Rest in Peace Ms. Toni Morrison

I never had the pleasure of meeting this amazing woman, but I will be forever grateful for having been on Earth while she was here. Her books have had such a profound effect upon my life. She was a TRUE WRITER and a TRUTH-TELLER. She gave voice to the Black American experience, especially that of Black women, in a way that was so authentic. She was definitely given a Divine assignment while she was here. Her words...in her books and as she spoke in that elegantly-toned voice of hers, were from somewhere special and so was she. Her words always rang with a clarity that just cut through all of the crap of life. I have admired her for as long as I can remember, as a writer and as a woman. I will miss knowing that she is somewhere in this world, but I take comfort in knowing that she is now with the ancestors and has most definitely taken her rightful place as an ancestor. She has left her words and wisdom here for us to learn from and to cherish for all time. Thank you Ms. Morrison for giving us more than I could ever describe in words. Farewell...

"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it."

"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet,

 you must be the one to write it."

"Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all."

- Toni Morrison

My Six Favorite Authors

A couple of weeks ago, I was set a challenge on Twitter to post the covers of seven books that I love, with no explanations or reviews...just covers. I had to post a cover a day for a week. I was supposed to nominate someone else, but I couldn't think of anyone to nominate really, so I decided to bend the rules a bit and simply share the books that I love. It worked for me and the person who nominated me for the challenge didn't seem to mind that I bent the rules a bit. I love books, so I figured that even with bending the rules, I was still putting good energy out there in support of books, so all was well :)

Therefore, what follows is my list of my favorite books. It's always tough for me to compile lists like this, because like many people, I love a lot of books and love them for a variety of reasons. In this post I have also bent the rules a bit again and narrowed my list down to six books instead of seven. The six books that I have listed below are by my favorite authors of all time...Alice Walker, Tina McElroy Ansa, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Dorothy West and Zora Neale Hurston. 

I wanted to highlight these six very extraordinary women and to highlight one of their works each which have inspired me, even though I love numerous works by them. This is in no particular order. I am continually inspired by these novels. One day I may or may not go deeper and tell why I am so inspired by these books, but this isn't that post :) Besides, I don't know if I have the words within me currently to express my feelings fully on this subject, so I'll just leave these extraordinary six books here to speak for themselves. Sometimes it's good to just let things be what they are and all six are amazing. No explanations needed :)

*Note: This is not a sponsored post. I'm just here to celebrate these amazing writers :)

Reading and Enjoying

In my previous post, I mentioned that I've been doing quite a lot of reading lately. Well, this is one of the books that I've been reading and it's a real treat! It's a collection of short stories by one of my favorite writers Zora Neale Hurston. I got this wonderful book as a Christmas gift and I've been dipping into it since then. I say dipping because since it's short stories, readers can get bite-size pieces of these literary gems as quickly or as slowly as they please. I prefer to dive into each story wholeheartedly, take it all in and then pause to let her brilliance sink into my mind. So I'm taking this experience slowly and enjoying it immensely.

Having the chance to read the work of such a truly gifted author like Ms. Hurston is such a great lesson in how to write well. I love the detail that she weaves into her stories. Even though she lived and passed away before I was born, the themes and customs found in many of her stories are still familiar to me as a southerner of today.

I'm going to hate when I come to the end of the book. Of course, the beauty of the whole situation is that I can revisit these stories whenever I wish :-)

I love reading!

Until next time...