Book Raiding Reading TBR

I only read two books in September.  One was–undoubtedly–the latest J. D. Robb release, Leverage in Death.  The other was Tracy Clark’s Broken Places–which I wrapped on the 11th of the month.  And that’s it.  Nothing read since the 11th.  And that’s mainly because Shadow of the Tomb Raider came out the following day and it has consumed my life.  Both in good–considering I’m a long-time fan and veteran of the Croft–and wrong ways.  Nonetheless, a game such as this pulled me entirely away from my first passion: books.  However, I’ve already read about 60 books this year, so I think it’s okay for me to take it easy from here on out if I choose to.

But I just can’t do it like that.  I have to read.  I MUST be reading.  I covet and crave books.  Even when I’m not actively reading a book, I’m pausing to touch a book and rifle through the pages just for comfort.

So I decided to make myself an Book Raiding TBR.  I choose unread books from my shelves that’ll cover 5 areas that I love most about the Tomb Raider series (both old and rebooted).  One: Crafty Female Lead.  Two: Sprinkles of Mythology.  Three: Survival Adventures.  Four: Ancient Musty Tombs.  Five: History and Relics.  This TBR will work.  And it will stick.  And it will bring me back to reading daily.

Stalking Ivory (Jade Del Cameron African Mysteries #2) by Suzanne Arruda

On a photography assignment in the northern territory of Mount Marsabit, American adventuress Jade del Cameron and her friends hope to film the area's colossal elephants. Instead, they discover the mutilated remains of four elephants and a man. Although the authorities suspect Abyssinian poachers and raiders in search of ivory and slaves, Jade has her own suspicions. Could it have been Harry Hascombe, her nemesis and unremitting suitor? Soon the Kikuyu boy accompanying her is captured by slave traders. Ultimately, it will take all of Jade's mettle to rescue her guide from slave traders, protect the animals, and expose another kind of beast.

As of today (October 1st) I’m already 140 pages away from the end of the first book on my Book Raiding TBR, Stalking Ivory by Suzanne Arruda.  Last time I read a book in this series was as far back as 2014.  More or less moved by that entry [Mark of the Lion], I haven’t picked up anything by this author since.  However, last year I did purchase the following three books for potential future reading.  And here I am finally jumping back into African safaris during the 1920’s with Arruda’s bold and sharp war vet (does being a nurse in WWI count as a vet?) turned photographer Jade Del Cameron.  Though Arruda’s plotting often comes across as “random” and “rash,” I’m having fun.  I can definitely see this series sticking around after all.

Sisters in Crime Spotlight | Broken Places by Tracy Clark

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Sister Mine by Nola Hopkinson

In all fairness, this "reaction" to reading video is probably a hot mess as well.  Yet, I felt the need to get it all off my chest anyhow.  Therefore, it is what it is.

Sister Mine by Nola Hopkinson on Amazon (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2q5QvmH

We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. She'd never have been able to push the two-headed sport that was me and Abby out the usual way. Abby and I were fused, you see. Conjoined twins. Abby's head, torso, and left arm protruded from my chest. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't. Far as the Family was concerned, Abby was one of them, though cursed, as I was, with the tragic flaw of mortality.

Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls gave Abby a permanent limp, but left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father, the god of growing things--a highly unusual childhood that made them extremely close. Ever since Abby's magical talent began to develop, though, in the form of an unearthly singing voice, the sisters have become increasingly distant.

Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life among the other nonmagical humans--after all, she's one of them. In Cheerful Rest, a run-down warehouse space, Makeda finds exactly what she's been looking for: an opportunity to live apart from Abby and begin building her own independent life. There's even a resident band, led by the charismatic (and attractive) building superintendent.

***************************O T H E R ~ L I N K  S***************************

* B L O G G I N G      BOOKS | DRAWING | LIFE:  http://www.comictowel.com

* Z A Z Z L E    S T O R E:  http://bit.ly/2Axxhh5

* S O C I E T Y 6    S T O R E:  http://bit.ly/2qgCBkv

My Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TowelTroi

My Gaming Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM8CjrKZGkIRmfsI57pIVg

Thanks again, everyone!  Remember to stay inspired.  Be creative.  Share your voice with the world.  Or something to that extent.  

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX T R O I XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

B O O K S | D R A W I N G | L I F E

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Where I'm Bound by Allen Ballard

Where I'm Bound by Allen B. Ballard on Amazon (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2pJV0Dr

A former slave turned cavalry scout becomes a hero for an African-American cavalry regiment in the Civil War. But, as the war draws to an end, the soldier, Joe Duckett, embarks on his most dangerous mission yet-to return to the plantation from which he escaped to find his wife and daughter.A Washington Post Notable Book. Also a winner of the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association."The important story of black soldiers in the Union Army has finally found a writer of historical fiction equal to the occasion." James A McPherson, Professor of History, Princeton University

#MarchMysteryMadness | My 6 Eye-Burner Mystery Reads

Hi, guys.  Here are 6 mystery books within any given series that has caused my eyes to burn (more so than glisten) with tears.

All links are Amazon affiliate (the books' descriptions are from Amazon as well)...

1.  Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell: https://amzn.to/2IZC0Zt

A reclusive author, Beryl Madison finds no safe haven from months of menacing phone calls—or the tormented feeling that her every move is being watched. When the writer is found slain in her own home, Kay Scarpetta pieces together the intricate forensic evidence—while unwittingly edging closer to a killer waiting in the shadows.

2.  Promises in Death by J. D. Robb: https://amzn.to/2Ia4YER

Amaryllis Coltraine may have recently transferred to the New York City police force from Atlanta, but she’s been a cop long enough to know how to defend herself against an assailant. When she’s taken down just steps away from her apartment, killed with her own weapon, for Eve the victim isn’t just “one of us.” 

Eve starts questioning everyone while her husband, Roarke, digs into computer data on the dead woman’s life back in Atlanta. To their shock, they discover a connection between this case and their own painful, shadowy pasts. The truth will need to be uncovered one layer at a time, starting with the box that arrives at Cop Central addressed to Eve, containing Coltraine’s guns, badge, and a note from her killer: “You can have them back. Maybe someday soon, I’ll be sending yours to somebody else.” 

But Eve Dallas doesn’t take too kindly to personal threats, and she is going to break this case, whatever it takes. And that’s a promise.  

3. O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton: https://amzn.to/2GdorUv

O is for once upon a time. . .

Let’s talk about Kinsey’s past. We know of the aunt who raised her, the second husband who left her, and her long-lost family up the California coast. But what about Kinsey’s husband number one? He was always a blip on the radar―until now.

4.  The Lily Bard Series by Charlaine Harris: https://amzn.to/2IVnemu

While trying to prove her innocence in the murder of her landlord, Lily Bard, karate student and cleaning service proprietor, finds plenty of skeletons in the closets of Shakespeare, Arkansas.

5.  When Death Comes Stealing by Valerie Wilson Wesley: https://amzn.to/2DZaiIQ

Struggling as a single mother to make ends meet on the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey, ex-cop-turned-PI Tamara Hayle races against time to find a murderer when someone begins killing her ex-husband's sons--and her own son might be next.

6.  Blind Descent (Anna Pigeon#6) by Nevada Barr: https://amzn.to/2GivefX

When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna swallows her paralyzing fear of small spaces and descends into Lechuguilla to help a friend in need. Worse than the claustrophobia that haunts her are the signs-some natural, and some, more ominously, man-made-that not everyone is destined to emerge from this wondrous living tomb. All the skills Anna has honed in the terrestrial world are called into play on precipitous climbs, exhausting treks, and descents into canyons that have never seen the sun. The terrain is alien and hostile, the greed and destructive powers of mankind all too familiar. In this place of internal terrors, Anna must learn whom she can trust, and, in the end, decide who is to live and who is to die.

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Ruby by Cynthia Bond

The audio quality drops mid-way.  I do apologize.  We have glitches we can't control at times.  

Ruby by Cynthia Bond (Amazon affiliate link): https://amzn.to/EBiagq

"Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city—the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village—all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. 

When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy.

Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage. This wondrous page-turner rushes through the red dust and gossip of Main Street, to the pit fire where men swill bootleg outside Bloom’s Juke, to Celia Jennings’s kitchen, where a cake is being made, yolk by yolk, that Ephram will use to try to begin again with Ruby." ~ On Amazon

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Mama Stalks the Past by Nora DeLoach

Mama Stalks the Past by Nora DeLoach 

(Amazon affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2pNj2fR

"When my mama receives an angry visit from Nat Mixon, she learns some startling news. Nat's mother and Mama's neighbor, spiteful recluse Hannah Mixon, has just died--and left a large parcel of land to Mama! Nat is convinced Mama stole his inheritance, and to save her reputation, Mama's determined to find out why Hannah named her in her will. And when it turns out Hannah was murdered, Mama needs to find more answers. With the help of three notorious local gossips--and me--Mama uncovers a long, bloody history of greed and family betrayal connected to the land Mama's inherited. And unless she discovers the truth about this plot of land, it may become her burial plot...." ~On Amazon

