3. Searching For Tina Turner

by Jacqueline E. Luckett

As a not very seasoned traveler, held back only by my pocketbook, I love to read fiction and non-fiction featuring African-Americans in world settings.  This book is going on my favorites list.

Lena Spencer is a woman in her fifties living in a classic situation: a beautiful home, a late model foreign sports car, a career-driven husband and teenage children who no longer really need her.  For years she has put off her dream of a career in photography at the behest of her husband, Randall, who is just one deal away from being the CEO at his firm.  Throughout their marriage, they have revisited her dream and while he always promises to support her, ultimately he puts her off until he can reach another milestone in his career.  He believes that providing her with a luxury lifestyle, that should be enough for her.

Finally fed up with the situation but not sure how to deal with it, Lena stumbles upon Tina Turner's autobiography, I, Tina  in a used bookstore. She then begins a quest to fulfill her life and her life's dream using Tina's example.

I don't want to give anything away but Lena's journey takes her to France (Tina lives there) and the scenes involving her sightseeing with friends and enjoying the art, culture and architecture made me want to pack my bags! 

As I was telling Carleen Brice (if you haven't read her books, then shame on you) on Twitter the other day, it was nice to read about African-American women of a "certain age"! LOL! Fans of Terry McMillan will love this debut novel.

Way Too Much Pink...

This is way too much pink for me, but since teacherninja was man enough to put it on his blog, then I can suck it up.

•Thank the person who gave this to you.
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
• Link the person who nominated you.
• Name seven things about yourself that no one would really know.
• Nominate ten “Sugar Dolls.”
• Post links to the ten blogs you nominate.
• Leave a comment on each letting them know you nominated them.

Now to the rules above:

Thanks Jim (I think).

The logo is prominently placed above.

The link is in the first sentence.

Seven things that no one would really know about me:

1. I can't sleep in complete quiet. I have to have jazz playing (funny, because I don't listen to it any other time) or a talk radio show.
2. The people at work know this but, I threaten to punch one of my co-workers in the face at least once a day - even superiors.  It's my way of showing affection.
3. I will eat any vegetable except for Brussels Sprouts.
4. I spend A LOT of time alone - and I like it.
5. Even though I turn 45 this year and don't have a husband, boyfriend, or significant other, I still think that I can give birth to a healthy child at some point. Might even be in the tabloids as the oldest US woman to give birth.
6. My zodiac sign is Cancer, but I hate Cancer men. Jim (see above) is the only Cancer man that I like.  (I'm not pandering, I told this to Brannon just the other day). All others make me want to punch them in the face (see above) and tell them to grow a pair.
7. I am the friend most likely to break a chain letter.  Which is why I won't be nominating anyone else! Ha!

If you read this blog and fancy yourself a Sugar Doll, feel free to nominate yourself. 

2. Chronic City

by Jonathan Lethem

I'm not sure if I can adequately describe this book. Someone way above my pay grade will do a much better job. But here goes.
Chronic City, like Netherland, is a story about unlikely friendships in New York City. Chase Insteadman is a former child actor who has given up the biz and just spends his time basically hanging out. He is relevant though because of his engagement to astronaut Janice Trumbull who is trapped on a space station orbiting earth that can't seem to return.  Her letters to him about her situation are published in the papers so everyone knows his plight and that secures his status on the social scene.

Chase befriends Perkus Tooth (all the names and situations in this book are outlandish), a pot-smoking, conspiracy fueled pop critic whose eccentricities are a full-time job.  Because of Perkus, Chase is drawn into a whole new world of characters that traverse society and politics (things, by the way, that Perkus has no patience for).  There's Oona Laszlo, a ghostwriter who gives the air of being above it all, and Richard Abneg, a coarse brut of man who works for mayor but finds himself entering the arena of high society.  Chase, Oona, and Richard all orbit around Perkus and his quest to solve certain mysteries.  What follows is a weird, funny, tale that includes public art, life in cyber space and of course, a runaway tiger that's eating Manhattan.

The writing is magnificent and imaginative and at sometimes a little too much for me, in the sense that it was a little wordy.  I was reading this during the Christmas season, and my patience was a little short, so I kind of powered through the ending.