So these are (some of) the books that I found while doing my spring cleaning. Most of them were trapped in the corners and crevices behind my bed, and a couple were located in weird places in my living room. For some reason my books sneak off to the oddest places.
Here’s what I’m currently reading:
What’s on your list for the weekend?
T.
“Project Chick 2: What’s Done in the Dark,” released 3/12, is many things – infuriatingly melodramatic, clunkily-plotted, downright ratchet – but the one thing that it isn’t is boring. This book begins and ends on 10. It is the literary equivalent of Meek Mill shouting through subwoofer speakers, or TYPING IN ALL CAPS. And while it can be tiring for something crazy to always be popping off, it was nice to fully immerse oneself in a book as if you were a character, however ridiculously drawn you may be. This story delivered enough action and intrigue to keep me reading until the very last line.
Take, for instance, the opening line:
“Khalil ‘Lucky’ Foster sauntered out of the Star Bright strip club at 4:13 a.m. alone. A treacherous drug entrepreneur, Lucky had quickly risen to the upper ranks of Richmond’s underworld hierarchy.”
That sentence, in a nutshell, represents everything that is right and wrong with this book. The introduction of one of the main characters as a drug entrepreneur, as if the strip club is his office and he’s leaving after a long day’s work. The frustrating use of the verb ‘to have’ in the sentences (even though that *is* how some people talk). What struck me most, though, was the setting. As a native Richmonder I was surprised to see the Cap City in print, mostly because neither my hometown nor its inhabitants are that interesting in my opinion, but this book was determined to show me the seamy underbelly of Richmond that I never knew. I had always heard that Richmond was a big drug town but never really was exposed to what that meant, outside of Biggie’s “Cases in Virginia, Body in DC” lyric. Who knew he was actually serious? Turner sets the scene early on so you know exactly what you’re getting into and what types of people you are dealing with. This ain’t the Cosby Show. Continue reading
If you are a writer in the market for some timeless wisdom, I’d suggest Mark Harman’s translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters to A Young Poet.” I came to this book at a book swap and it was exactly what I needed to help me sort out some issues creatively. It’s a slim volume, but so full of insight on what it means to pursue an artistic life. It actually took me an astonishingly long time to finish because I found myself wanting to pore over and savor each of the letters.
This book is a collection of letters to a young writer, who wrote Rilke seeking out advice from a seasoned professional. What is revealed in these letters is how much stays the same in creative communities from generation to generation – even after all this time, it’s still hard to commit to the work if you are scared; sometimes life gets in the way; and sometimes you need advice from the big boys and experience before it can be figured out. In addition to writing advice there are nuggets about life in general, which Rilke offered freely.
Harman’s translation is supple – it reads poetically, even though it is a group of prose letters. And the auxiliary information (introduction, etc.) added enough context about Rilke’s life and work to really make the letters shine. If you’re a poet and you know it, or just an artist looking for a boost, pick this book up.
You can cop it at Amazon.
Please welcome fellow blogger/writer/reader Mr. Keith Francis, a.k.a. “Wu Young“, of Up Here On Cloud 9 to DopeReads! He comes bearing gifts of book review and considerable writing talent. Show love!
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I became aware of Peter Heller’s “The Dog Stars” while flipping through a copy of Esquire last year. I immediately assumed that it was just another bleak end of the world novel that would soon find its way onto the big screen as a dark and brooding tale about a man against all of the nightmares that come along when civilization ends. After starting the book I realized that I was dead wrong.
“The Dog Stars” begins at a pace that makes the reader believe that they have all of the time the world, which is near perfect because it’s set in an America that has seen its population decimated by some a man-made version of the flu. The pacing isn’t for everyone but when there are only a handful of people left on the planet you actually do have all of the time in the world.
The protagonist of the novel, Hig, isn’t exactly a hero- he’s just a man who has spent the last nine years of his life balancing fear, depression, and loneliness. He spends his days at a rural Colorado airport maintaining his 1950’s era Cessna airplane dubbed the Beast (Their link to the outside world) with his dog Jasper and his slightly off his rocker neighbor Bangley. Continue reading
It’s January, and it’s pretty likely that most of us are grossly out of shape after eating like monsters over the winter holidays. In my case, I’m about 10 lbs over my ideal weight, and in 7 days I’ll set sail for a winter vacation which requires I wear a two piece bathing suit, which means I’ll potentially look like a beached whale. So when the opportunity to review Donna Richardson-Joyner’s new workout tome, “Witness to Fitness: Pumped Up! Powered Up! All Things Are Possible!” came up, I took it. Weight loss is a struggle for me because in my youth I could eat whatever I wanted and not really worrying about the repercussions. After years of terrible food habits and a sedentary office job the pounds crept on, and I was ready to give something a try. Peep below for my thoughts on the program…. Continue reading
This book was recommended to me by a friend who was taught by Dana Johnson and had wonderful things to say about her as a writer (she’s good) and as a person (she’s beautiful). Always wanting to support my sisters-in-writing-arms, I requested a copy of her novel, entitled “Elsewhere, California”, to see what the hubbub was about. Both claims are true.