Authorlight: Juniper Leaves by Jaz Joyner

Juniper Leaves: The Otherworldly Tale of a Lonesome Magical Girl

By: Jaz Joyner

Title: Juniper Leaves: The Otherworldy Tale of a Lonesome Magical Girl

Author: Jaz Joyner
Publisher: Black Pansy Books

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Length: 248

Release Date: OUT NOW (Ebook & Paperback)
ISBN: 978-0999538616

Synopsis:  Kinky-haired blerd Juniper Bray used to believe in magic, until she lost her best friend: her grandmother. Now this 15-year-old shy girl is headed to her father’s research trip on a farm hundreds of miles away, with a family she barely knows and the opposite of a best friend, her new arch nemesis, Bree Mckinney. As if she wasn’t miserable enough. Little does she know the next few months Juniper will discover magical powers she never knew she had, get a crush on a girl she never knew she’d like and well, quite frankly, save the world. Juniper Leaves is a fantastical coming-of-age tale of a girl who learns to let go, live a little, and best of all, believe in herself — all before her sixteenth birthday.

Jaz Joyner is a black trans essayist, humorist and author residing in Brooklyn, NY. Their work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Afropunk, The Establishment, and others. One of Jaz's essays is featured in the LGBT anthology Outside the XY: Queer, Black and Brown Masculinity​. Huffington Post Queer Voices interviewed Jaz to talk about their non binary identity as a person of color and experience as a writer. Most recently they've become a regular on the hit YouTube discussion show TheGrapevine. In 2016, Jaz started their passion project, a humor site called QUNTFRONT with the goal of uplifting QTPoC voices in comedy.  Follow Jaz Joyner on Twitter: @JazJoyner.  Visit Jaz Joyner's website by clicking HERE.

#ReadSoulLit Poetry Readings

#ReadSoulLit

Hosted by: Brown Girl Reading @ http://bit.ly/2lYNoZu

#ReadSoulLit reading Toni Morrison's Tar Baby.  Goodreads Group: http://bit.ly/2mVOoAC

"Heartbeats"

Melvin Dixon, 1950 - 1992

Work out. Ten laps.

Chin ups. Look good.

Steam room. Dress warm.

Call home. Fresh air.

Eat right. Rest well.

Sweetheart. Safe sex.

Sore throat. Long flu.

Hard nodes. Beware.

Test blood. Count cells.

Reds thin. Whites low.

Dress warm. Eat well.

Short breath. Fatigue.

Night sweats. Dry cough.

Loose stools. Weight loss.

Get mad. Fight back.

Call home. Rest well.

Don’t cry. Take charge.

No sex. Eat right.

Call home. Talk slow.

Chin up. No air.

Arms wide. Nodes hard.

Cough dry. Hold on.

Mouth wide. Drink this.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

No air. Breathe in.

Breathe in. No air.

Black out. White rooms.

Head hot. Feet cold.

No work. Eat right.

CAT scan. Chin up.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

No air. No air.

Thin blood. Sore lungs.

Mouth dry. Mind gone.

Six months? Three weeks?

Can’t eat. No air.

Today? Tonight?

It waits. For me.

Sweet heart. Don’t stop.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Coal"

BY Audre Lorde, 1934-1992

I

Is the total black, being spoken

From the earth's inside.

There are many kinds of open.

How a diamond comes into a knot of flame   

How a sound comes into a word, coloured   

By who pays what for speaking.

Some words are open

Like a diamond on glass windows

Singing out within the crash of passing sun

Then there are words like stapled wagers

In a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart—

And come whatever wills all chances

The stub remains

An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.

Some words live in my throat

Breeding like adders. Others know sun

Seeking like gypsies over my tongue

To explode through my lips

Like young sparrows bursting from shell.

Some words

Bedevil me.

Love is a word another kind of open—

As a diamond comes into a knot of flame

I am black because I come from the earth's inside   

Take my word for jewel in your open light.

FauxCast | 5 Years of Thanks & #ReadSoulLit Links

CHOP IT UP: The Book of Night Women by Marlon James

CHOP (DUBBED) IT UP: Maxed Out by Cal Lewis

Library Picks | Hit Or Miss, Nah?

#ReadSoulLit ~ 1st 100 Pages of Bedrock Faith

#Readsoullit Photo Challenge (So Far)

 Join #ReadSoulLit on Twitter

@BrownGirlReading

@danidanydanie

Challenge #3: Book and a Drink

Challenge #4 & 5: Made You Cry/5 Star Reads

Challenge #9: Books & Arts & Crafts

Challenge #11: Book and a Bag

Challenge #12: Currently Reading

#ReadSoulLit TBR

All right. I need to bring my ass back to the blog and get to work. No, for real. I do. Still, I wanted to spend January reading. No social media, and very little blogging. I wanted nothing but books to kick off 2017. And I managed to read 15 books, all included in Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series. Hell, I ain’t never read so many books in one month. I took them down one after the other and had fun the whole way. Lowkey: I kind of miss them already. Anyway, I’m now current with the series, and awaiting April’s new release. So it’s all good.

