Book Likes

Review of ReShonda Tate’s book The Queen of Sugar Hill

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Before this book, I knew nothing of Hattie McDaniels except she played a maid in the movie Gone with the Wind and other movies and television.    I was thrilled to find out that she was the first black woman to win an Oscar/Academy Award for playing a maid in the Gone with the Wind movie based on Civil War America.

The author, Ms. ReShonda Tate, has done a wonderful job re-creating Ms. McDaniel’s life from her research as well as her own creative writing.  The sequence of her experiences was so well written.  Many times, I hollered at Hattie’s choice of men in the book as well as the amount of money she spent on parties to which White as well as Black attended. 

I also hollered at the movie producers and black newsmen who were not able to see Hattie as anything but a maid in all her movie roles, radio, as well as in television roles.  Ms. Hattie was dark like me, overweight like I was, and like me, she was an educated woman who could have played more diverse parts and was a sorority sister.  

I could identify even today with the prejudice from our own black people.  In the fifth grade, we had a brown skin teacher the color of cinnamon or a paper bag at that time, who didn’t like any children who were darker than her and treated us darker children badly.  Thank God our sixth-grade teacher, a very light black woman, treated all of us the same.

Unfortunately, I’ve never seen the whole Gone with the Wind movie at four hours long.   But, in the parts of the movie I did see, I had no problem with the way blacks spoke in the movie.  She represented well as Blacks were not allowed to be educated at that time in American history.   The woman “Mammy” she represented in the movie was realistic to me, educated in common sense and experience of life.

What upset me was the way Ms. Daniels was treated by the NAACP at that time who said she, an actress, did not represent black people. And shamed her for her dark skin as well.  This just pits dark women against light women, but all women are beautiful.  Reminds me of the Ray Burton and Helen Reddy song, “I Am Woman”.

Ms. Tate said her book was a historical novel and used as much historical fact as possible.   I am so sorry that after Ms. Daniel’s triumphs, she was not allowed to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery because of her color.   I so appreciate the book, The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate.

Written by Rosa Griffin

4/12/25

Review of Book–The Violin Conspiracy, a novel by Brendan Slocumb (2022)

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Anchor Books, Division of Penguin, Random House LLC

By the end of chapter one, this book had me by the throat because it turned into a mystery.  The young hero, Rayquan McMillian, is not complaining about his lot in life as a Black boy, but his love of playing the violin is all he can see in his future beyond high school.  However, everything and everyone seems to be against him.   When, as a boy, he asked his high school music teacher for lessons like the White kids got, his teacher, walking away replied “Why?”.

Here we have the emotional story of a man who has loved the violin since a boy but is not appreciated by his immediate family of Black people except for his grandmother, Nora, his aunt Rochelle, and one college female Black administrator who is professor of music at her university.   But the White world is not prepared to accept him because he’s Black.   “Look at his skin, hair, clothes.   He couldn’t possibly like or play classical music.”  His mother insists that he not waste time pursuing music, but work at Popeyes or the local grocery store. 

And, when his family, at the demand from his grandmother, finally listens to this high school young man play her violin (handed down through generations) from her great great grandfather for the first time on an instrument better than his rented one from school, even he had to admit that he had made the right choice as a Black man to pursue the violin as a career.   This chapter made me cry.   I think every one of us has had a situation when others don’t have faith in our abilities. 

His grandmother’s violin turned out to be a Stradivarius, worth millions.   More conflict developed from the Marks family, descendants of the original slave owners, once the real value of his grandmother’s relative’s violin came to public attention.  You can guess the trouble they caused.

Reading Slocumb’s book was like being there in every one of his character’s adventures—some great, some horrendous.   I enjoyed this book more than any monthly book our book club read in the 2 years I’ve been a member.   Never have I come across an author who can make you see and hear what Ray is playing on his violin, who so envelops you in the beauty of Ray’s playing.  I’ve always loved to hear a violin which is able to interpret any emotion. 

