I Support My President

I was once a political "junkie" listening to every speech, flipping through the various channels to get a taste for all of the pundits, but in recent time I have tried to divest myself of these habits because they were in a word - DEPRESSING!

Last night was one of those nights when I could not listen because I knew that so much of the rhetoric would be laced in hate and venom. Why so much hate? Well in my opinion it has to do with the "browning" of this country and a fear of loosing control.

The "browning" is not just in the White House, it is the fact that there are more and more minorities in this country, and a lot of people can't handle that! Some minorities included.

But this post is about me supporting my President and why. I support him because I believe that he has the best interests of all Americans when he attempts to shape the policies of this country and because he is a man of character.

It takes a man of strong character to admit that he hasn't satisfied the masses and an even stronger one to once again extend the "olive branch" to his dissenters in an effort to move this country forward. I have not read his statement in its entirety, but this reporting suggests President Obama is once again open to dialogue.

I will begin to watch in a few days when the volume of rhetoric has been reduced to a reasonable level, because it is now time for the Republicans and the Tea Party to play their hand. It's a hand I believe we are all familiar with, but now it is up to the American people to choose between substance and rhetoric. Allegedly the people have spoken and they want to "Change the Course" according to Rep. Boehner, but what is the course and at what cost?

So as not to ramble I will end by restating - I Support President Barack Obama, and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin, but everything to do with the content of his character!

No School On Election Day?!

While I don't have any children I do try to keep up on news worthy items and it appears to me that I slept through one - No School On Election Day for safety reasons! Come on, I really couldn't believe it at first, but then again with all of the rhetoric and hate that has surrounded the last several election cycles I guess I should not be surprised.

In a meeting this morning a co-worker and I discussed the number of schools closed today, but I had no idea it was associated with safety until this afternoon when I asked my sister why she was home. She said no school because of the election and my response was "since when," to which she replied "they started it year before last for safety reasons or something."

This is getting to be a little silly. I listened to a commentary this morning by Jeff Johnson on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and he recounted covering elections in other parts of the world and how in places like Iraq, Africa and Asia election day was a National Holiday. It has never been a National Holiday in the U.S. and to think that it has become a holiday because of fear for the safety of our children is despicable.

The First Installment of Free Books

As indicated in the previous post, I have books to share with the masses! In an effort to make room for other things, and of course some of these will be new books I am parting with some of the hundreds of novels that I own. If you are interested in obtaining any of these titles, please leave a note in the comment section. I will cover the cost of postage so all you have to do is have a love of reading or an interest in the titles and they could be yours!

Help me purge!

Here is the list:

1. Good Peoples by Marcus Major
2. The Silent Cradle by Margaret Cuthbert
3. Gingersnaps by Delorys Welch-Tyson
4. Any Rich Man Will Do by Francis Ray
5. Like the First Time by Francis Ray
6. Like Breathing, A Novel by Ricc Rollins
7. Sins of the Mother, An Alison Young Thriller by Cheryl Saban
8. The View From Here by Brian Keith Jackson
9. Pride by Lorene Cary
10. Singing in the Comeback Choir by Bebe Moore Campbell

Just click on the title to learn more about each title.

Free Books, as I purge!

So today is purge day and man it is not easy. I am trying to organize and I can't seem to do it. What is the biggest culprit you ask? Booooks, can I say Booooks again! Recently I attempted to count all of the books that I own and there were well over 700! That's a lot of books, but as my sister has said, "you're a bookie" which I must admit I am. I should not have grown up in the era of "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste" and "Knowledge is Power" etc. Man did I ever take those messages to heart. Actually one of my favorite pictures is of me as a child asleep lying on my stomach on the hardwood floor, face in a book and knees bent - that is a telling photo. I'll have to find it and post it one day.

Now back to my dilemma - books. I have a three bedroom house, no children and just about every corner and crevice has a book of some sort taking occupancy. I am posting photos of some of the bookcases and piles to illustrate my point.

