Here’s a fun tag post featuring Goodreads to share (thanks, Alex, for passing it along: https://mybookworld24.com/2019/08/15/goodreads-book-tag/ ). Funny thing is that I’m currently on a series roll as you’ll see below:
1. What was the last book you marked as “read”?
2. What are you currently reading?
3. What was the last book you marked as “Want to Read”?
4. What book do you plan to read next?
5. Do you use the star rating system?
Yes
6. Are you doing the 2019 Reading Challenge?
Yes, started with a pretty, unusually low amount, and quite happy to have surpassed it… it was really touch and go for a while this year to meet it 😦
https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/14858132
7. Do you have a wishlist?
No, I just add them to my TBR.
8. What book do you plan to buy next?
Hmmmm… still thinking; my TBR is quite lengthy 🙂
9. Do you have any favorite quotes? Would you like to share a few?
Yes…
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
– Toni Morrison
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– Maya Angelou
10. Who are your favorite authors?
Isabel Allende, Tayari Jones, Bernice McFadden, Jackie Collins, Hilary Mantel, to name a few.
11. Have you joined any groups?
Yes: On the Southern Lit Trail, Literary Fiction by People of Color, Writers Worth, to name a few.
12. Are there any questions you’d like to add?
No.
Okay, readers, now, your turn 🙂
Are you on Goodreads? Let’s connect!
Feel free to share yours in the comments or if you have a blog, post your link to it. I’d love to read your responses!
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Now also available in paperback is Grand Opening: A Novella (The Boutique Series #1)! Yay! Grand Opening, a romantic suspense story, is the first book of 
As I work on the rewrite and edits of my novel, I’ve held on to the spirit of Toni Morrison’s words: “If there is a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” They’ve been ringing heavier in my mind for the past couple of days, since her passing, to keep going. It’s still a shock to know she’s no longer in this world with us, to feel such a void, but I thank God her stories AND essays carry on for us to continue learning from.
my own writing as I visualize the pain and ugliness along with the beauty my characters live through. It’s what writing is about… through her novels, essays, and non-fiction, she taught many of us about that. I remain grateful for her and for her sharing her gift of language. I will always cherish the way she uplifted the voice of the black family in literature and reminding me of my responsibility as an author to do just the same. It’s the voice I grew up with, it’s the voice I have, it’s the voice I too have to share.
) one book a month or maybe two was the norm; and when writing, one or a half of one if I could get through was happening. This month, I have to thank Terry McMillan for getting my ball rolling again.
When Dr. Georgia Young learned about the passing of a former college boyfriend, she realized she didn’t know if he’d known how much she had loved him. That moment set her on a journey to find her ex-husbands and lovers to find out more about their relationships and what made them stop working. With her intentions and the love of her close-knit family and friends during the process she learns more about herself. Recommended read.
This one’s a whole lot deeper than you may think. Highly recommended. 
Let me just say, about a week later, I’m still savoring this book. Told (written) in the form of a documentary about a top rock band of the 1970s that broke up right at the end of their first tour, which was a major success by the way. Everyone involved from the band members, journalists covering them, their biography writers, family members, etc, talk about the band and the breakup for the first time. As a classic rock fan, I loved it. As a biography fan, I loved it. I loved it… highly recommended.
Can you believe that it’s been over twenty years since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone if you’re in the UK) came out, introducing us to this amazing group of kids, namely Harry, Ron, and Hermione?! When I got Book #1 for my son years ago, I read the first chapter, was captivated, and had intended to return to it soon. But that didn’t happen. So just a few years ago, I finally got to it and finished it. Finally… and enjoyed every moment and even got myself a Hermione Granger quote shirt! Sometimes one could forget they were kids – just kids! Not yet teenagers and all they went through. Then – again, finally – I made it to the sequel and pored through it in just a few days. Just as the first, it’s a story of heart. As my best friend pointed out with a heavy sigh, I might add – we’ll never get to Potterworld at my rate (!), so I’m on to the third. In fact, I’ve never seen the movies because I knew I was going to read them first. I may or may not watch Chamber of Secrets though. There are some parts that I really don’t want to see and prefer to keep it in my imagination. I’ll continue to think on that though…
I swept through this book quickly and loved pretty much every moment. Finished it in the wee hours of the morning. As macabre as the title is, and as grim as the subject matter, too, the humor woven through the story lightened it up JUST a bit. Korede narrates the story about her sister’s – shall we say – penchant for murdering her boyfriends. Once her sister, Ayoola, has set her sights on the doctor that Korede has loved (from a distance at the hospital where she works as a nurse), Korede begins to wonder just how much more of her sister’s homicidal ways she can take. Can or should she try to protect the doctor? How can she keep her sister away from him? How long will she be haunted by the victims – while fussing at Ayoola to stay off of Instagram like everything is okay? Moments like this are the ones that lighten things up for the reader and perhaps Korede as she shares this story. Even darker than these troubles is the childhood the girls lost and why and how. It makes the tale more somber and even a tad understanding. Set in Nigeria, My Sister, the Serial Killer also brings to light how women there are perceived by men, in terms of social status, work, their expectations of women, and looks. As Korede notes, that looks part can be a sad breaking point for some men.
for Ponyboy came back and I was too anxious to rewatch the movie with him (even though they’d also watched it in his class!). Needless to say, while all of the Curtis boys and their friends making up the darling ’80s memory known as the Brat Park were adorable to say the least, none captured my heart like Ponyboy Curtis.
Ponyboy Curtis was the writer, the dreamer, the sensitive, sweet, and caring one. In the midst of all the chaos he had endured living between the rivalry of the Greasers and the Socs, that made up much of his childhood, everyone on all sides knew he was the one who could try to make sense of life for himself and the rest of them through writing. Johnny told him so through his beautiful letter after he died and Dallas tried to protect him long before he died. I certainly understood that method of coping – it’s why we were kindred spirits, I guess.
