BrownGirl Speaks

Here are the winners:
Darjeeling: SKrishna
Corruption: Anthy
Bitter Sweets: Katia
Knots: Kanga
In the Name of Salome: Tracita Linda

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who entered. Thanks for all the well wishes for my first book blogoversary. I love book blogging and only wish I'd started sooner when my gut and my best friend were nudging me to do so. I've reviewed lots of great books and, fortunately, only one complete bummer. I've connected with some awesome authors and one who even sent me patchouli oil. *wink*

I was asked to join the staff of the wonderful Color Online which focuses on women authors of color. It's an honor to be in the company of such amazing women bloggers of color working on that website.

Last, but not least, all the book bloggers I've become acquainted with are just...lovely. The book blogging family is the best there is in the virtual world and in real life (IRL). Thanks for being part of the journey. Onward and upward...

Sorry gang about not having this posted on Monday as I mentioned last week. I was caught up in school work. But without further ado, I'm spreading some book love to celebrate my first anniversary as a book blogger. It's been an interesting year that actually feels like a few years, but in a good way.  I've connected with some fabulous authors and some extra fabulous bloggers. I love this book blogging family. Now, on to the swag...

Corruption by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Casablanca and Tangier provide the backdrops for Corruption, an exotic and erotic tale of modern-day morality, reminiscent of Camus's The Stranger. Mourad is the last honest man in Morocco. Much to the chagrin of his boss, his colleagues, and his materialistic wife, he adamantly refuses to accept "commissions" for his work. But his honesty goes unappreciated. Criticized for condemning his family to a life of poverty, encouraged by his boss to be more "flexible," Mourad finally gives in: just one envelope stuffed with cash, then another... Ben Jelloun's compelling novel evokes the universal dangers of succumbing to the daily temptations of modern life, as Mourad lives the consequences of betraying his own conscience after a lifetime of honesty and resistance. 

And I have a short review here.

Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki
Henna Rub is a precocious teenager whose wheeler-dealer father never misses a business opportunity and whose sumptuous Calcutta marriage to wealthy romantic Ricky-Rashid Karim is achieved by an audacious network of lies. Ricky will learn the truth about his seductive bride, but the way is already paved for a future of double lives and deception--family traits that will filter naturally through the generations, forming an instinctive and unspoken tradition. Even as a child, their daughter Shona, herself conceived on a lie and born in a liar's house, finds telling fibs as easy as ABC. But years later, living above a sweatshop in South London's Tooting Bec, it is Shona who is forced to discover unspeakable truths about her loved ones and come to terms with what superficially holds her family together--and also keeps them apart--across geographical, emotional and cultural distance. 
Roopa Farooki has crafted an intelligent, engrossing and emotionally powerful Indian family saga that will stay with you long after you've read the last page.

In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
It's 1960, and 65-year-old Camila Ureña decides to join the New World. Castro's new world, that is, which she has been following on the news with a heated excitement she hasn't felt for years. Forced into early retirement from her 20-year post as a Spanish teacher among the perky white girls of Vassar College, Camila faces a choice: whether to move to Florida and live down the block from her best friend or to fly over Florida and into Havana where her brothers live--and thereby land in a place of upheaval and hungry ghosts. The hungriest ghost of all is Camila's mother, Salomé Ureña, whose poems became inspirational anthems for a short-lived revolution in the late-19th-century Dominican Republic.

Knots by Nuruddin Farah
A strong, independent, modern woman who was born in Somalia but brought up in North America, Cambara returns to Mogadiscio to escape a failed marriage and an overweening mother. Her journey back to her native home is a desperate attempt to find herself on her own terms-however ironically-in a world of veils and burqas. And she has given herself a mission to reclaim her family's home from the warlord who has taken it as his own. Cambara finds emotional refuge and practical support with a group of Somali women activists working to broker peace in a country that has been savagely riven by its drug-addled, power-hungry men.

