#MarchMysteryMadness Prompts & THANGS

Just a friendly reminder, #MarchMysteryMadness starts today.  And yet, here are the prompts for this year...

For further information you can join #MarchMysteryMadness Discord Group.

ENJOY!

Black & LGBTQ Mysteries Birthday Haul

So, after recently reading the second book in Paula L.Woods’s Charlotte Justice police procedural series, I quickly booted up the laptop to order the final two books.  And, well, those suckers are HERE.  I desperately (I understate a little “desperately”) want to get started on reading the third book, Dirty Laundry.  Of course, only to follow it up with the fourth and final book, Strange Bedfellows.  It’s one of those scenarios where you’re hungry to devour the series, but you also want to savor the experience with sips.

Nevertheless, the rundown goes:

My Sister is so Nice & Message of the Week & #FridayReads

My sister ordered me a good ole copy of Cicely Tyson's memoir, As I Am, for my birthday.  Just waiting on this thing to come on.  I put it on hold at the library (with a little begrudge and potato salad on the side), but still gunning for my own copy to place nicely on my shelf.  A necessary copy.  Indeed.  Here's to waiting... impatiently... but allowing God to do His work.  I'll cry happy tears.

In the meantime, the message for the week is...

As for #FridayReads...

Earlier this week I chomped down big on A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf for the #ReadSoulLit Read-Along.  I'm a little over one hundred pages from its ending.  I'll probably finish it early next week, or even over the weekend.  It's so cold outside that I don't want to even go anywhere.  But I definitely want to finish it before the end of next week.  Unfortunately, the connection and resonance isn't as profound as it was during my earlier experience of reading A More Perfect Union.  Maybe it's because I'm juggling three books... or maybe because...

They Opened Up the Friends of the Library Bookstore... After Almost a Year... I Couldn't Resist...

More Mercedes Lackey.  I went there.  Totally went there.

How My The Wheel of Time Hardback Book Collection is Coming!

Hee-Haah! I got the final three books in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series in hardback the past two weeks. I'm upgrading my collection from the mass market editions. I've learned how the hardcovers are better suited for my reading experience. For real, The Wheel of Time books are thick, super involved high fantasy books that begs for patience and comfort. I will go back and upgrade the first three books one day. But since I am still on book nine, I'll wait until I finish the series to do so. (I'm telling myself that barely legal lie.)

Anyway, the key question now is when will I pick the series back up again? I have been having a hankering for them (or at least to see what Rand, Mat and Nynaeve are up to). And whenever that feeling comes knocking, I know it is almost time to cross the threshold back into The Wheel of Time. Either way, I am committed. I made it through book seven, A Crown of Swords, with complete relit enthusiasm for the books. I made it over a hurdle, and enjoyed book eight as well. However, I stalled again on book nine, Winter’s Heart. This is the “heart” of the so called “slog”. But if I can push through that one, as well as the following book, I will supposedly be good to go with the rest of the series. As readers have stated, books eleven to the end are sensational.

Anyway, the slight bowing in my shelf holding the series up shows I am a dedicated fan.

#MarchMysteryMadness Tinks & Links

My #ReadSoulLit Start-Ups

 

So I would start a James Baldwin book the weekend before taking my Grandmother to two specialists the following week. Then the week after is my birthday week, as well as my return to the classroom. Busy little beaver, I suppose. Not the best time to find myself waist deep in Baldwin’s level of immersion and gripping engagement. Yet, I chose to pick up his book, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone. But who am I kidding? It is always the perfect timing for a Baldwin book. As I write this, I am fifty pages in and on my second cup of coffee for the evening. His work is that absorbing; I always want to be alert to his offerings. And here it is about to start raining! The right vibe. The right move. The right night. As I have stated, perfect timing.

I’m halfway through Tammye Huf’s A More Perfect Union. It is the book chosen for the #ReadSoulLit read-along of 2021. So far, I am liking the book. It is a fictionalized retelling of the author’s ancestors' love story, seeded in a Virginia plantation around 1849. You take a slave named, Sarah, and her Irish immigrant beau named Henry; imagine the peril involved. One thing I enjoy is Henry's narrative insight into the Irish immigrate experience. I also enjoy the parallel of family pain and trauma both Sarah and Henry share, though the overall illustrations of those shared traumas are fairly "light" (if you will). Nevertheless, their pain is something that draws them to one another. To keep a balance, Sarah and Henry do alternate shifting his or her narrative throughout the book. Yet, there is a third character named Maple that is as desperate to share her painful narrative as well. And an interesting one it is, considering she is the half-sister of the plantation’s mistress.