Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon Wrap-Up

My goal for the Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon was very simple. I wanted to read four books in one week. I started off strong as usual and slowly waned by the challenge's end. Overall, I finished two books and started one more reading about half-way through before I put it down.

My first book that I picked up was Corregidora by Gayl Jones, which was one of my African-American/African book selections for the week. I got about 50-54% done with this book before I was notified that Wonder by R.J. Palacio was available for me to download from the library. Currently,  I have 94 pages before I am done with Jones' book.

I picked up Wonder by R.J Palacio from my library's eBook collection since I had seen so many BookTubers haul this book. I absolutely adored this story and have added it to my favorites of 2013 list. I plan to review this book very soon.

Next, I read Heist Society by Ally Carter, which I got in eBook form as well. I personally expected a bit more than I actually got from this book. It was a good read, but not a great one. I will be doing a series review for this book along with its two companions so I won't have an actual review for at least another month.

Other books that I picked up last week included: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamed, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, Our Souls To Keep by Gary A Caruso, and Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter, which is the second book in the Heist Society series.

Movie & Play Review of Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin In The Sun

I gave the play 5 stars and the movie 3 stars.

The thing about classics of any kind is that you never know what you're going to get when you read or watch them. You can look up all the reviews you want, but until you've cracked open the book or movie for yourself you can't be sure if any classic is right for you.

I have often heard people gush over Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin In The Sun and told myself there was no rush to read it on my own because I would eventually have to read it for some class. Sadly, this book never actually made it onto the required reading list for any of my classes so it was left up to me to read it at my leisure. This summer, I finally had a chance to pick the play up from my mother's collection while I waited for my own boxes to be shipped from Pittsburgh. My ultimate reaction was that this play was nothing like I expected it was infinitely better.

Play Review

A Raisin In The Sun follows the Youngers, an African-American family living in South Side Chicago sometime between the end of WWII and the present. The Younger family includes Mama/Lena, a retired domestic worker;Walter/Brother, her son who has big dreams of making it; Ruth, Walter's wife; Ruth and Walter's son, Travis; and Beneatha, Walter's younger sister who wants to become a doctor. As the play begins, the Youngers are all anticipating getting the insurance check that covered Walter Sr., Mama's husband who has recently died.

Each person in the family has big dreams of what they want to do with the money when they get it however, Walter is the most vocal about his plans. When the check finally comes, Mama takes the money and buys a house in an all-white neighborhood with half of it and gives the rest to Walter with strict instructions to put half in the bank for Beneatha's medical education and use the other half for whatever he sees fit. Unfortunately, Walter does the opposite and things start to unravel from there.

For once, I can actually agree with the general consensus and say that this particular play is worthy of the title of classic. Everything in Hansberry's play felt extremely relevant and real to me, from the characters who were trying to figure out how to spend their new found fortune to the themes that Hansberry brought up about African-American's place in American society. Even on paper, the characters' emotions and actions are mapped out and shown so well that watching a film or live performance for Hansberry's work was actually unnecessary. I personally enjoyed each aspect of the play and could see how certain issues such as, the idea of the black man's ambitions being unrecognized or the questioning of whether blacks are better off assimilating into the American culture vs. African culture are still relevant. Yet, when I watched the 1961 film adaptation, I wasn't necessarily as impressed by it like I was with the play.

Movie Review

For starters, the movie added and deleted key scenes that were important to the overall message of the play. In one deleted scene, Beneatha cuts her permed hair off and everyone is shocked by her actions. This depiction of going natural was empowering in the play. In the film, this scene is cut so that instead of physically shedding what is implied to be her "assimilated American habits," Beneatha just goes into a monologue about how she will not take on anymore American habits and will instead identify more with her African roots. In my opinion, this scene would have been amazing if it was acted out properly by Diana Sands who played Beneatha.

Likewise, the scene where the Youngers' neighbor comes in to borrow cleaning products before the family moves and warns/reminds Mama that going into an all-white neighborhood to live isdangerous for the times. This particular scene while not as profound as Beneatha's hair cutting scene would have been good to show that not only whites were weary of the trouble that could come from blacks and whites living together. Yet, directors of the film chose to show only the white viewpoint instead in the visit that Mr. Linder who acts as the "welcome committee" to the Youngers' new neighborhood makes to the family's South Side apartment.

Even though the film did delete these two scenes and add scenes where Walter is sitting in a bar or shown chauffeuring his white boss around, I did somewhat enjoy it because of Sidney Poitier's acting in the role of Walter. Out of all the actors in the film, he gave the best performance to me. His emotions were raw and he embodied the idea of being a man who the world had beaten down on to a T. Seeing him play Wlater alongside Ruby Dee who played the role of Ruth was interesting since these two seemed to have good on screen chemistry. While I did enjoy Diana Sands in her role as Beneatha, I was a little annoyed with her character in general in both the play and the book. However, I did chalk this up to being just part of the acceptable emotions that Hansberry's play was meant to draw out of me.

I would definitely recommend the play and the 1961 movie adaption. I eventually hope to get a chance to watch the 2008 film adaption to see how Sean "P. Diddy" Combs acted in his role as Walter. Not to mention Phylicia Rashad is one of my favorite actresses so I would love to see her in the role of Mama as well.

I hope everyone's day went well and that a lot of reading was done in between celebrating Father's Day.

April Favorites

This month, I have decided to start doing a monthly favorites post. In this post, I will be paying homage to some of my favorite things, movies, books, etc. that I came across in the stated month.That being said....

My Favorite Book: 
     This month, I got a chance to read Sam Greenlee's book, The Spook Who Sat By The Door in preparation for completing my final paper for my African-American Literature class. For me, this book was a present surprise. I didn't expect to like it nearly as much as I did.
     The novel is about Freeman, an African-American revolutionist who is the "token black" within the CIA during the Civil Rights time period. Angered by the oppression of blacks in America, Freeman takes it upon himself to regain power for this racial group by training African-American gang members in Chicago to become a guerrilla army to fight against Whites. Readers get to see just how far, Freeman is willing to go to gain freedom from those he feel have wrongly governed over
blacks for far too long.
     This book was really powerful for me in terms of its message about how different minority cultures wear mask in an attempt to hide their true feelings about certain situations (i.e., questions of class, social treatment, etc.) or to keep themselves from shaking up other people's perception of certain racial groups. While, I read this book as a part of my course curriculum, I would recommend it for anybody who enjoys a good historical novel or who wants to read a book that is akin to Native Son by Richard Wright or Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I didn't write a review on this because I had so many emotions after reading it and was unsure how to put them all into a coherent review that was tasteful and informative opposed to sporadic ranting and philosophical musings...after all I do enough of that in school and this is my "happy place." If anyone is interested in this book, I would definitely go on ebay and get a copy. The novel itself is sort of hard to get a hold of due to it being banned for a period of time by the American government (LOL it literally brings a whole new meaning to the term "banned" books).

My Favorite Movie:
      I simply LOVE the movie, Silver Linings Playbook. This movie had everything in it, romance, comedy, drama, mental illness topics...In short, it was phenomenal! The main plot follows Pat Solitano who has recently been released from a mental health facility. Pat's main goal is to reconnect with his estranged wife, Nicki who he feels will fall back in love with him if only she can see just how well he is doing. Unfortunately, his family and friends aren't giving up any information about Nicki to him and he's left to fend for himself in winning his ex-wife back. When Pat meets Tiffany, a fellow unstable individual, he hatches a plan to get Nicki back and pick up the pieces of his life.
      What I loved about this movie is that it felt original. It didn't feel like the characters were transplants from other movies who were just taking on new roles for the sake of drama, everything had a point. I also loved Bradley Cooper (Pat) and Jennifer Lawrence (Tiffany) in this movie. They along with Chris Tucker played their roles flawlessly. Chris Tucker, who played Pat's best friend from rehab, Danny added the perfect touch of comedy throughout the movie. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good romantic-comedy. I also want to read the book, which was written by Mathew Quick.

