Always Me

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half Of 2020, but I'm doing something completely different again this week.  I'm featuring Classic Books By African-American Authors Everyone Should Read.  Given everything that's been going on around the world and in our own backyards, I thought I could try to spread some positivity - it's the least I can do to be a good ally to try to amplify voices that should be heard.  Here we go, in alphabetical order by title: Ain't I A Woman by bell hooks Beloved by Toni Morrison Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs Kindred by Octavia E. Butler The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass Parable of the Sower ( Earthseed #1) by Octavia E. Butler Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches by Audre Lorde Sula by Toni

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting three of songs from DJ Shub with Indomitable ft. Northern Cree Singers , Big Crow ft. Black Lodge Singers , and  Big Crow ft. Black Lodge Singers .  Thank you very much YouTube for recommending this music to me - I'm hooked! You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Happy Sunday everyone!  As you may know, I've celebrated Pride Month by tackling some LGBTQIAP books this month.  I managed to get to all of the books on my potential TBR except for one (I'm still waiting on the library hold on  All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages  by Saundra Mitchell ).  Luckily for me, I enjoyed the majority of them.  Read on to see my mini reviews on my thoughts on the books I read in the order I read them over the course of the month.  Don't forget to stick around for my giveaway (US only, sorry) for one of my most delightful reads this month,  These Witches Don't Burn  ( These Witches Don't Burn  #1) by Isabel Sterling . ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Oh my gosh!   Goldie Vance Vol. 1  by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams  is so delightful. It's retro setting, bright color palette, can-do energy, and inclusiveness are refreshing. There's a lot more I'd like to see with the characters and the locale

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy.  June has finally gone by.  Anyway, I've now completed 12 out of 24 books of  Book Riot's 2020 Read Harder Challenge !  I'm officially half way through.  The tasks I completed required me to read mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman   and  a romance starring a single parent .  For the tasks, I selected  Goldie Vance Vol. 1  by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams  and  Tempest  ( Old West  #3) by Beverly Jenkins .   Read on to see my mini reviews and what's next for July:  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Oh my gosh!   Goldie Vance Vol. 1  by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams  is so delightful. It's retro setting, bright color palette, can-do energy, and inclusiveness are refreshing. There's a lot more I'd like to see with the characters and the locale, but that's what we have the rest of the series for isn't it.  I can't wait to see more of Goldie Vance and company. I wish I knew abou

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. Happy Friday everyone! 

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today I'm sharing two mini reviews with you:  Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia  and  The Empire of Gold ( The Daevabad Trilogy #3) by S. A. Chakraborty , both of which will be released on June 30th, 2020. I received both of these ARCs from NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts on them: ❋   ❋  ❋   ❋ Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a fantastically eerie and suspenseful gothic horror. I'm so lucky to have been approved for this new standalone novel from this incredibly talented author. She's quickly becoming a favorite of mine and this might be her best yet. Gothic horror is one of my favorite genres, so I always jump at the chance to pick one up and this novel does it so well. I particularly enjoyed just how old-school it feels. The story is positively dripping with atmosphere and the characters feel all too real. Plus, it's legitimately terrifying and also a bit of a tearjerker.

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Top Ten Tuesday Turns 10, so we pretty much have free reign this week in honor of this anniversary.  I'm featuring some of Backlist Books From African-American Authors On My TBR.  Given everything that's been going on around the world and in our own backyards, I thought I could try to spread some positivity - it's the least I can do to be a good ally to try to amplify voices that should be heard.  Here we go, in alphabetical order by title: Akata Warrior  ( Akata Witch  #2) by Nnedi Okorafor The Color Purple  by Alice Walker Fences  by August Wilson Home  ( Binti  #2) by Nnedi Okorafor The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms  ( Inheritance Trilogy  #1) by N.K. Jemisin March: Book One  ( March  #1) by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin Parable of the Talents  ( Earthseed  #2) by Octavia E. Butler A Raisin in the S