2. Gotta Keep on Tryin'

by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant

I had no idea this was a sequel or spin-off of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made. I read it so long ago that I don't remember the plot or the people involved. (I read so much that, for some reason, I only remember books that I hate. So if I can't remember key plot points - that's a good thing.) If you haven't read the first one or can't remember it, no worries, this book stands well on its own.

Gayle Saunders & Patricia Reid are childhood friends who, now as adults, start and run a successful doll company based on Gayle's daughter, Vanessa. The business is doing great, but their personal lives struggle. Gayle's husband has disappeared with all her money and her daughter Vanessa, a dancer, is becoming difficult and rebellious. Pat's husband Marcus is under tremendous pressure from his job and she turns to a business associate to get the attention she craves.

That's a lot of drama, huh? I haven't even scratched the surface of all the other issues that are dealt with here, including bulimia, golddigging, and gambling. At times I felt a little overwhelmed by all of the things they tackle in this book. There is enough material here for 2 or 3 books. But the pace is good and, with the exception of the too neatly tied up ending, I never felt too bogged down by it. If you are a fan of the books co-written by DeBerry & Grant, then you won't be disappointed.

1. Breathing Space

Twelve Lessons for the Modern Woman
by Katrina Repka and Alan Finger

First finished book of the year! And a great one to start out with. Katrina Repka chronicles a year of her life that included significant changes. Like a lot of young women obsessed with the New York that we see portrayed in tv shows and movies like Sex in the City, she moved there thinking that the move alone would be enough to jumpstart her life. But, as so often happens (I know this first hand), your issues and problems follow you wherever you go.

She visited the yoga center of Alan Finger, a Master Yogi, and for the next twelve months, with his help, was able to learn more about herself and obtained the tools to move forward. Alan gave her instruction in the form of breathing exercises to help her focus on what's important.

We all take our breath for granted. When we are stressed or afraid, the first thing that we do is hold our breath - the very thing that keeps us alive. The exercises that Katrina & Alan show us in this book are very effective in helping to deal with a myriad of problems. There are exercises to calm the breath and also to energize. Told within the context of Katrina's life, they are very effective and I believe, very useful for us all.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!
First some old business:
I didn't get much book reading done in December. Work is so crazy during that time that I only felt like reading magazines. I would pick up a book and my attention span just wasn't there. I only managed to finish 3 books last month.
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs - this was the sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I loved. This one? Not so much. It's 5 years later and the fate of the shop may be in jeopardy. At this point I just didn't care. The problem with sequels to regular fiction (which I learned from trying to read Chasing Harry Winston), is that there is none of the drama involved that made you want to get to know the characters. By this point, you already know who they are and their motivations and sequels (unless they are action thrillers or mysteries) tend to be mundane.
Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis - I wanted to like this as much as Doret did, but just couldn't connect to the main character. It's a mystery surrounding a mystery writer who finds strange things happening around her and they all appear to be taken from scenes in her books. It was funny and clever; maybe my expectations were too high. She has written more in this series and I am not giving up, I will read those, too.



Sex and Lies by Donna Hill - You know I had to squeeze a Kimani romance in there! This is the beginning of a series of books about the ladies of TLC (Tender Loving Care) cosmetics. On the surface, TLC cosmetics is like Avon or Mary Kay, but this is a front for The Ladies Cartel - an undercover investigative organization. You may see your sister, mother, wife, friend with her bag of samples, but you don't know that the moisturizer bottle really contains a set of listening devices and the shower gel may contain one of the pieces needed to assemble a gun. In this first book Savannah Fields is new to the group and is given her first assignment to investigate some shady dealings at a construction site that her husband is involved in. Really good.

Hip-Hop Wars by Tricia Rose - I wasn't able to finish this book because I had to return it to work, but I really enjoyed it. Ms. Rose presents arguments on both sides of the hip-hop wars and shows the strengths and weaknesses of them all. Definitely pick this up if you are tired of hearing the same old arguments against and in defense of my favorite music genre.



Total books read for 2008 (not including Hip-Hop Wars, because I didn't finish): 63, about 10 more than 2007!

New business:
I had planned to do a post on resolutions, blah, blah, blah. I was even going to sit down with one of my favorite books, Write I Down, Make it Happen, yesterday to create some concrete goals for 2009. Then I decided not to, because it is a pattern that I need to break. See, I am a planner. I will research the hell out of something and come up with a concrete program on how to make it happen and gather the materials and organize them. But after that I lose interest. I am not a doer, just a planner. So, no lists this year. That doesn't mean that I am flying by the seat of my pants; I know the things I need to do. I'm just not going to stress about them right now. Maybe later.