Tag: Black Books

Book Reviews

Anything For Your Love, Amore

India
Anything For Love follows an up and coming lawyer, Alexander Love, who has everything he currently wants, a job he loves and a family who loves him and whom he loves back. If you don’t want to read past here this review is up on my Youtube Channel here and it is down below, but let’s keep going with this review! After having his heart broken by his high school girlfriend he never thought that he would want to be in another serious relationship again. Then in walks his cousin, Ami, with the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, Jada Whitman, and is instantly drawn to her. Jada is a producer from California who has come to visit with Ami for a vacation, but even with the certainty of her going back they end up seeing where this relationship can go. With both of their pasts coming up to bite them they find a way through it. I don’t want to give a lot of it away because it is good. A little confusing to read, but it is good.
The story was good…the writing not so much. I hated that instead of giving the characters their own chapter, like a lot of romance novels do, the point of view was switching from chapter to chapter. I felt like there was a better way to write it than to jump around and I could even write it so that the point of was seen from the original character at hand. I enjoyed the family aspect of the main character and seeing a black character have a strong family background with no dysfunctional parents or relatives. I enjoyed seeing all of the success of the family and how they supported one another. I did also enjoy the twist we got there at the end of the story that made it so much more interesting than a wealthy black man meets the love of his life. I’m trying to take out my automatic praising for a healthy black family life for an unbiased opinion of this book and it’s hard. I don’t think that it is a go out and get it right now kind of book, but it is a good read. A review is also up on my Youtube channel! Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
India
Coffee Break

Decatur Book Festival 2017!

India

I know I’m really behind on putting up this post, but better late than never right?! This year I went to the Decatur Book Festival with my mother and with Maddy and I had a fantastic time. There were tons of big authors there including Leigh Bardugo, Jason Reynolds, and Nnedi Okorafur. I’ve lived in Atlanta my whole life and have gone to the Decatur Book festival a few times with my mother when I was younger, but I never really paid attention to the author line up and did not know they got such big and amazing authors to do panels at DBF.  The festival is held every year during Labor Day weekend in downtown Decatur, and there is a lot of food, festivities, and books to keep you entertained the whole weekend.  I managed to vlog the two days I was able to go this year so make sure to check them out!! Down below I also have a video of all of the books I got, and which ones I got signed from the author! Until next time,

Keep Turning the Pages

India

The first day my mom and I went to the festival, but they weren’t quite ready yet, so I was just able to have a great afternoon with my mother walking around the beginnings of the festival.

 

On Saturday I woke up early and got down to Decatur to in order to go the different panels and get a tons of books signed. I bought way too many books this weekend!

Finally since my Saturday video was so long I wanted to just have a video where you got to meet my best friend in the entire world, and how we enjoyed the festival together, eating and everything, and buying a lot of books!

In this video you can see all of the great books I got and also got signed. I also got a lot of bookish merch from some great companies you can find online.

Book Reviews

ISPaT, Stephanie R. Bridge

India
iSpat is a self published book by Stephanie R. Bridges that was inspired by her life as a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Bridges wrote this after becoming closer to God during her recovery. She made this into a series of poems that she divides into sections. Within each section are a varying amount of poems that go with the category of the section, and each poem is also accompanied by a Bible verse.
Now, I was lucky enough to receive this book from Mrs. Bridges after she contacted me asking me if I would read her book for her and post something about it. Normally when it comes to religious books, I don’t read them because I’m not particularly religious, but I did really enjoy and appreciate her story and her strength in writing about it.  It is because of that I read about her wonderful book of poems. You can check out my review on my BookTube channel, which is below! Until next time,
Keep Turning the Pages
90s Born Reader
Bookish, Coffee Break

Book Haul | Atlanta Kickback Book Convention

India

I previously posted about a new Book Convention happening here in Atlanta called the Atlanta Kickback. It is a convention that celebrates black authors and black books. Here you can watch my post on the books that I got from the convention! I will include the author’s websites or links below if they have them. Until next time,

Atlanta Kickback Vlog | https://youtu.be/mAWjZSxdk8Q
Shonda Brown White | http://shondabrownwhite.com/
C Michael Forsyth | https://www.amazon.com/C.-Michael-For…
Antoinette J. Houston | http://www.antoinettehouston.com/
Aaron Michael Hall | https://aaronmichaelhall.com/

Keep Turning the Pages

90s Born Reader

Book Reviews

Binti, Nnedi Okorafur

India

– Short Story – 

Binti is about a girl, Binti, who is the first of her kind to ever be invited to this grand Oomza University where only the brightest are accepted from around the world and the galaxy. For her family leaving is not an option, it’s not something that they do. The people of the Himba tribe stayed where they were and created amazing things that were used throughout the world.
The majority of people are Khoush, who believe that they are better than the Himba people, but they really just don’t understand them. Binta has certain things that her and her people do including braiding their hair down, and using a mixture of natural ingredients called otjize in their hair on their body. They never washed it off and were called “dirt bathers” because of it.
Binti knew what it meant to leave her village and her home, but she also know what it would feel like to not go to a place where a whole new world awaited her. She knew that she was going to learn amazing things while gone, but she never thought that she was going to learn so much about herself, and invoke so much change in the world.

– What I Thought  –

I really enjoyed this novella and wished that it was longer…of course then it wouldn’t be a novella…. There are more after Binti, but I’ll read those later. It’s a sci-fi- novella and that made it a lot of fun to explore the different worlds, but even through out it there are a lot of places for discussion. The novella brings up what it is like to be different, and looked down upon based on what you look like and what society has deemed you are to be.  Okorafur also brings in the ideas of stereotyping other individuals, and trying to come into your own. There are more books in this novella, which is good because I felt that it ended rather abruptly and did not answer any questions. There are a lot of holes in the story, but overall it is a good story. I can’t wait to read the rest of them. As always there is a more detailed review on my YouTube channel! Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
90s Born Reader