Skip to main content

New Year, New Books

Generous, thoughtful people who love me gave me lovely books for Christmas! One to help me feed my body, another to strengthen my spirit, and a third one that supports maintaining hair health and appearance.

[3 books arranged face up: Taste of Home Made from Scratch Home Cooking Made Easy, Beautiful Braids Boutique Workbook Learning to Braid Natural Hair Techniques, Black Firsts 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events 3rd Edition] 

Taste of Home, Made from Scratch Home Cooking Made Easy 

Beautiful photos of the final results with each step-by-step recipe, some with multiple photos to show recipe progression. 


Beautiful Braids Boutique Workbook, Learning to Braid Natural Hair Techniques by Nicole Taylor 

This book offers definitions of terms, tools, supplies, and techniques in addition to detailed text instructions and results photos for braiding beginners. A test, skills drills, and lined pages for note taking at the end encourage practice for further development. Contact information is also included to schedule private and class instruction. It's an appropriate companion read for How to Love Your Afro by Paige Lewin. 
 

[3 upright books - Rocky Start, Very Nice Funerals, The Honey Pot Plot, arranged next to a bookstack of 12 books - Crash Test on top of 11 books showing only their bottom edges] 

Rocky Start series, 3 books: Rocky Start, Very Nice Funerals, The Honey Pot Plot by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer 
contemporary mystery suspense with romance 
Argh Inc., 2024 - 2025 

Vibe mix: We Do Not Care Club, Killers of a Certain Age, multi-generational friction and collaboration, identity crises, crossroads, mystery, romance, suspense romp with lots of laughs, irony, and emotional intimacy; young people middle-aged people, and really seasoned grown folks dealing with assorted personal, professional, and community mayhem 

Rocky Start quickly establishes the key and supporting characters and contextual foundation for the series. 

from Very Nice Funerals chapter 11: 
Books have gotten me through some really bad times in the past, fiction let me live other lives, non-fiction to help me figure out the latest mess I'd gotten myself into. 

from The Honey Pot Plot chapter 11, a brilliant reference to Ms. Beverly Jenkins 


The Honey Plot Pot offers the unexpected, much appreciated bonus of a charming a-hole Russian character who sounds like Ilya Rosanov in my imagination. There's also a cottage. These two elements make me feel like forces in the #hollanov fandom universe are sabotaging my sincere intention of working free of this Heated Rivalry fixation in time to return to being a functional adult again by Monday morning. 

Behind the scenes content, interviews, memes, edits, podcast discussions, analysis of filming techniques and creative choices--so much irresistible temptation makes me think odds are low for high productivity this week, especially since Heated Rivalry and The Long Game are on hold for me at the library. My BAC issues (Book Aquisition Compulsion) continue. #sorrynotsorry


2026 is off to a rocky start in too many ways to count. Please prioritize your medical, mental, and spiritual health. Love on yourself and those around you. 

Always wishing you safety, peace of mind, good health & joy 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Man: Unfinished Business by Malcolm D. Lee with Jayne Allen Delivers All the Feels

Black love. Black joy. Black drama. Humanity in its vast melanin array.   [front cover of a paperback ARC for The Best Man: Unfinished Business; silhouette of three adults] The Best Man: Unfinished Business by Malcolm D. Lee with Jayne Allen  adult contemporary fiction with romantic elements  Storehouse Voices, July 2025   First, dedicated fans of The Best Man franchise and its beloved characters need not fear how they’re treated in this first of three novels. In fact. One thread of Harper’s storyline seems to reflect the real-life author/screenwriter/director’s battle to protect and maintain the integrity of The Best Man universe. Mission accomplished.  Second, once readers - fans or not - start this novel they won’t want to stop. The compulsion to re/watch The Best Man movies and limited series and maybe even to reread this book while anticipating the release of book two in 2026 will prove difficult to resist.  Who are you?  Who are your people?...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Million Lives Book Festival - An Unfortunate Exception, Not the Event Rule

[2 decorative stickers on lined writing paper from left to right: a round smiley face arranged upside down to look like a frown and a round smiley face arranged right sight up] By now most bookish folk and others have heard about the inaugural A Million Lives Book Festival held at the Baltimore Convention Center last Friday and Saturday. To recap: according to participating authors and attendees many promises were made and almost all of them were broken.  As outreach director and co-organizer for The Write Women Book Fest scheduled to host its 6th event Saturday, July 19 & Sunday, July 20 of this year at the Bowie Comfort Inn & Conference Center in Bowie, Maryland, U.S.A., my reaction to the feedback being shared about A Million Lives is nightmarish. Even though we aren't connected to it in any way or familiar with the event organizer or her company, our completely unrelated event has felt some minor residual effects because people are worried. And that's an understanda...
Post a Comment
Read more

Our Poet Laureate's Memoir + More TWWBF2025 Prep

Educator, poet, short story author, mindfulness guide and now the moniker of memoirist has been added to the long list of creative accomplishments earned by Poet Laureate of The Write Women Book Fest Aressa V. Williams.  She was born and raised in the vibrant community of Washington, D.C.'s Northeast neighborhood of Deanwood. Her Memoir evokes the nostalgia, challenges, victories, heartaches and joys of her life that connect with readers across generations and locations.    [photo credit: H.L. Brooks; image: two paperback ARCs of In Deanwood, A Memoir by Aressa Verdell Williams arranged on a tabletop; cover art of a sepia toned two-story colonial house with four columns - two on each side of the front door]  The ebook is currently available with print copies coming soon! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-deanwood-aressa-verdell-williams/1147594007   Just under 3 weeks before day one of The Write Women Book Fest and we've finished decorating t-shirts for our aw...
Post a Comment
Read more