I came to the work amped because my friend cised me, but also intrigued by the following blurb:
“When her cousin Keith moves in, he triggers a series of events that will follow Avery: to her studies at USC, to her career as an artist, and into her relationship with a wealthy Italian in the Hollywood Hills. Elsewhere, California illustrates the complicated history of African Americans across the neighborhoods of Los Angeles.”
Clearly I’m down for complicated histories and black folks in LA, so I eagerly jumped in. What I found was a narrative as sprawling as LA’s geography, and writing that technically accomplished something very distinct: showing the evolution of the main character, Avery, as she goes from a hood-child to suburban kid to USC graduate to bougie artist/housewife, each phase of her life marked with its own cadences, rhythms and speech. The voice of Avery as she’s first introduced: “We caint go tricka treating. The Crips went and shot somebody and the Bloods done shot em back”, is markedly different than the voice of Mature Avery: “My back is a trick. Perfectly straight, as always. I imagine a string connected to the top of my spine, the last bone that attaches itself to my skull, someone pulling me up straight. A puppeteer.” Old Avery runs words together. New Avery is perfectly poised. A lot of women, particularly women of color, can relate to Avery’s metamorphoses.
I’ll be honest and say that there were a few things that frustrated me – the jump-aroundiness of the story, the floweriness – but what got my goat was the Keith storyline. For the entire book we follow Avery and her travels, and along the way meet her cousin and playmate Keith. Keith is always finding trouble, both in their youth and later on when he breaks in and steals property from Avery’s swanky Hollywood home. As a result of Keith’s most recent f*ck up Avery is faced with some tough choices – does she call the police on her crackhead relative? Or does she stay silent and piss of her Italian husband? Again, these are issues that a lot of us who have ‘made’ it can relate to. There’s a build up at the end where Keith might possibly show up at her art show and show out, but the reader doesn’t get the resolution of seeing grown-up Keith and grown-up Avery go toe-to-toe. I wanted to see what Keith had to say for himself. Instead, there was a strange scene that mediates on the peculiarly of race and representation that wasn’t quite satisfying.
Recommendations: Read if you are into literary, poetic, English-teachery prose. That can be kind of off-putting if you aren’t into that type of thing, but the ideas Johnson explores are relevant, relatable, and interesting. Even though Elsewhere, California wasn’t quite my steez, I could appreciate what Dana Johnson was trying to get at. You can cop it here.
By: Dana Johnson
Counterpoint Publishing
304 pp
*Copy provided by publisher, opinion those of DopeReads
Do slavery, single motherhood, sugar cane harvesting, immigration, and politics fit together? Check out Attica Locke’s “The Cutting Season” to see how she pulled it all off in this coherent, thrilling novel. Usually I try not to be so blunt about what people ‘need’ to do – it’s kind of presumptuous to dictate another grown person’s actions – but you need to read this book. It is so good. I mean, better than “Gone Girl” (I personally wasn’t too entertained by that book, but a lot of people were). I was totally riveted. My Django was unchained.
The main character is Caren Gray, manager of a Louisiana plantation that is also her ancestral home. When she discovers the body of migrant cane worker on the border of the Belle Vie property, the story takes a harrowing turn as she struggles to figure out who the killer is. Could it be Donovan, one of Caren’s rabble rousing employees on the plantation? Or could it be the notoriously troublemaking overseer for Groveland Farm, which borders the Belle Vie plantation and is positioning a buyout of the Clancy family’s ownership? You really won’t know who the killer is until the very end, and you’ll be shocked. Along the way Caren also uncovers facts about another murder on that plantation that hits extremely close to home (I don’t want to give too much away, but it ties everything in very nicely). The themes of family, “home”, past, and labor are all woven together so tightly that you forget that the story itself isn’t real.
Locke’s experience writing for television certainly showed in this book – the action was fast paced, and I had a difficult time putting it down. In total it took me about 2 days to read all 300+ pages. Get your life, and get this book. It is, quite literally, the most breathtaking thing I’ve read in a very long while. Cop it here.
