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 b

  Ain't I an Anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon  Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall  nonfiction biography  University of Illinois Press, February 2023  from the introduction: But rarely do we think beyond the story of her rise to iconic and canonical status as a process involving numerous individuals and a complex web of social and material factors, ideologies, and rhetorical arguments. This book explores the dynamic processes between the politics of the academy, theoretical and political movements, market trends, disciplinary movements and traditions, and the interests of individual scholars who shape our understanding of Hurston's work.  And for those searching for a more detailed insightful review of this riveting exploration, here's the link to Reighan Gillam's review for Another Chicago Magazine  https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/2023/04/11/review-of-jennifer-l-freeman-marshalls-aint-i-an-anthropologist-zora-neale-hurston-beyond-the-literary-ico

  This year Ramadan, Passover, and Easter observances overlap.  Whatever your religious, spiritual, philosophical beliefs, move forward with more hope, more joy, and inspiration to live in your intrinsicly endowed truth and constructive purpose.  [The following image may contain clues to reasons why my non-reading work projects often get completed at the very last second before they're due.]    

  Dukes in Danger   Always Be My Duchess (Taming of the Dukes #1) by Amalie Howard  historical romance Forever, April 11, 2023  from chapter 3: "Woman's intelligence. The dread of the patriarchy and the scourge of the aristocracy. Provocative at best, deadly at worst."  The Duke Who Ravaged Me (Rebellious Brides #4) by Diana Quincy  historical romance  Loveswept, April 2018  Double trouble becomes a triple threat.  One Duke Down (Rogues to Lovers #2) by Anna Bennett  historical romance  St. Martin's, January 2023  A fisherwoman catches a whole lot more than she expected to find in her net.  A Scandalous Kind of Duke (Longhope Abbey #3) by Mia Vincy  historical romance  Inner Ballad Press, September 2022  Childhood friends-to-lovers situationship leads to crossroads, betrayals, fisticuffs, duels, and declarations.  Duke-adjacent Featured Characters   A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7) by Sherry Thomas  historical mystery  Berkley, March 2023  from chapter 27: Charlott