Although the book made me angry, too, I had a hard time putting it aside so much so that I finished the book in 3 days.  I learned a lot about what classical musicians had to go through—from local competitions to international ones.  It is an exciting book full of detailed characters.

 Quote from the book by Whoopee Goldberg:

“We’re here for a reason.  I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.”

Submitted by Rosa L. Griffin

Tidbits 4

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Cheikh Anta Diop

Senegalese author, historian, anthropologist, physicist who thought that “Ancient Egypt was a Negro Civilization”.

Kim Moir said on Facebook that he read this author’s book The African Origin of Civilization.

Sarah Rector

At the age of 10, she became the richest black child in the world.  She received a land grant from the Cree Nation as part of reparations.

By 1912, revenue from oil on the land was $371,000 per year (approximately $6.5 million today).  Sarah resisted attempts to steal her land and fortune.  She attended the Tuskegee University and settled in Kansas City, Missouri, where her mansion still stands.

Tanya Deshields shared this information with us on Facebook.

Demisexuality

Discussed on The Real tv show, demi-sexuality refers to an emotional connection with another person before sex or before actually meeting.

“Demisexual people only feel sexually attracted to someone when they have an emotional bond with the person.  They can be gay, straight, bisexual, or pansexual, and may have any gender identity.   The prefix “demi” means half—which can refer to being halfway between sexual and asexual.

Demisexuality can be a type of graysexuality.    A graysexual person may experience sexual attraction only rarely, or they may feel sexual attraction but are not that interested in sex…  

They only feel secondary attraction—the type of attraction that happens after knowing someone for a while.”

“Demisexuality:  What Does It Mean?”, https://www.webmd.com, June 28, 2021.

Aromantic

“People who are aromantic can still have intense, loving feelings, they’re just not romantic in nature.  They can form emotional and personal connections, and they can provide and benefit from empathetic support. “

The first time I saw this word aromantic, I was reading Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s novel, Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? with my bookclub.   A female character, Nana, said she was aromantic.   Quote: “People like me don’t really experience romantic feelings.  We’re not fussed about getting into relationships…Don’t worry, I only found out about the term the other day.  Someone posted about it on Twitter, and I was like, wait a minute, that is so me.”

“What does Aromantic mean?”, https://www.webmd.com, June 27, 2021.

Submitted by Rosa L. Griffin

Reading Expands Your Mind

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Reading has been one of the important things in my life along with writing.   They both can teach and transport us safely to unknown places.  Some books whether fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s, etc. can add value to our lives. 

One of the eye-opening books of my life is John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath published in 1939.   It alludes to White people treating other White people criminally during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.   A mass migration began from Oklahoma and other states to California.   Along the way, we find why there developed a need for unions (who will pick a bushel of fruit for a $1, then .75, then .50, and before you know it your family has to pick several bushels at .25 per bushel.  Certainly not enough to feed a family after buying essentials in that same farmer’s store), tenant farmers who gave their lives to work land they would never own, and man’s inhumanity to mankind.  Even in the Bible, the Jews were instructed to leave some of their crop for the poor.

“Steinbeck’s book is historical fiction and was banned and burned by citizens although it was the best-selling book of 1939.  It won the National book award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the Nobel Prize for Literature.   The most fervent attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California, and the book was challenged off and on into the 1990’s.”  (Wikipedia) Director John Ford made the book into the movie Grapes of Wrath in 1940.

Don’t be afraid to tackle a thick book.   The more you read the better you get.   Some books are now in audible form and can be borrowed from the library, my favorite place.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Review of book, The Art of Hand Dancing: That Saved My Life, by Lewis Neal and Joseph McCray (2020)

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Lewis Neal’s book is thin, but quite a page-turner.  His book has a great cover of him dressed to perfection.   He is a Baltimorean who started hand dancing after serving in the military.

Hand dancing is just one category of the glamorous life of dancing.    He reveals so much I never knew about a career in dancing—what is involved in selecting contests, dance partners, costumes, etc. The contests took him all over the country.

