Vinyl, Soil, Books, Movies...

This weekend in the U.S. celebrates Vinyl Record Store Day and Earth Day.

Also:

Language Day, Jelly Bean Day, Girl Scout Leader's Day, Take a Chance Day, Picnic Day, Lost Dog Awareness Day, Talk Like Shakespeare Day, and Cherry Cheesecake Day

It's World Book Day, World Table Tennis Day and the start of National Library Week, too!

Each day offers reasons to appreciate (too often with amazement that we've survived) being alive. Many of us have managed to endure, overcome, thrive, excel, and achieve.

Keep moving forward even if it's with teeny tiny steps. That's still progress.

Happy creating!

Finally watched "Wakanda Forever" and enjoyed it so much! Everything about it from the homage to Chadwick Boseman, narrative threads, variations on themes of grief and rebirth, nods to the first movie, costumes, spectacular surface and underwater worlds, unexpected cameos, and and and...

Currently reading Black Rodeo, A History of the African American Western by Mia Mask, another exceptional informative read from the University of Illinois Press.

Comments

New Arrivals Giving BRBF Vibes + BAC Issues

Even as my friends and I enjoyed a fantastic community event yesterday in and around the Bowie Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System, there was envy in my heart for all of the attendees and participants at the Black Romance Book Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Reports of issues of crowding just made me happy for the event organizers' success while they posted apologies and corrective strategies for crowd control during the last day. In the meantime, the new arrivals shelves at the closest library in the neighboring county offered a variety of books by BRBF authors. "Where the Melanated Are Celebrated" indeed. [9 books, from left to right: Positive Obsession, Communion, Big Girl Blitz (atop a bookstack), The Started Ex, Fire Sword & Sea, Leave Your Mess at Home, Archangel's Eternity, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, First Sign of Danger] Currently reading Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Mo...

Legacies of Octavia Butler & June BAC Issues

It's so exciting to read about a trailblazer who was ethical, thoughtful, generous, and funny in addition to being diligent and multifaceted. [Positive Obsession atop a bookstack of 7 books - The Last Lady B spine showing, then 6 books showing page edges; Communion propped to the left of the bookstack] Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris non-fiction biography Amistad, 2025 Opening with a quote from Parable of the Sower, this biographer uses every word in the O.E.B. chronology, author's note, introduction, six chapters, epilogue, and acknowledgements to engage readers in an intimate personal study of this extraordinary, talented, driven woman who was vulnerable and complicated in her brilliant humanity. The author's access to the O.E.B. archives adds layers of emotional depth that enrich the context of the details of the author's personal life and creative and professional development. from the Author's Note:...

Trauma and Phenoms of Color TLG (mostly vague) SPOILERS

This photo cover art on the original mass market paperback edition is my personal favorite, at least until/if they release a Heated Rivalry show cast Hollanov version. (Respect to the talented artist who's crafted the illustrated covers.) ["Rachel Reid, The Long Game" mass market paperback edition with two shirtless, muscular men in jeans, standing at an angle one in front of the other; the man in back embracing the man in front] Recent public comments from people who've read (in any and all formats) The Long Game by Rachel Reid and feel annoyed, disappointed, frustrated with Shane inspired this post. ****(mostly vague) SPOILERS**** Until the death of his father and breaking free of his brother, Ilya has been in a constant mindset of fight, flight or freeze for most of the nearly three decades of his life. Once he's disconnected from his toxic family dynamic, firmly established in his loving relationship with Shane, welcomed and embraced by Yuna and David, and...

Search This Blog