Thread of Gold Beads by Nike Campbell-Fatoki
November 7, 2013
About The Book
About The Author
Nike Campbell-Fatoki was born in Lvov, Ukraine to Nigerian parents. She spent her formative years in Lagos, Nigeria, listening to stories and folktales told by her maternal Grandparents. Her fondest memories were the weekends her mother took her and her siblings to Kings Way, on Lagos Island, returning back with bags of story books.
Though a social science major, she found great pleasure in taking literature classes. She graduated magna cum laude in Economics from Howard University and further went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in International Development from American University, Washington, DC. She worked for several years in International Development field working with International Development consulting firms managing projects and programs overseas.
Presently, she is a Budget and Finance Manager in the municipal government in the Washington DC area. She is an avid reader. She loves traveling, watching movies and listening to music. She is also the Founder of Eclectic Goodies, a party favors and gifts packaging company. She lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and three sons.
Review
“A highly competent contribution to the growing genre of popular historical fiction in Africa.”
– Sefi Atta, Author of A Bit of A Difference, Swallow, Everything Good Will Come. Winner of Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.Connect with the Author
Email Address: nikecampbellfatoki@gmail.com
Website www.nikecfatoki.com
Twitter link www.twitter.com/nikecfatoki
Twitter Hashtag: #GoldBeadsTour
Facebook link www.facebook.com/nikecfatoki
Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/ThreadofGoldBeads
Book Trailer http://youtu.be/yc6V8nM7k2k
Buy Links
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/3958444
Link to Tour Schedule http://wnlbooktours.com/nike-campbell-fatoki/
Dead Dreams, Book 1by Emma Right
November 5, 2013
Genre: Young Adult
Book Title: Dead Dreams, Book 1, a young adult contemporary psychological thriller and mystery
Print Length: 170 pages
Publisher: Right House Books; 2013 First edition
(August 26, 2013)
Format: Kindle
ASIN: B00ESVEVBQ
Hosted by: WNL Virtual Book Tour: http://wnlbooktours.com/
About The Book:
Eighteen-year-old Brie O’Mara has so much going for her: a loving family in the sidelines, an heiress for a roommate, and dreams that might just come true. Big dreams–of going to acting school, finishing college and making a name for herself. She is about to be the envy of everyone she knew. What more could she hope for? Except her dreams are about to lead her down the road to nightmares. Nightmares that could turn into a deadly reality.
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About The Author:
Emma Right is a happy wife and Christian homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast of the USA. Besides running a busy home, and looking after their five pets, which includes two cats, a bunny and a Long-haired dachshund, she also writes stories for her children. She loves the Lord and when she doesn’t have her nose in a book, she is telling her kids to get theirs in one.
Right worked as a copywriter for two major advertising agencies and won several awards, including the prestigious Clio Award for her ads, before she settled down to have children.
Social Links:
Email Address: emmarightmarketing@gmail.com
Website: http://www.emmaright.com
Twitter link @emmbeliever
Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/DeadDreamsEmmaRight
Goodreads User:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18396455-dead-dreams
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111644513292318573575/posts
http://pinterest.com/emmaright/
https://twitter.com/emmbeliever
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7036571.Emma_Right
http://www.librarything.com/profile/emma.right.author
http://www.shelfari.com/emmaright
http://www.freado.com/users/35467/emma-right
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Emma-Right/e/B00BD7C4A8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Dreams-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00ESVEVBQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1380565365&sr=1-1&keywords=young+adult+thriller%2C+B00ESVEVBQ
Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM7MI_3vqyo
Mario King discusses his book The Crisis Before Midlife
October 31, 2013
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What A Man Wants
I had the pleasure of meeting Mario D. King while he was promoting his debut novel at the Black Writers and Book Clubs Literacy Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. Mario was also honored for his community service to literacy. His novel The Crisis Before Midlife is a romance and while it has some flaws the author has done a commendable job as a male writer in the romance genre showing what a man wants in romance.
The protagonist a young man, Malcolm Turner is a teacher, an aspiring writer and a single parent. The Crisis Before Midlife is a romance chronicling his search for love. It’s often a given what the female protagonist wants, that perfect man, the perfect love, a home and a lasting relationship. And Malcolm Turner is no different. Malcolm an eligible bachelor has the same desires but too many distractions i.e. women and the remnants of too many failed relationships. So when Malcolm finds the one relationship he wants to work it gets derailed when an ex comes on the scene. The resulting assignation destroys his chance or does it? Malcolm has hopes and plans for the future and a young daughter who needs a mother.
There are few men writing romance literature though it is the most lucrative genre of all the contemporary books sold today. And there is a reason men don’t dominate in this field. It requires delving into deep emotional territory an experience men often find saccharin and sappy. Mario King has done a good job of showing what a man wants in a relationship and the challenges a man faces when woman find him irresistible. King captures his home town Memphis with vivid descriptions of local spots.
Authors like Mario are helping to take urban fiction to a higher level. This is a very good first book but I had some problems and they were all editorial. The first glaring warning came in the Author’s Note stating the book is a fictional novel, the classic faux pas of an untrained editor. Those in the know, know “fictional novel” is a no-no redundant term, all novels are fiction. Also some of author’s fashion descriptions and music are not organic to the scenes and often unnecessary and will date this book. I also thought the stylistic choice in diction could have been improved with a competent experienced editor.
Nevertheless kudos to Mario D. King. All in all it’s a good and interesting read though slow at times. It could have been better had he amped up the conflict. The few flaws I found could have been addressed by any good developmental editor. I look forward to Mario’s next book. I think he has a great potential and I like would like to follow his development. I give it 4 stars.
