As I promised, I dug into my books over the break. However, unlike promised, I didn't do nearly as much reading as I'd hoped. I knew I was a little over ambitious, but I realllly didn't get through as many books as I should've. I mean, I am not one to pick up a book and not finish it but I did this time...
twice.
Note to self: remember to alternate between intellectual, hard-core, America-sucks-for-black-people books and entertaining, engaging ones. Okay, now that has been resolved...
The first book I picked up was
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage. I've been hearing a lot about her as well as this book so I couldn't wait to get into it. Well, it didn't take me very long; I was quickly drawn in. It's a fantastic story about an HIV positive woman who grows tired of Atlanta (primarily due to the way in which her community treated her) and decides to move to San Francisco, where she believes she will be more accepted. She decides to first spend the summer with her sister, recently widowed, in the small town of Idlewild in Michigan.
[Spoiler sentence...] As she arrives in Idlewild, she is instantly sucked into a wild series of events from her sister fighting to adopt a crack-head baby, a crazy new First Lady who is fighting fiercely to conceal her husband's sexually deviant past, to falling passionately in love with what may very well be every black woman's dream man
[...end of spoiler]. Hey, I'm a sucker for an emotional story and this was, hands down, a phenomenal novel. Oh, and shout out to Oprah for making yet another great selection for her book club.
Hey girl.Then I started reading
Quitting America by Randall Robinson but it was such a essay-type read - which means a slower read - that I decided that I'd get back to the 288 page book some other time. A time when I'm
not trying to escape from school and the energy that it takes to actually
use my brain. Using brain = totally over-rated. Plus, I wanted to get to William Rhoden's
Forty Million Dollar Slaves which I knew would be an intellectual read, nonetheless much more engaging. And it definitely was.
This book provides a great historical account of the progression of African-Americans in sports. There was so much that I never knew and that all black folks need to be knowledgeable about - particularly the athletes in our communities.
The book was supposed to provide a discussion on "The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete." While Rhoden did a phenomenal job with the "Rise" and provided great insights into the "Fall," I was hoping for a bit more for the "Redemption" aspect. He provided brief insights but not much more than what I had thought of myself. I think if every black athlete were required to read this book, it would open up a lot of dialogue about negative aspects of the multi-billion dollar sports industry that black people probably don't recognize. It would also open up the minds of the young black men and women, hopefully causing them to realize that there is so much more leadership potential in them than they realize... that they could revolutionize the model of leadership in the black community. We live in a time in which the media has a major impact on our lives. As high-profile individuals, athletes have the ability to make an extraordinary impact our community - which is a point that Rhoden makes that I wholeheartedly agree with.Well, anywho. I'll stop myself. Otherwise I might end up writing a semi-hardcore, America-sucks-for-black-people post that would bore the both of us.
Click here and scroll down to my January 13 update to see my favorite exerpts from the book (where you see "Mademoiselle said:").
I'm getting offline now so that
Suze Orman can help me get my money straight in '08. Okay, so I don't have any money now (I'm broke as heck), but it is said that what you do with $1.00 is an indication of what you will do when you have $100, $1000, $10000, or more! So between the good Lord and Suze Orman, I'm learning to spend my dollar the
right way. Cuz when I'm a millionaire, my money
best be working for me. Where'd you think
trust fund babies came from?
So I cut my hair yesterday. I wanted one of those straight cuts. The woman on Bloomberg had hers shoulder length but since the front of my hair was not as long as the back, to get the full effect I had to cut it a bit shorter than I would have liked. But I love it! There is something about cutting your hair that is invigorating. Or maybe I'm just a diva and I'm happy to feel fly with my new hairstyle. Like I said before, whatev.
So I cut my hair yesterday. I wanted one of those straight cuts. The woman on Bloomberg had hers shoulder length but since the front of my hair was not as long as the back, to get the full effect I had to cut it a bit shorter than I would have liked. But I love it! There is something about cutting your hair that is invigorating. Or maybe I'm just a diva and I'm happy to feel fly with my new hairstyle. Like I said before, whatev.
Well, the number 8 is said to mean new beginnings. So 2008 is the year that we should all do new things. I know I'm down with that. There are a lot of new things that I will be doing . All of it involves 
