Category: Book Review

Shaka Senghor’s riviting novel, “Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and Redemption in an American Prison” (Drop A Gem Publishing, 2013, $26), goes far beyond the typical inner-city narrative focusing on poverty, gangs, drugs and misspent youth.

The saga of Jonestown gets a fictionalized treatment

The Palmdale City Library African American Book Club will meet and unpack on March 15 the popular novel “Half of a Yellow Sun.” They’ll begin at the usual time of 7 p.m., and the event is free.

Your neighbors said they’d keep an eye on your house for you this summer.

They’d get the mail in, and grab the newspaper while you were on vacation. They’d do

everything for you – and, as in the new book “The Parker Sisters” by Lucy Maddox,

you should be glad if they watch your children, too.

If the walls could talk, imagine what they’d say.

They’d reminisce about family meals, holidays, celebrations and romance, take sides in

arguments, and watch children grow.

You can’t remember what you came into the room for.

That happens with disturbing frequency. Forgetting your glasses, losing your keys, it

really bothers you because you’re not sure if it’s a normal part of aging or something

else.

You’d do almost anything for your best friend.

You’d take a bullet, take her in, or take her anywhere she needed to go. You keep her

kids and her confidences. And, as in the new novel, “Best Friends Forever” by

Kimberla Lawson Roby, she’d do the same for you. Probably.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire seem so cozy.

Your family is filled with people to whom you look up.

There’s Grandpa, who served in the war. Grandma, who raised many children with little

money. Your uncle, another veteran overseas; and both your parents, who keep you fed

and safe. You look up to all of them but imagine how high you’d have to look if they

were on horseback, and then read “Buffalo Soldiers: Heroes of the American West” by

Brynn Baker.

You woke up this morning with a craving. So is breakfast time too early to think about dinner? Is it bad to want to sneak home for
lunch, just to make your favorite comfort food? No, because nothing else tastes good when you’re hankering for something specific.