With that said, I’m kind of prepped (as well as pumped) to flush in some readings for Black History Month. Particularly through the running hash tag #readsoullit. Here’s the stack that I have planned to read. Instead of going out to buy books, I pulled each of these from my shelf. And I wanted to make sure I mixed things up. Including tossing in that Toni Braxton autobiography that I bought in September. As well as another Barbara Neely mystery, and even some sci-fi (Octavia Butler and Seressia Glass).

This is going to be fun.

And for those who didn’t catch my last announcement video. We’ll be reading Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles May. Everything you need to know about the read-along noted in the Goodreads group linked here: http://bit.ly/2kU2GPo

I’m rushing to write this post so that I can go read. I haven’t figured out which I’ll pick up first, though.

Book Openers Revisited ~ PART TWO...

~ The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James ~

There’s a lot of history behind this opening scene.  It began in the first book in P. D. James's Cordelia Gray series, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman.  In the opening of that book Cordelia Gray worked as an assistant–turned intern–to a private investigator.  Yet, stepping into his office in that book's opening, she had the misfortune of finding her boss's body.  His death was a suicide, and one with a good-bye letter passing his business on to Cordelia.  

Already an awkward character stuck in a financial crunch; Cordelia wavered on his final request.  Eventually she made the decision to take over his business–just as he trained and legally prepared her.  Fast-forward to this book where Cordelia is completely on her own, and still a little uncomfortable with her new career path.  

So I love the self-conscious reflections seen through a nameplate.  Among other slices of imagery, of course.  To me this opening continues to make Cordelia's character human.  She's uncertain.  Juggling her confidence as an investigator.  However, she recognizes she's already on the path and have to step up to the plate.

Pun intended.

Sadly, there was never a book three.  A TV series featuring a pregnant Cordelia Gray shut James's vigor for writing this character down.

~ Wild Seed by Octavia Butler ~

I’m going to keep this extremely simply by saying: if you haven’t read Butler’s Patternist series, then I FEEL for you!

Book Openers Revisited ~ PART ONE...

The first paragraph in a book doesn’t always “contractualize” you into the author’s work, but it starts as potential.  I mean just step back for a moment and think about the power the first paragraph in your favorite book had.  How did it deliver enough to keep you reading and re-reading the book over the years?  What was it about that opening that enticed you upon your initial exposure?  Did the author break you with a vivid setting?  Or maybe it was a character’s voice that captivated you?  Did the author deliver a joke that threw you into laughter, in a moment when you needed it?  Was it a matter of tone or emotion?  Or were you just excited when an author flung you right in the middle of a scene?

Whatever the case, we can’t deny the power of the opening paragraph.

So I decided to pull a few books off one of my bookshelves and share with you a couple of interesting ones I've loved.  Some are from books I found myself compelled to read by the author's style alone.  While some are from books I never read beyond just yet.  And some are from favorite reads of mine that has kept me coming back for more.

~ Sula by Toni Morrison ~

Loved the indefinable usage of the phrase “that place.” 

As the paragraph later concedes, "that place" turns out to be a black neighborhood.  Yet, somewhat usual, it's a neighborhood long gone as it fell victim to capitalism (to keep it light).  It fell at the hands of businessmen who uprooted the land and cut down trees to build a golf course and suburban neighborhood.  Hosting and furnishing whites only?  You bet.  Nevertheless, the catch is “that place” may be gone, but its spirit isn't.  There’s a haunting story stilled buried in the land‘s past.  And, of course, Morrison invites us into that haunting history with this opener.

Dare you step back into the 1920s and find out...

Book Buying Bargaining ~ With No Self-Control

Got rid of a lot, and brought plenty back in.  Oh course, through store credits and bargain-area shopping.  Kind of a strange mix–but not really.  The Susan Wittig Albert books were simple enough to pick up.  Toni Braxton memoir I found tucked in a low shelf in a bookstore bargain section for $5.  I went ahead and grabbed Laurell K Hamilton's A Shiver of Light, because I'm compulsive when it comes to completing series.  Even those I've grown to dislike.  And, because I want more fantasy in my life, I decided to go back to my initiation into fantasy via a T. A Barron novel.

Apprentice in Death came out on September 6th.  I moved heavy and earth to get to it.  (Currently reading it.  This is only the dust-jacket.)  Salvage the Bones and Speaking from Among the Bones I got for $2.50 apiece.  Both easily crossed off that Amazon wishlist.

Now.  Will this book craving stop?

Hell, no.

CHOP IT UP | The Other Side of the Pain by Etterlene "Mama" Debarge (VIDEO)