It's been awhile since I read Octavia Butler and I had planned to read her short story collection, Bloodchild & Other Stories for quite some time. Well, I had an opening last week and read this excellent and important collection. Butler writes in the preface, “The...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 150: Returning The Bones by Gin Hammond
by MHill | Aug 16, 2024 | 2024 Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"Who I am now and who I’ve wanted to become are meeting each other for the first time." Towards the end of the novel, “Returning the Bones” by Gin Hammond, this sentence encapsulates the journey of the protagonist, Carolyn “Bebe” Hammond, as a young light-skinned...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 136: A Red Death by Walter Mosley
by MHill | Feb 28, 2024 | 2024 Book Reviews, Black History Month, Book Reviews, Easy Rawlins Series/Walter Mosley, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
When the IRS comes knocking at your door looking for back taxes, it will put you in an untenable position that provides no easy way out. Easy Rawlins finds himself in such a situation in the novel, A Red Death. A Red Death is the second novel in the Easy Rawlins...
Wisdom From Kammbia Story Review 23: Since You Went Away by Frankie Y. Bailey
by MHill | Feb 20, 2024 | Black History Month, Short Story Review, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
Anthologies provide a great opportunity to explore new genres of fiction that you wouldn't typically read. Also, I have integrated more short stories into my reading life in the last couple of years. Incorporating short stories into your reading life can provide a...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 135: Suder by Percival Everett
by MHill | Feb 16, 2024 | 2024 Book Reviews, Black History Month, Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Percival Everett, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Percival Everett has quickly joined my favorite author’s list, which includes Paul Auster, Octavia Butler, Jonathan Carroll, Charles de Lint, Guy Gavriel Kay, & Haruki Murakami. Having read multiple novels by these authors, I must say that Everett has ventured...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 124: The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson
by MHill | Apr 22, 2023 | Charles Johnson, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Nonfiction, Writing
As a writer, I have always been curious how other writers practice their craft, what they read, and how they conduct business. I believe you can learn a lot from other writers that are further down the writer's journey than you are. Charles Johnson's The Way of the...
Wisdom From Kammbia Story Review 20: Occupying Arthur Whitfield by Charles Johnson
by MHill | Mar 22, 2023 | Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Short Story Review, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
Charles Johnson came onto my reading radar for many years after I read his National Book Award-winning novel, Middle Passage. The novel told the story of Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave who sneaks onto a slave ship heading back to the motherland to escape an...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 122: So Much Blue by Percival Everett
by MHill | Feb 21, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Percival Everett, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Does secrets force us to make choices that we would not have made otherwise? This is the question I keep asking myself as I read Percival Everett's very good novel, So Much Blue. It tells the story of Kevin Pace, an artist, who has kept his past at bay to be...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 115: Sula by Toni Morrison
by MHill | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Toni Morrison, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
“Outlaw women are fascinating---not always for their behavior, but because historically woman are seen as naturally disruptive and their status is an illegal one from birth if it is not under the rule of men. In much literature a woman’s escape from male rule led to...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 114: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
by MHill | Oct 24, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"Let 'em consolate theyselves wid talk. 'Course, talkin' don't amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can't do nothin' else. And listenin' tuh dat kind uh talk is jus' lak openin' yo' mouth and lettin' de moon shine down yo' throat. It's uh known fact, Phoeby, you got...