So how did this start? Well the easy answer is my love for reading. As long as I can remember I have loved reading, language and being taken away through the pages of a book. I can recall as a child being punished and told to go to my room, that is until the day my mother realized that was no punishment! You see I spent those hours reading and engrossing myself in the worlds of everyone from Nancy Drew to Margaret in Judy Blume's classic "God, Are You There, It's Me Margaret."

As the years progressed and my interests were continually piqued I picked up the works of black female authors Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and the trailblazer Zora Neale Hurston. Not wanting the men of the Harlem Renaissance to feel left out I began to read James Baldwin, Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. Spreading my wings into collections of poetry, I became a fan of anything and everything Nikki Giovanni wrote as well as making a point to be in the audience whenever she came to Cleveland. There was even an Eldrige Cleaver novel or two in there. So, the point is that my reading passion continued, took on a slant towards the works of blacks, but the majority was still prominent. There was Dostoevsky and Pasternak along with Shakespeare, Albee and Moliere'. Now I don't mention all of these authors to seem anything more than a lover of language.

The problem with just these few authors is that instead of trekking to the neighborhood library and retrieving these works I headed straight to the local bookstore and purchased book after book. For the life of me I can't recall the names of two of my favorite haunts as a teen - they were small independent bookstores where you could find all sorts of used books. One was on Coventry and the other was on Shaker Square, and how I loved going in and spending hours just browsing the titles. That was heaven on earth! They were small, quaint and smelled old because of the books but I found such warmth in these stores. I would say that Mac's Back on Coventry lends itself to that memory.

Now this obsession with books did not end back in the late 70s and 80s, no it manifested and has reached gargantuan proportions as stated in the opening paragraph - more than 700 titles! No matter how I try to purge myself of books I just can't. I've given away a few titles because I am trying to make myself understand that I most likely will not re-read half of these wonderful books. The problem with that assessment is how can I be certain? What if read a review, or become engaged in a conversation about a work that I know I have/had and go to seek it out for clarity and it's not there! What's a girl to do?

Well this girl has determined she is going to be successful in this endeavor and one way to achieve my goal is to share with others, and to do this on a larger scale. So beginning today I am parting with some of my prized possessions, and you could be a recipient. All you have to do is express an interest in the comments section and I'll send you one of my babies! Remember knowledge is power and we must share the power!

Have you tried 750words.com?

Last week I received a message from a good friend saying check out 750words.com as a good site to help get the juices flowing and keep you on track with your writing goals.

I'm always looking for something to help me stay on task with my writing, so of course I took a look and signed up. As per my usual I didn't do anything for the first few days, then I wrote a couple of hundred words one day. Then nothing.

I am pleased to announce that for the last three days I have stayed on task and I have written 750 words or more! Yay for me!!!

The first two days were just random thoughts, but today I rewrote a post I had left in the draft column since July. It's the book review below.

I hope this is a positive trend - better yet, I'm going to make it a positive I won't just hope. I have to control my destiny and this is one way to do it.

If you're having trouble with your writing and looking for an inspirational tool - check it out here.

Order your 75th Anniversary Anisfeld-Wolf Book Awards Tickets today!

I arrived home today to find my invitation or announcement for the 75th Anisfeld-Wolf Book Awards in the mail! Yippee!!! I immediately ordered my tickets!

The Awards will be presented on

Tuesday, September 14th at Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland.

Recipients include Elizabeth Alexander, the poet, essayist, playwright and teacher who

received national notoriety last year with the penning of Praise Song for the Day the poem read during the Inaugural ceremonies for President Barack Obama. Alexander will receive the Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.

Novelist Kamila Shamsie will be honored for her latest work Burnt Shadows,

published in 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing. On its author Website, Bloomsbury describes the novel as "an epic narrative of disasters evaded and confronted, loyalities offered and repaid, and loves rewarded and betrayed." A native of Pakistan, Shamsie is also the aut

hor of In the City by the Sea, Kartography, Salt and Saffron and Broken Verses.

Receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award in Non-Fiction is William Julius Wilson. In describing Wilson, the press information states, "Wilson is the author of a number of c

ritically acclaimed and culturally challenging works, including the 1978 publication The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. In this work, Wilson argued that the significance

of race was declining and an African-American’s class was comparatively more important in determining his or her chances in life. His most recent book, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City, was published in 2009. A sociologist, Wilson holds a Ph.D. from Washington State University. In 1996 he joined the faculty at Harvard University, where he is among an exclusive group to hold the highest professional distinction of University Professor. Among his many honors, he is a recipient of the Burton Gordon Feldman Awards for “outstanding contributions in the field of public policy.”

Rounding out the honorees is Oprah Winfrey receiving the Lifetime Achievement A

ward. In announcing Winfrey's selection the Wolf jury notes, "Winfrey, often called the “most influential woman in the world,” is a television host, businesswoman, and philanthropist. Her difficult childhood – born out of wedlock, raised in poverty, sexually abused – is well documented and she is widely respected for overcoming hardship. Through her television talk show, Winfrey launched Oprah’s Book Club and single-handedly brought the joys of reading to millions of people around the world and re-engaged those whose interest may have waned over time. Her commitment to issues of diversity and human cultures runs through the topics she addresses on her show, the books she recommends, and the cultural arts she financially supports, including the 2009 movie Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire and the Broadway production of The Color Purple."

Previous winners of the prize which "remains the only juried American literary competition devoted to recognizing books that have made an important contribution to society's understanding of racism and the diversity of human cultures" include Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, Junot Diaz, Gwendolyn Brooks and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The Prize was established in 1963 by Elizabeth Anisfeld Wolf.

For more information on the Awards visit here.

Review: "Sugar - A Novel"

In October of last year author Bernice L. McFadden set in motion a plan to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the publication of her debut novel Sugar. The publication anniversary was January 9, 2010. I'm not sure if she reached her mark, but I do know that she sparked a renewed interest in her work.

As I write this review almost a year later, I am apologetic because I'm not sure when I first noticed the posting and I unfortunately did not read it well because I thought it was a year long campaign. That being said, if you have not read Sugar, please do so. Why you ask? Well continue to read and I'll give you what I believe are a few good reasons.

Set in rural Arkansas in the 1950s, Sugar is a story of friendship, acceptance and the love that must exist for the aforementioned to thrive.

When Sugar Lacey arrives in the sleepy town of Bigelow, Arkansas heads turn and tongues begin to wag. You see Sugar is not like the women of this small town. She is worldly, wears vibrant colors from head to toe and the "good" women who reside in this town see her as nothing but trouble. Based purely on what they see, the women have labeled her and while the label may not be far from the truth a "welcoming committee" is not on the horizon.

The lone dissenter in town is Pearl Taylor, Sugar's neighbor on Grove Street. While Pearl is curious about the comings and goings of her new neighbor in #10, she has not turned a cold shoulder. Pearl feels a connection to this woman, but can't quite put her finger on why.

McFadden does a wonderful job of delving into the various characters and weaving a tale that is so real that you can imagine your grandmother telling this story. By shifting between characters and telling the story from their point of view, McFadden invites the reader into Bigelow and the friendship that develops between Sugar and Pearl.

Pearl works to tame Sugar while the younger woman attempts to add some spice to the sadness that she sees permeating the soul of her neighbor. With a supporting cast of characters including Pearl's husband Joe and her overly critical friends, McFadden's prose takes you into the depths of Bigelow. You become the new neighbor watching in on the lives of these characters. McFadden adds just a hint of suspense and wonder that keeps you turning the pages. The drama unfolds so crisply that when it all comes together you're left shaking your head saying "You've got to be kidding me, or better yet 'Girl shut yo' mouth'"

So if you're not familiar with Bernice McFadden, make today the day that you change that and go pick up a copy of Sugar. While you're at it, pick up This Bitter Earth, a sequel to Sugar and Glorious, McFadden's latest novel released this year.

The not so flattering photo above is of me holding a copy of Sugar, which was one of the requests of McFadden to help spread the word about the 10th Anniversary. As stated above I blew the whole concept, but I hope that you will stop here to learn more about this very inspirational and down to earth author.