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Currently Reading

My Book List

Just Finished:

2009 Completions

  • A Visible Darkness
  • Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man
  • Alex Cross's Trial
  • An Elegy for Easterly
  • Batouala
  • Before I Forget
  • Beulah Hill
  • Bicycles: Love Poems
  • Big Machine
  • Bite Marks: A Vampire Testament
  • Bitter Sweets
  • Blonde Roots
  • Blood Dazzler
  • Buried Strangers
  • Caged Innocence
  • Children of the Waters
  • Cornered
  • Daughters of the Stone
  • Eclipse
  • Ella Minnow Pea
  • Eve
  • Finding Nouf
  • Hold Love Strong
  • I Am Not Sidney Poitier
  • I Do Not Come To You By Chance
  • I'd Rather We Got Casinos
  • In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
  • In The United States of Africa
  • Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
  • Lark & Termite
  • Let's Get It On
  • Life Is Short But Wide
  • Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange
  • Little Bee
  • Little Black Girl Lost 4
  • Lost River
  • Lover Man
  • Mama Dearest
  • Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician
  • Mudbound
  • On Black Sister's Street
  • Parable of the Sower
  • Push (Reread)
  • Rampart Street
  • Rebel Yell
  • Red Light, Green Light
  • Ruined
  • Ruins
  • Run For Your Life
  • Rush Home Road
  • Sag Harbor
  • Serena
  • Still I Rise
  • Sweeping Up Glass
  • That Devil's No Friend of Mine
  • The After Wife
  • The Anatomy of Deception
  • The Angel's Game
  • The Book of Night Women
  • The Color of Lightning
  • The Cradle
  • The Flowers
  • The Help
  • The House on Monroe Street
  • The Invisible Mountain
  • The King's Rifle
  • The Long Fall
  • The Lost Symbol
  • The Lovely Bones
  • The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller
  • The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2)
  • The Partly Cloudy Patriot
  • The Plague of Doves
  • The Right Mistake
  • The Shack
  • The Thing Around Your Neck
  • The Thirteenth
  • The Ties That Bind
  • The Vagrants
  • The Wasted Vigil
  • The Well and The Mine
  • The White Tiger
  • Under This Unbroken Sky
  • What The Bayou Saw
  • Where The Line Bleeds
  • Wife of the Gods

June Rewind / July Fast Forward 7:02 PM
Filed under:

June 30, 2009

Share with us the books you read during the month.

(43) Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man - Steve Harvey
(44) * The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafron
(45) Wife of the Gods - Kwei Quartey
(46) Hold Love Strong - Matthew Aaron Goodman
(47) Lover Man - Geneva Holliday
(48) Buried Strangers - Leighton Gage
(49) I Am Not Sidney Poitier - Percival Everett
(50) What the Bayou Saw - Patti Lacy
(51) The Shack - William Young
(52) The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

* = Amazon.com reviews forthcoming for these books

What was your favorite book and why?

I enjoyed four novels from different genres:

  • I Am Not Sidney Poitier (Social Satire) - Everett's comedic genius shines in his latest novel via a young man, named Not Sidney Poitier, born under unusual circumstances and continues to live an even more unusual life as he deals with racism, classism, fraternity hazing, and a host of other social ills. A great read to add spice to any reading list.
  • * The Angel's Game (Speculative Fiction) - Great suspenseful thriller centered on man's weakness, a writer's obsession, and deal with the devil; set post WWI Barcelona.
  • Hold Love Strong (Urban Fiction) - Urban family drama narrated by the youngest member, the son of an unmarried 13 year old girl, as he comes of age in Brooklyn amid their insecurities, impoverished conditions, and "hood" life. Wonderful debut, expertly and intelligently rendered.
  • Wife of the Gods (Mystery/Suspense) - Debut title centered on a murder of an AIDS prevention worker in rural Ghana. See my Amazon book review for the novel.




What was your least favorite book? Why?

The Shack (Christian Fiction/Spiritualism) - This highly praised book was simply not my cup of tea. I had no problem with some of the messages: the search within one's self for answers, quiet time needed to spend with God, etc. However, it was the writing that was terrible, imo. It was not an enjoyable reading experience for me and the later -- as mentioned before, the later half of the book was a chore to get through. I persevered hoping to discover what the appeal was/is about...and honestly was disappointed -- obviously I'm in the minority -- based on the over 3,000 Amazon ratings.

It was not "enlightening" in a spiritual sense (which I think is its intent) -- I viewed it as one man's attempt to explain his take on spirituality, redemption, forgiveness, and all the other themes associated with God's purpose, God's love, our relationship with God, and man's role in the universe. He rooted his views in a character that had a terrible childhood (life with an alcoholic, abused by a parent, thrust into adulthood too soon), possibly committed the murder of his father, lost a child in the most heinous way -- someone whose faith and strength had been truly tried and tested. Basically a nice guy who got dealt a rotten hand at life....a play of the "why do bad things happen to good people" question.

I liked his clear delineation between spirituality (relationship with God) vs religion (governance rules), his take on free will/independence of man, and several other concepts in the book. I wasn't too keen on his tossing/dismissal of the Ten Commandments - but understood his argument for doing so. I also liked the message behind the segment re: judgment - that was excellent, imo.

That being said -- it was his delivery (again the long-winded passages), the insulting image of God as a mammy [you know I'm very sensitive with how Blacks/AAs are portrayed in the media (literature, TV, movies, etc)], and the neat ending that detracted from the story.

What books do you plan to read next month?

With a little more "free" time on my hands, I hope to sink into a summer reading groove and improve my stats a bit. Here's my target list:

Book Club BOM Reads:
  • Children of the Waters - Carleen Brice
Book Buddy Reads:
  • Everything is Now - Michelle Cliff
  • Wisdom's Daughter - India Edghill
  • Drift - Victoria Patterson
  • Ruins - Achy Obejas
  • Serena - Ron Rash
Review Books:
  • Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga (Vine Voice Review Book)
Personal Picks:
  • In Other Rooms, Other Wonders - Daniyal Murrnuddin
  • Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore
  • An Elegy for Easterly - Petina Gappah
  • Filter House - Nisi Shawl
  • Six Suspects - Vikas Swarup
  • Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
  • A Visible Darkness - Michael Greorio
  • Rooftops of Tehran - Mahbod Seraji
  • The City and The City - China Meiville
  • Atlas of the Unknowns - Tania James

2 comments:

Beverly said...

Well Phyllis - that is some reading list for July. :)

So we are going to try the Melville book.

June 30, 2009 9:16 PM  
Ladysilver said...

Love the layout. You are lucky that your 2 clubs BOM are matching up. Mine are not and it is a real bummer with all I have promised myself I would read.

July 2, 2009 5:18 PM  

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