During his career, Mr. Neal developed health problems and injuries.   He’s giving back by giving lectures on dancing, instructing dance classes, diabetes, and stroke because he had those experiences including his experiences with self-medicating which he does not recommend.   He gave us a much-detailed history of his experiences.

Hand dancing can be very provocative as well as great exercise.   I tried my hand at amateur hand dancing when I was younger and again after I was older but found it much too strenuous for me when done right.

I bought a copy of the Art of Hand Dancing through Amazon last year because I wanted to keep a copy for myself. 

Mr. Neal’s brother, Joseph McCray, is a certified addictions registered nurse and an author and speaker who specializes in help for drug addiction.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Review of book The Nickel Boys (2019) by Colson Whitehead

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This fictional book starts off with a reference to the Nickel school and skeletons found buried there by archaeology students.   One can hardly believe a government agency/state does nothing to help their reform school youth they claim to help.  They work them until they pass out.  They don’t keep track of their medical conditions.   Their punishment of the youths entrusted to them amounts to capital punishment from which some died.

This reform school for boys is in Tallahassee, Florida.  This is Elwood’s story.

Elwood was a nerd.   He was teased because he was a black boy who liked to read.   Reading got him away from the fact that his mom ran away with a boyfriend when he was a baby.   He was left with his grandmother who, as an act of love, bought him a 10-cent book by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin Luther King at Zion Hill (1960), which formed his views on life as he was growing up.   I could relate to Elwood because I was considered a nerd because I liked to read and write all the time while growing up.

A new militant black male teacher made Elwood see even beyond Dr. King to the bigger picture of the plight of the black man in the south, even to the point of participating in protests.  The new teacher asked the black children to go through their used books to cover up the racial epithets written by white youths who knew the books were going to be passed on to black children.   I remember getting hand-me-down textbooks from elementary to high school from what I thought were prior black students, but I never knew they were old books from white schools.

Before Elwood’s graduation from high school, he was given a chance to take college classes while still in high school.  Even his custodial grandmother agreed that things were looking up for him and his family until that unusual day when a black man offered him a ride to the college instead of Elwood’s taking the bus as usual.   The car was as big as a luxury cruise ship to Elwood.   That ride turned his life upside down because the car was stolen.

Elwood’s life went downhill fast as if he was skating on an extremely steep icy hill with no way of turning around.   No more school.  No more grown-ups to admire him and give him jobs so he could pay rent to his grandmother.  He rarely saw his grandmother who did what she could for him on her visits.   Lawyers didn’t help, and the last one ran off with his grandmother’s and other friends’ money that was supposed to be used to get him out of the prison “school” or at least a new trial.   After all, Elwood had not committed a crime.

If there was a hell on earth, this “reform school” Nickel was it.   Most of the funds given to the school to feed and clothe the black youths were used for whatever the “warden” wanted, including giving their food, clothes, etc. to white town officials, white business owners, etc.   Reminds me of staff in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, when the white staff ate like kings and had heat, but the white orphaned children were lucky to get a bowl of oatmeal and perhaps a crust of bread and some did freeze to death.    Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre also reminded me of how white staff treated poor white children in orphanages through no fault of the children.

The black boys even had to work at the school as well as at the white homes for no pay.   There were no books to read, nothing to write with, a “teacher” who babysat, a doctor who handed out aspirin no matter what the injury, but plenty of shovels, picks, axes, and whatever other things were used for the boys to work.  Even if you didn’t know the rules, it didn’t matter.   A boy could be beaten within an inch of his life (some died) or outright killed and buried as in the case of the young black boxer who refused to throw the fight against the young white boxer from the white “reform school” next door on the same property.   There were also rapes of the black boys by white staff.   Even if you avoided trouble, you could get snatched up in it somehow.

The Nickel Boys was not a pleasant book to read but the story had to be told.   Mr. Whitehead tells well a story of depravity, desperation, and hope, “based on the real story of the Dozier School in Florida that operated for 111 years and had its history exposed by a university’s investigation” (Wikipedia).