My Favorite Music:
       This month, I committed a rarity for me, I bought a FULL CD from iTunes instead of just individual songs off an album. The CD I bought was Save Rock and Roll by Fall Out Boy. This CD is phenomenal! In total, there are eleven songs on the album with sounds that range from R&B like tracks all the way to rock. I definitely didn't feel as if the album was one note thanks to the versatility that I saw in the album track list. If I was forced to choose specific songs to play on repeat, I would have to say my absolute favorite songs are "The Phoenix," "Where Did the Party Go," The Mighty Fall," and "Just One Yesterday (feat. Foxes)." Even though the other songs are pure gold too, these four songs are my go-to walking soundtrack for getting to and from school on my early morning commutes.

My Favorite Television Show:
      This one was a bit of a no brainer since, I can't get enough of watching reality television regardless of how scripted it maybe. Since it's debut over four seasons ago, I have been in love with Style Networks' Jerseylicious. This show follows a group of New Jersey hairstylists and make-up artist along with their families. Each season the show centers for the most part around two or more individuals who are at odds with each other and the audience gets to watch the juicy drama that ensues. The show also follows the characters as they go about their daily work lives.
      For the most part, Jerseylicious is tame compared to other reality shows that focus on a set cast. The hairstylists and make-up artist aren't usually overly violent with the exception of maybe once/twice a season when an actual fist fight breaks out at random. The brunt of the drama takes place in gossip form that mirrors that of petty high schoolers so it is safe for people of all ages however, I would advise some parental control for individuals who are at an impressionable age. Yet, it should be noted that the cast do do good deeds such as, raising money and getting donations for Hurricane Sandy victims throughout New Jersey or putting together a coffee table book of different style icons from New Jersey's history. If you ever get a chance, I would highly recommend this show especially, for people who were once avid Jersey Shore fans.

Cheers!

Going To The Edge Of Crazy: A Book Review On "32 Candles" by Ernessa T. Carter

I gave this book a solid 5 stars!!!

Ernessa T. Carter's book, 32 Candles kept me entertained from start to finish.

Davidia Jones is an outcast at her school and unloved by her mother. Growing up as a dark-skinned African-American girl in her southern Mississippi town, she learns to fold in on herself and become numb to others' taunts about her skin tone. Add to this the fact that Davidia refuses to speak at all, and it's a recipe for disaster. However, once she reaches high school, the unthinkable happens........she falls in love with James Farell, the newly arrived small-town football player and resident rich boy.

While James fails to acknowledge her presence, Davidia takes matters into her own hand and uses her Molly Ringwald-playbook to win James' love. Unfortunately, James's sisters have something else in mind and set off to make Davidia's life hell. Fleeing from her small town after a prank goes too far, Davidia hitchhikes to Los Angeles with a female trucker. Here she changes her name to Davie Jones and becomes a sultry lounge singer. Seventeen years later, James walks back into Davie's life and this time, she's ready.

Davidia/Davie's character is one of those characters that worm their way into the reader's heart and forces them to become invested in the character's story. Davidia's character is well constructed and feels authentic to the reader. Even when she exacts her revenge on the Farell family, the reader has sympathy for her and may even want to help her payback the rich snobs who caused Davidia pain in high school by bullying her.

The author's pacing for this story helps drive the story's action. This is helpful in building the story steadily to climax and keeps the reader interested. The storyline also felt well though out and was easy to relate to whether you were popular in high school or an outcast. While the novel does span over a time period of roughly twenty-eight years, the pacing of the story never has the reader feeling the urge to hit fast forward on Davidia's story.

Carter's novel is definitely one that I would recommend to anyone who wants a taste of revenge or who just loves a good novel about a girl coming of age in the 80's. However, I would caution that this book is meant for a mature audience since there are some heated scenes within the novel that may not be appropriate for a younger audience.

Cheers!