Living Separate Lives by Paulette Harper
October 23, 2013
Title: Living Separate Lives
Four Friends, One Secret and The Weekend That Changed Their Destiny
Author: Paulette Harper
Publisher: Thy Word Publishing
Genre: Christian Fiction, Novella
Hosted By: Write Now Literary Virtual Book Tour www.wnlbooktours.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9899691-0-9
Releasing: Nov 5, 2013 e-book and paperback
About The Book
Candace Walker, Kaylan Smith, Jordan Tate, and Tiffany Thomas have their share of sorrows, but neither of them realizes how deep the sorrow goes. What happens when they agree to meet for a weekend of relaxation in beautiful Napa County? Which one will leave the same or worse?
For Candace Walker, life has left her battered and bruised. Kaylan Smith has struggled with prejudice from her in-laws. After fifteen years of marriage, bitterness is trying to raise its ugly head for Jordan Tate, whose husband wants to call it quits. And for Tiffany Thomas, dealing with rejection has never been one of her greatest feats.
Although they have been friends for years, they thought they knew each other well. But will a secret destroy their relationship and bring the sisterhood to a complete halt? Will they be able to forgive and allow God to mend that which might be torn?
About The Author
Paulette Harper is an award-winning and best-selling author. She is the owner of Write Now Literary Virtual Book Tours and is passionate about helping authors succeed in publishing and marketing their books. Paulette has been writing and publishing books since 2008. Paulette is the author of That Was Then, This is Now, Completely Whole and The Sanctuary. Her articles have appeared on-line and in print.
Social Media Links
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/PauletteHarperAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/pauletteharper
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paulette-harper-johnson/7/a29/8a7
Pinterest : http://pinterest.com/pauletteharper/
Website: www.pauletteharper.com
Email: pharperjohnson@gmail.com
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18524878-living-separate-lives
Excerpt
“Stop preaching to me. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I’ve had enough of your self-righteousness.” The words continued to cut Jordan’s heart; words that she never heard before coming from the mouth of her husband, Eric. “You knew how I was before we got married.” His tone deepened with every word.
Standing in front of the sink, Jordan was frozen and motionless in the middle of the kitchen. She held the dish towel in one hand and a plate in the other. She turned and faced Eric, whose eyes were cold and hard. The verbal blows kept coming. Her mouth opened wide, but no words could be formed when he uttered the deadly words, “I want a divorce.”
Hosted by: WNL Virtual Book Tour: http://wnlbooktours.com
Eddie Huang’s hip hop memoir ‘Fresh Off The Boat’
June 3, 2013
A Memoir by Eddie Huang
Coming out of the hip hop generation Fresh of the Boat is probably the best recent memoir written. When it comes to destroying the model minority myth and Asian stereotypes look to Eddie Huang. How he managed to compress so much wisdom in 20 some years of living before rising to the heights of celebrity chef is a remarkable story. Chronicling his intellectual and professional growth Huang narrates his iconoclastic life through the prism of hip hop music and good food all the while struggling against American racism with an added zesty taste for life. Coming of age then and thereafter whatever path he chose he did so bypassing conventional behavior. He’s a rebel, a maverick and a nonconformist. Whatever you call it, homeboy played by his rules.
A first generation Chinese-American he spent his early childhood in Washington DC before his immigrant father settled the family in Florida. Eddie was a gifted rebellious child and for good cause. Coping with a dysfunctional family while classmates called him chigger and chink, this one was no Uncle Chan but a warrior standing up addressing the struggle against racism. He defends his Chinese heritage as defined by the American experience with the same outrage and reasoned eloquence found in the writings of W.E.B. DuBois. Indeed he was weaned on DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Toni Morrison and other African American literary greats. His role models and heroes were a host of NBA players.
Eddie Huang’s focused discipline allowed him to accomplish whatever he set out to do. This character trait was forged either because of or in spite of a dysfunctional home, a temperamental mother and a former Taiwanese gangsta Dad. Most minority kids Black, Asian, Latino and others know how white kids –more so the privileged–can be particularly vicious in their racist taunts. Most looked the other way or dismiss it, but a few will step to the behavior with violence and that was Eddie Huang. His behavior was often frowned upon by his own people but Eddie didn’t care.
He was a honor student, an English major with felony record ending up at Cardoza School of Law. He secured an associate position in a New York law firm, while becoming a sideline streetwear mogul capitalizing on designing and marketing the trendy styles. Then the economy tanked the streetwear market floundered and the law firm laid him off. Despite the worst American society had to offer the immigrant minority Eddie Huang made the best of it reinventing himself as a celebrity Chef. Huang says, “I wasn’t meant to be an attorney, but I was meant to go to law school.” He would find his reason for being in food.
What stands out in Eddie Huang’s life is the confluence of hip hop, the cultural force of his generation, just as protest music was an indelible part of social fabric of the sixties and seventies. Huang goes so far as to compare and contrast contemporary lyrics with Shakespeare. Hip Hop influences language and fashion and his approach to food. Hip hop is no longer defined by Blacks although originating in inner city ghettos; it’s defining today’s youth.
“My entire life,” Huang writes, “the single most interesting thing to me is race in America. How something so stupid as skin or eyes or stinky Chinese lunch has such an impact on a person’s identity, there mental state, and the possibility of happiness. It was race. It was race. Apologies to Frank Sinatra, but I’ve been called a ch!gg@r , a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a pawn, and a chink; that’s life. I am obsessed with what it means to be Chinese, thing the idea of America is cool, but at the end of the day wish the world had no lines. Like Michael Ondaatje writes, “All I ever wanted was a world with maps.”
Race has destroyed many a youthful ambition. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those affected all had Eddie Huang’s wherewithal? Hip hop has done much to overcome the barriers of race. I highly recommend Fresh of the Boat.