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Review of movie, The Raven (2012)

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If you are an Edgar Allan Poe fan, then this movie is for you!   But, if you are not a fan of “bloody violence and grisly images” (IMDb), you may have to avoid it.   This is why the movie is rated R.

I’m a fan of mild horror.  For example, I don’t like movies where people are killing people just for the thrill of it.  Rob Zombie comes to mind.

This movie was released in 2012, but I enjoyed seeing it again recently.    However, I didn’t remember that the Pit and the Pendulum (one of Poe’s short stories) scene in this movie followed all the way through slicing a man in half.  It made me jump out of my chair with each pass of the huge blade.   I thought the director would have left that scene to our imagination.  Poe’s short story ends differently—the man is rescued.

John Cusack does a great job of portraying Poe as a sad drunk mourning over his dead wife.    He hasn’t been able to write for a long time though he is supposed to be writing for a newspaper headed by Maddux (Kevin McNally Maddux of Pirates of the Caribbean, Downton Abby, Supernatural, New Tricks, Underworld, etc.).  

And, because Poe has not written any new stories in years, a villain hopes to inspire him to write more by reenacting Poe’s previous short stories at a high price.   Poe is the prime suspect at first.   The movie is a series of puzzles that Poe and Detective Fields (Luke Evans of Dracula Untold, The Alienist, Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Beauty and the Beast, etc.) must figure out.  But, there is romance and dancing to curb some of the violence.

The movie is fast-paced because they have to find his kidnapped fiancé, Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve of Replicas, Star Trek into Darkness, Men in Black 3, etc.) before she becomes one of the grisly bodies.    Her father, Captain Charles Hamilton (Brendan Gleeson of Harry Potter, Edge of Tomorrow, The Village, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, etc.), hated Poe’s guts even before his daughter’s kidnapping.   

The excellent villain is played by Sam Hazeldine (The Huntsman, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, The Village, Ripper Street, The Wolfman, etc.), but I’m not going to tell you what character he plays.   The ending is unexpected.   The director is James McTeigue.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Ray Bradbury’s still got it!

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As a child, I used to hang out in the Pratt library in east Baltimore by myself.   The public library is where I developed my taste for Science Fiction, Gothic Romance and Black Literature.   I remember coming across Ray Bradbury’s books.  

Recently, I was delighted to find that there was a marathon of his short stories broadcast on Comet tv called The Ray Bradbury Theater on Sunday afternoons.   Ray Bradbury himself speaking about how he came up with story ideas was repeated before each story began.

On September 20, 2020, I saw an episode of a Ray Bradbury short story called “A Miracle of Rare Device” (season 3, episode 2, 7/14/89, starring Pat Harrington, Jr. formerly of the “One day at a time” tv show; Wayne Robson, and William Kircher).   It is a story about two scraggly guys who drove around in their beat-up truck looking for whatever they could find to make money.   There was a less scraggly bully on a motorcycle who was always after them to get whatever they could find.

One day they outran the guy by sheer luck and found an opening in the desert on the side of the road in which they hid.   The more intelligent of the two saw over the horizon a mirage of New York City.  It was hard for his partner to see it, but eventually he did also.

The more resourceful fella figured he could charge one dollar per vehicle for others to see it.   A scam coming, right?   But it turned out that others saw what they really needed to see.   Yes, the two men made money, but to them, it became a miracle for the people who came.   The visitors told them what they saw and it seemed like miracles to the two men, who really started appreciating the mirages as miracles.

Of course, the motorcycle man found out about their money-making and took all their money.  And, although he could not see the mirage at all, he planned on taking over, but none of the people who came after that could see the mirage at all either.    Motorcycle man gave up and left the two honest men there with nothing but their truck, not even the mirage.   But eventually they could see it again and they decided to let people see the mirage for free from now on.  

