Vigilance by Andrew K. Deimer

 

Hello my lovely readers!

Just before the end of the month, I finished this absolute beauty of a book. 

I came across Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad by Andrew K. Deimer several weeks ago while in a local bookstore. I'd recognized the name because when I first started my Bookstagram account and this blog, The Underground Railroad  by William Still was the first book I reviewed. So it was a welcome surprise to find a full biography on Still that was just published last year.

Let's get into it.

All The Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell

 

Hello my lovely readers!

Greetings from Ireland! My husband and I are having a fantastic time here and it feels good to be back in this country after 13 YEARS of having last been here. Here's just a few photos of the beautiful Ireland from when I was here in 2010 and now...

Can you tell in which photos I was a 21-year-old college student? 

Anyway, I brought this book All The Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell after hearing about it on NPR. I am very interested in all things death, death related, mourning....everything. So when I heard the interview with the author, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Sadly, I was very disappointed in this book. Let's get into it.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

 Hello my lovely readers!

I'm writing this before I leave for Ireland, England and Scotland later today. So this I'll try to make this as quick as possible.

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.”

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Timeless. Classic. An important read. Let's get into it.

Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce

 

Hello my lovely readers!

Sigh.

This book....let's just get this over with.

SUMMARY
In 1925 Chicago, The Dreamland Cafe is the ritziest Black club in town. Celebrities like Louis Armstrong and Oscar Micheaux stop through and the young Honoree Dalcour works there as a dancer with dreams to making her way to the top. But Chicago is also awash in bootleg whiskey, gambling and gangsters making it risky for an ambitious young woman to dare to dream.

Now, it's 2015 and 110-year-old Honoree is visited by film student Sawyer Hayes who is looking to speak with her to finish his thesis about the only living link to Oscar Micheaux.

Together, they discover each other's pasts and secrets and it's more than what either of them bargained for.

MY THOUGHTS
I'm sorry but this was a disjointed mess. I ended up DNFing it. The crazy thing is, I knew I would because the plot didn't really move me. I felt no real connection with it. I was right. 

I didn't like the writing and it was just too all over the place for me. Oh well. Here' to better reading selections for the rest of the year!

Kindred by Octavia Butler

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I have a secret to share...I've never read an Octavia Butler book. 

I know...throw your tomatoes at me now.

Also, aside from Animorphs, I've never read any kind of fantasy or science fiction book as an adult. It's just not my jam. But, I've always said that if a book has an interesting plot, I'm more than willing to check it out...and that's exactly what I did with this book. Let's get into it!

SUMMARY

It's 1976 and Dana is a newlywed celebrating her 26th birthday in her home in California. Then, all of the sudden she's snatched back in time and ends up in antebellum Maryland. How and why did she get here?

Dana ends up rescuing a white boy named Rufus, who turns out to be one of her ancestors. Their two lives continue to intertwine the more times she's called back to save him from any danger. However, the more she is involuntarily brought back to these slave quarters, the longer she stays, not knowing when or if she'll ever return back home. 

Sissieretta Jones by Maureen D. Lee

Hello lovely readers!

I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year!

My husband and I went to Asheville, NC to celebrate New Year's Eve as we got tickets to go to the Biltmore as a wedding gift. While on the way up to the mountains, I FINALLY broke my reading slump and started reading Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of Her Race 1868-1933 by Maureen D. Lee. I had never heard of her, but I came across her through someone's post on Bookstagram, I think. Since I was heavy in my book buying last year, I added this to the list and bought it. So let's get into it!

"To my mind no artist should omit one of these beautiful [Negro Folk] songs from his or her repertoire. Every school, college or university should include one of these songs in their musical program. Let the 'Negro folk song' become universally popular and their sweet dolorous melodies will proclaim to the world that the Negro is a people of sorrows who has made companionship with grief. A people that will yet come through the furnaces of affliction and persecution and become as gold, tried in the fire."

Happy New Year! Book Goals, 2022 Book Recap and more

Hello my lovely readers!

Happy New Year!

I know it's been a while since I've updated this blog. After the last two books I reviewed in November, I took a break from reading....and thank goodness I did!

I was definitely in a reading slump and reading two bad books, back to back, did not help me in the slightest. With the holidays, shopping, cooking, working and just settling into newly married life, ya girl was E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D.

I'm pretty sure it didn't matter that I left, since I don't think anyone reads this blog, but I'm enjoying my book blogging anyway!  So let's get to it!