Darjeeling by Bharti Kirchner
Novelist and award-winning cookbook author Bharti Kirchner has written a sweeping family saga, a first class fiction about forbidden love and family honor. 
Set in the mountainous tea plantations of Darjeeling, India and in New York City, "Darjeeling" is the story of two sisters - Aloka and Sujata - long separated by their love for Pranab, an idealistic young revolutionary. Pranab loves Sujata, the awkward, prickly, younger sister but, out of obligation, marries Aloka, the gracious, beautiful, older sister. When all of their secrets are revealed, the three are forced to leave Darjeeling. Aloka and Pranab flee to New York City and Sujata to Canada. The story opens ten years later, when their Grandmother summons everyone home to the family tea plantation to celebrate her birthday. Despite the fact that Aloka is still very much in love with Pranab, they are in the process of getting a divorce. Sujata, who is still single, runs a successful business importing tea, a business that doesn't fill her broken heart. This trip forces the sisters to wrestle with their bitterness and anger and to try to heal old wounds. What complicates matters is that Pranab, too, is going to India and is intent on rekindling his relationship with Sujata now that his marriage is over. 
Although filled with the rich foods, smells, and social confines of another culture, "Darjeeling" is really about the universally human emotions of jealousy, rivalry, love, and honor. It is a complex novel about family, exile, sisterly relations, and how one incident can haunt us for the rest of our lives.

Now the deets on the giveaway...
I'm keeping it simple for the entries. The main entry is to leave a comment telling me which book you'd like to win. This one must be done to qualify. 

bonus entries:
+1 Tweet this giveaway (@browngirlspeaks) and post the URL in a comment (you can grab this from the time stamp which is a permalink of the tweet found in your timeline)
+1 fan me on facebook and leave a comment telling me you did so 
+1 subscribe to my feed via a reader or email and leave a comment

That's it folks! This is open to U.S. residents only (sorry, limited funds). The giveaway ends Friday, July 30th at midnight. I'll announce the five winners on my official blogoversary: Saturday, July 31st. 

First up, the winner of a copy of Precious Williams' memoir, Color Blind, is...Lori Tharps! Congrats Lori! Unsolicited Plug Alert: Yes, it's the same Lori Tharps who's the author of Kinky Gazpacho and the upcoming novel, Substitute Me. She also blogs at My American Meltingpot. So, readers do yourselves a great service and pre-order both Color Blind and Substitute Me today. End plug.

Next, my one year blogoversary as a book blogger is in just under two weeks. After about five years of blogging, I finally found where I'm most comfortable in the blogosphere. My bee eff eff had pushed me from the beginning to blog about books and in my crazy mind I thought: who would read a book blog? Crazy, eh? But I was a newbie and it never occurred to me to even see if there were book blogs already out there. I guess it shouldn't have mattered. Nonetheless, I found my way home to an amazing blog family.

So, be sure to stop by here starting Monday, July 26th and see what kinda goodies I offer up for the humble celebration which is officially Saturday, July 31st.

Post read-a-thon update
Thanks to the ladies who participated. I hope everyone enjoyed what they got a chance to read today. I finished two books (His Own Where by June Jordan and No Sweetness Here by Ama Ata Aidoo) and I started a third (Color Blind by Precious Williams). I have selected two winners for a book of their choice from The Book Depository valued up to $15.

Congrats Beverly and Goddesspt2!!

Welcome to the 12 hour read-a-thon and if you're joining for the first time, welcome to the challenge. The only rule is that books must geographically reflect the diaspora meaning authors should be from North America, South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The diaspora refers to the dispersal of people of African descent as a result of the slave trade.

This mini-read-a-thon is a way for those new and established challenge participants to catch up on the amount of reads to which we've committed. I've surpassed my commitment but haven't been geographically diverse as much as I planned.

As promised, I'm giving away a prize. Actually, I'm going to be really generous and give away two. I'll select two participants to win their choice of book (valued up to $15) from The Book Depository. This makes it open worldwide. And I hope the choices are from the diaspora (*wink*). What do you have to do? Just come by here updating us on what you're reading. The more you comment, substantially that is, the more chances you have to win. When I say substantial, I mean comment thoughtfully on what you're reading or what someone else is reading. Please no frivolous random comments just to get the swag. :)

Don't forget we're also on Twitter and the hashtag is #afrodiaspora.

So, let's get into some comfortable spots and enjoy African diasporic literature today.

So, the people have spoken and the catch up read-a-thon for the African Diaspora reading challenge will be 12 hours on Saturday, July 10th. That's three weeks from tomorrow. Get your reading lists together and come join me beginning at 7 am CST (8 am EST/ 5 am PST). Let's take that half day and relax with some great diasporic literature in hand.

There will be a designated post for the event so participants can check in and share what their reading as well as the progress on individual goals. Even though 12 hours does not allow time for challenges, I'm still giving away a prize. The deets on the prize and how winners will be chosen will be revealed the day of the read-a-thon.

Participants should also feel free to give this a twofold purpose and make a charitable donation to the organization of their choice. I'm still deciding on who I'll support.

Any questions or comments, you know where to leave 'em.

And the winner of a copy of Moonshine by Alaya Johnson is.....

Ari from Reading In Color! Yay Ari! I'll be emailing you shortly for your mailing info. If the winner doesn't respond within 48 hours, I'll have to select an alternate.

Now, in other news...

Anyone who's followed this book blog for the almost year it's been in existence knows that I champion authors of color. One of the first things I became aware of as a new book blogger was virtual tours and immediately thought it was a brilliant idea. I knew that I had to make such a service available focused on authors of color. Then I met Yolonda Spinks and we became fast friends over our mutual frugal lifestyles and even better friends because of books. Spinks, as we love to call her, is an amazing activist, journalism major, and staunch supporter of literature by people of color. When I approached her about working together on a virtual book tour company, she revealed that she already had a book related venture in mind. Well, we thought that our two ideas combined would be a good match and Books And... was born.

Initially I was apprehensive about cross promoting too much on my personal blog. I know, I'm weird like that and I know that a hardcore business person would call me a fool. But, I didn't want any of my readers to feel like BrownGirl Speaks was becoming a constant pitch zone for my business. This is one of the reasons I don't have ads on my site. I want this to be a blog not be a billboard. So, Books And... is here to provide virtual tours for authors of color and plans for expansion into local events. I hope that those of you who follow my blog and Notorious Spinks Talks will support Books And... and know that we are working hard to bring much needed attention to authors of all shades of brown, black, and olive.

Books And...
www.booksand.net
www.twitter.com/booksanddotnet

It's that time again! Time to read hard.core. 24 hours. Nothing but books. I don't know how often I'll update but I look forward to all the fun. First book up is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Let's do it...

Hour Six Update
Man the time sure does fly! I finished my first book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and it was great. I will post a review in the coming days for this one. I just started a MG (I think) book called Bird by Angela Johnson. I'm bought it for my son at a library sale recently so I'm doing a preview reading. I'm 30 pages into that. The Mr. and the kid started me off distracted with all of their questions as they tried to get out of my hair for awhile. Now I'm kinda in a groove. Gonna grab some a cheese and tomato sandwich then might hit the Free Step on my Wii Fit Plus and read simultaneously. Yeah, I'm kinda weird...
Pages read: 260
Time spent reading: 5 hours
Books completed: 1
Food consumed: 1 bagel w/ strawberry cream cheese and water

Hour 12 Update
So, I actually did a half hour of Free Step aerobics on the Wii while reading. My second book, Bird, was okay. It was not the performance Angela Johnson delivered with First Part Last. I'm now just over the halfway mark with Heidi Durrow's The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and really enjoying it. I knew I'd like this book. Honestly, I woulda been pissed if it hadn't delivered as I expected. Before my little workout I did handle some lunch and that's about it. I'm kinda staying away from challenges this time and it seems to have me at a better pace.

Pages read since last update: 248
Time spent read since last update: 5 hours 40 mins
Books completed since last update: 1
Total pages read: 508
Total time reading: 10 hours 40 minutes
Total books completed: 2
Food consumed: Tomato and sharp cheddar cheese sandwich (toasted), plain chips, pomegranate and cranberry juice, chocolate chip cookie

Hour 17 Update
Just readin' and eatin' and readin' and eatin'. This means that once I regain consciousness sometime tomorrow, I'll be hitting the Wii Fit pretty hardcore. Anyway, I've finished my third book since last update. A review of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky definitely to come soon. Loved.it! I also started Searching For Tina Turner. I just don't know about this one...

Pages read since last update: 138
Time spent reading since last update: 4 hours 3 minutes
Books completed since last update: 1
Total pages read: 646
Total time reading: 14 hours and 43 minutes
Total books completed: 3
Food consumed: I just finished some Pop Secret Homestyle and a coke and the rest I've blocked from my memory as it's too shameful to say. Oh yeah, I do remember some kinda gourmet crackers and monterey jack cheese.

Hour 24 Update
I'm done. I finished my 4th and final book. Searching For Tina Turner was...meh. Oh I will be reviewing this one too and it's not gonna be pretty. My reading got super slow the last 4 hours and I didn't have a page number goal but am kinda bummed I just missed 1000 pages. There's always September. It's 6:20 a.m. 40 minutes shy of 24 hours. Once again, I read HARD.CORE. :P

Pages read since last update: 278
Time spent reading since last update: 6 hours 15 minutes
Books completed since last update: 1
Total pages read: 924
Total time reading: 20 hours 58 minutes
Total books read: 4
Food consumed: just lots of water

For those unaware, I started a web ring of sorts several months ago for those who blog about POC books. After starting this book blog, I found myself frustrated in my search for more book bloggers of color or those that read books by people of color in a significant quantity. I found one or two so sporadically that I decided to create something that would  easily identify those who fit the description. A button would do it! To take it a step further, I figured I'd link it to a page that housed links to everyone "wearing the badge". My hopes were that other newbies wouldn't have to dig so deep to find kindred reading spirits to follow and get book recommendations.

Now, in the wake of the issue of whitewashing and other issues in publishing regarding POC books, I see the IRIC web ring as something a bit bigger. It's another tool that will hopefully invoke change. It's a very simple statement, I Read In Color, but a strong one. With many "voices" behind it, IRIC should send a clear message to publishers.

So, join us here and below the form is the button. Be sure to use the html provided as it's important to have the button link back to that page so that all the member blogs are discovered.

2009 is coming to a close and it was an alright reading year for me. On one hand it was a vast improvement. I doubled what I usually read in a year. This is largely due to being a SAHM. However, I'm still getting a groove with homeschooling two years in and didn't reach the goal of 75 books I set for this year. Now that I've confessed my shortcoming, moving forward I plan to read at least 75 books in 2010 and complete ALL SIX challenges to which I've committed myself. Here's a recap in case you missed one:
Women Unbound
African Diaspora Reading Challenge
GLBT Challenge
South Asian Author Challenge
Social Justice Challenge
Black Classics Challenge
There's actually a seventh, but it's a perpetual challenge...Reading Africa.

I'll also be doing more vlogs. They'll mostly focus on indie bookstores. Speaking of indie bookstores, I have resolved to patronize them more, though they're scarce in my hometown. So, we got more reading, more vlogs and a new feature. I hope my reviews improve and I write more thought provoking posts on the book industry especially as it pertains to POC writers and literature. My most epic plan is to attend what is, for me, the mecca of book fairs- the Harlem Book Fair.

And one final word, I planned to host a challenge with an awesome theme (hint: Harlem Renaissance) for Black History month. It was all mapped out months before the year long challenge I tossed in the ring on the fly. I'm still debating whether to save it and make it a year long challenge for 2011 or go ahead with it for February 2010. Lemme know what you think.

2010 holds mad promise in the reading department. Check out these upcoming works of fiction, two by veterans Levy and McFadden and one by newcomer Shilpi Gowda. For what 2010 books can't you hardly wait?

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

From Amazon-
  Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her “Marguerite.”

Resourceful and mischievous, July soon becomes indispensable to her mistress. Together they live through the bloody Baptist war, followed by the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, July remains bound to the plantation despite her “freedom.” It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change life in the great house for both July and her mistress. Prompted and provoked by her son’s persistent questioning, July’s resilience and heartbreak are gradually revealed in this extraordinarily powerful story of slavery, revolution, freedom, and love.

Amazon shows a US release date of April 27,2010 and Levy's website shows a UK release scheduled for February 2010.

Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden

From Amazon-
 
Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden’s rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.

Glorious is ultimately an audacious exploration into the nature of self-hatred, love, possession, ego, betrayal, and, finally, redemption.

Harlem Renaissance...enough said. Amazon shows a release date of May 1, 2010.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

From the author's website-
  A stunning debut novel that explores the emotional terrain of motherhood, loss, identity and culture, witnessed through the lives of two families, one Indian, one American, and the daughter who indelibly binds them. On the eve of the monsoons, in a remote Indian village, Kavita gives birth to a baby girl. But in a culture that favors sons, the only way for Kavita to save her newborn daughter’s life is to give her away. It is a decision that will haunt her and her husband for the rest of their lives, even after the arrival of their cherished son.

Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own. When she and her husband Krishnan see a photo of the baby with the gold-flecked eyes from a Mumbai orphanage, they are overwhelmed with emotion for her. Somer knows life will change with the adoption, but is convinced that the love they already feel will overcome all obstacles.

Interweaving the stories of Kavita, Somer, and the child that binds their destinies, Secret Daughter poignantly explores issues of culture and belonging. Moving between two worlds and two families, one struggling to survive the fetid slums of Mumbai, the other grappling to forge a cohesive family despite diverging cultural identities, this powerful debut novel marks the arrival of a fresh talent poised for great success.

Author's website and Amazon show a release date of March 1, 2010.