I cried when the individual people told what they saw and when the men concluded that this was something of God.   I had forgotten how good Ray Bradbury’s stories were.  I’ve seen two marathons so far and look forward to seeing more.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Review of book American Apartheid by James S. Wright (2013)

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.   That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.   That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.  (his quote from the Declaration of Independence)

This is a short history of three races—Native Americans, the first Americans who were nearly enslaved, African Americans who were enslaved, and the attempted decimation of the Jews during the Holocaust.   There were times in American history in which the things that happened to the three races were interrelated.

Mr. Wright explains the origin of Native Americans and how eventually they were moved west from their land so often that many of them died along the way, for example during the Trail of Tears.  Agencies that were supposed to help them did not.  If they were not Christian, they were considered savages.   Also, freed black slaves were recruited by the Union army to fight against American Indians in the “Indian Wars”.

He repeatedly says that his book is not a history book.  Rather it is his opinion so he does not include footnotes or a bibliography.   Actually, I believe footnotes, etc., would interrupt the flow of his narrative.

There are so many details lacking in many histories that his book should be taught as part of a history curriculum starting at least by middle school when I feel that children of all races should begin to start understanding issues.  

I remember when I was starting junior high school, we had a white history teacher who said that “all slaves did all day was sit on the porch playing the banjo.”   I don’t remember anything else she ever taught us.

“I believe in God.  I love my family, and I think the United States of America is the best country in the world.   [However]  For the past 15 years or so, the Civil Rights Movement, which was aggressive in the 60’s and 70’s, has slowed to a crawl.  Hopefully, this book will inspire a rebirth of the Civil Rights Movement…  This book is a wake-up call for those of us who have gone to sleep on the problem of racism in America.”   James S. Wright

Mr. Wright’s book is easy-reading nonfiction and flows well from chapter to chapter.   His opinions are eye-opening.   He also includes the contributions of the races to America.  This is an appropriate book for these tumultuous times with people of all races demonstrating in masses all around the world against racial, economic, and cultural injustices.

American Apartheid is my personal copy and it should be yours, too.   The reading of his book would certainly be worthy of your time.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

Review of book My Love Story by Tina Turner (2018)

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After reading Ms. Turner’s book, I’m reminded of Kelly Clarkson’s song, A Moment Like This.

“Some people wait a lifetime…

some people search forever…

for that one special kiss…

Oh, I can’t believe it’s happening to me…

Could this be the greatest love of all…”

Songwriters:  John Reid/Jorgen Elofsson

Lyrics Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

In her prior book, What’s Love Got to Do With It, Ms. Turner had finally loved herself and her children enough to fight for her freedom from physical and sexual abuse.  She was a young woman when she met the talented Ike Turner, musician who became boss of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue.   But only faith in her God and finally realizing that she did not have to stay in that situation brought her through the abuse, overwork, and lack of money. 

Even her mother helped keep her in the imprisonment because her mother admired Ike and credited Ike with everything positive that occurred.   Women were only a means to an end for Ike so he kept many even in their home.   After a while, Tina was just a meal ticket for Ike.   It’s like a Cinderella story but more like the Grimm version.   Once she escaped, she became a role model to other abused people.  All she kept was her stage name.  Her troubled past is merely a point of reference in this book to compare to her happy future.

My Love Story gives some of the above background for those who don’t already know her story.   But the rest of this book is pure happiness in spite of medical problems in her later life.   This book is written when Ms. Turner is 73, and after she has written other books.   She is still full of life, looks, and love.   It is a love story to her current husband, Erwin Bach, German record executive, and fans like me.   When it comes to love, race nor country matter.   What matters is freedom of choice, respect, individuality, etc.

My Love Story has beautiful color pictures in the inside front and back covers, and in the middle of the book.  Ms. Turner talks of her friendships established with various musicians like David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and other music industry people like Beyonce’. There was even a London musical done about her life which became a Broadway musical.    She has earned twelve Grammy Awards, a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was in a movie role “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, received a Kennedy Center Honor, and sold more concert tickets than any other solo music performer in history by 2018.   She also continues to get letters from abused people about their situations.  This is a positive book.  You will really get a lift from reading this book.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin