totally broke. 

Holly will do anything to be thin. Lexi will do anything to be rich. And Nicola will do anything to be pretty. But at what cost? Hilarious, heartwarming, and full of truth, Thin, Rich, Pretty will strike a chord with any woman who has ever looked in the mirror, or at their bank statement, and said, "If only . . . "

4) Elizabeth 1 by Margaret George - this one was also a gift from Angel, I had been talking about this book for Ages and I always missed an opportunity to purchase it! I am really excited to dive into. Mainly due to the fact that Elizabeth 1 is one of my favorite women in history!

Here is the synopsis:

Personal and political conflicts among such larger-than-life historical figures as Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, and Will Shakespeare intertwine in George's meticulously envisioned portrait of Elizabeth I during the last 25 years of her reign. Unlike most contemporary depictions of the Virgin Queen, this one is actually a virgin; she's married to England, whose interests she pursues with shrewdness, courage, and wisdom borne of surviving the deaths of her family. Readers see the queen through her own eyes and those of her cousin, Lettice Knollys, wife of Elizabethan heartthrob Robert Dudley, aka the earl of Leicester. Elizabeth's antithesis, thrice-married and much-bedded Lettice, is driven by passion and self-interest, easily evidenced by the story's beginnings: it's 1588, and Elizabeth meets the threat of the Spanish Armada head-on while Lettice calculates how her son might benefit. Like her heroine, George (The Autobiography of Henry VIII) possesses an eye for beauty and a knack for detail, creating a vibrant story that, for nearly 700 pages, enables readers to experience firsthand Elizabeth's decisions, triumphs, and losses. Rather than turn Elizabeth I into a romantic heroine, George painstakingly reveals a monarch who defined an era. 

 

Revolutionary Prose: The Bookbabe Reviews: Citizen by Claudia Rankine

        

                                                 

Citizen is perhaps one of the most powerful, thought provoking books that I have read in a while. The book is a collection of poems about African American life; every thing that Rankine wrote reminds you of what it feels like to sometimes doubt what you feel, and think. One of the best parts of the book is about the career of tennis star, Serena Williams. In this particular part of the collection Rankine talks about some of the open criticism that followed Williams over the years when it came to her body. The idea that she was "to big", "to man-ish". Rankine discusses why Serena boycotted the India Wells tournament; a tournament where both she and her family had been openly booed. Not to mention the fact that racial epithets had been shouted at her sister and father. Rankine points out that Serena Williams seemed to detach herself from of the slights thrown at her; maybe it was a way to deflect the pain of being considered an outsider in the tennis world. Or maybe it was because Serena did not want to make a fuss about something that she knew would never change. Rankine also includes and image of Dane Caroline Wozniacki mocking Serena by stuffing rolled up towels into her shorts and top during a televised match. What made this particular section of the book stick with me was the fact that I never knew anything about these events. Of course, I know who Serena Williams is and what an incredibly focused athlete she is but I would have never ever imagined she had experienced this kind of thing. The larger thing I got from this is that sometimes the presence of a black body can be intimidating. In fact, this was a theme that ran throughout the book. Over and over again, Rankine draws attention to the "body", almost in a detached sort of way. On of my favorite passages reads as follows: " How to care for the injured body, the kind of body that can't hold the content it is living? And where us the safest place when that place must be someplace other than the body?" 

Also she openly addresses the way we sometimes are made to feel guilty if we speak up about the things that make us uncomfortable. Like when a friend makes a racially charged joke etc. Sometimes we will call them on it only to shrink back when they deflect from it or say "none of the other black friends feel that way and how you feel is how your feel". Personally I can say that in the months after Trayvon Martin,  Mike Brown, and Freddie Grey I have felt the same way. Like I was walking on eggshells with some folks, never really able to speak to the things that they said or posted on social media that made me upset. 

What I so deeply loved about this book was that it was raw and real, a lot of the topics covered in the book is something that I think many African Americans can relate too. Also, I think its something a lot of other people would be a little shocked at. I will say that this book is definitely at the top of my gift giving list for the year. I will be recommending it to everyone I talk to that wants a good, thought provoking read. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Quotes I Loved:

"For so long you thought the ambition of racist language was to denigrate and erase you as a person. After considering Butlers's remarks, you begin to understand yourself as rendered hyper visible in the face of such language acts. Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are present. Your alertness, openness, and your desire to engage actually your presence, you're looking at, you're talking back, and, as insane as it is, saying please"

"And you were not the guys and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guys fitting the description....."

"What happens to you doesn't belong to you, only half concerns you. It's not yours. Not yours only"

      

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Hurston!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Hurston <3! This lady is an unappreciated literary rock star! 

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

This is now one of my all time favorites. Why??? Because of its fluidity and emotion. I have several favorite passages, and some of which will be written in my journal, writing diary and book log for years to come. I would definitely gift this book to friends and family or re-read it too.

My newest eBook purchases

I finally got a chance to watch the movie now I can not wait to read the book..it's 99 cent on nook; here is the synopsis...

Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup, as told to and edited by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York, details his kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and subsequent sale into slavery. After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write to friends and family in New York, who were in turn able to secure his release. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana. The work was published by Derby & Miller of Auburn, New York, soon after Harriet Beecher Stowe's best-selling novel about slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), to which it lent factual support. Northup's book, dedicated to Stowe, sold 30,000 copies, making it a bestseller in its own right. After being published in several editions in the 19th century, the book fell into obscurity for nearly 100 years, until it was re-discovered on separate occasions by two Louisiana historians, Sue Eakin (Louisiana State University at Alexandria) and Joseph Logsdon (University of New Orleans). In the early 1960s, they researched and retraced Solomon Northup’s journey and co-edited a historically annotated version that was published by LSU Press in 1968. The memoir has been adapted and produced as the 1984 PBS television movie Solomon Northup's Odyssey and the 2013 Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave.