good peoples and 4 guys and trouble- marcus major

coldest winter -sister souljah

tuesdays with morrie/5 people you meet in heaven - mitch albom (for something different)

Redemption Song

Muhammad Ali and the spirit of the sixties.

By Mike Marqusee

Published by Verso

On theback cover:

"An illuminating, impressively referenced and almost seamless journey that includes brief but fascinating insights and reinterpretations of the lives of a catholic mix of personalities, including Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Mobutu Sese Seko and Don King"

Ken Wima, National Post, Nigeria

"Fascinating, well-written, entertaining and significant. Redemption Song provides rare and important insights into Muhammad Ali and his immense global impact on a turbulent and ground-breaking era"

Leon Gast, Producer and Director.

It's a good read, the author is a good writer and therearea few pages citing sources at the back (always useful)

A brief history of time is good (Steven Hawking) untill he starts nattering about 'imaginary time' and so on.

Naked Ape (Desmond Morris) and Selfish gene (Richard Dawkins) both were critically panned and cussed but I still thought they were interesting and its a different perspective anyway.

I am reading The color Purple by alice walker as it was recommended to me by someone. I am assuming a lot of people read it, since it has won a pulitzer prize and a movie was made thoughtI've haven't seen it. If anyone has, how does it compare to the book?

I've noticed men are portrayed in bad light, I haven't seen a positive male character in the novel so far. confused3

Recommendations

Waiting for the Barbarians By JM Coetzee

Things fall apart By Achinue Achebe

I also like stephen king novels.

Ooops

Taysense wrote:

Quote:

I've seen the colour purple film, and i have to say, i prefered the film to the book, which is very unusual for me, maybe it was the cinematography, the acting by Danny Glover and others (can't remember their names). The book was very good, i think in terms of portraying men in a bad light, i think it was in the context of the book, the premise on which is what written, had to with how men behaved toward their women, which is how some men behave in reality, however, it also showed how the women prevailed and triumphed in the end, despite their ordeal. I would recommend seeing the film, and see how you compare it the novel.

may i also add, ive read Chinue Achebe's, Things fall apart and i felt it was excellent, beautifully written, the use of proverbs was so unique, it also highligted the impact of coloniaism and how it infiltrated into the traditional establishment already in existence in the Ibo tribe of Nigeria. He also had a sequel, called No longer at ease, this was equally as good.

Another excellent book, The God's are not too blame, by OLa Rotimi, this is where the use of African proverbs are at it's best, however if you read it a few times, you will begin to get to grips with the premise of the book.

Thanx Kwela! I will have to see the movie myself.

I have to agree with your analysis of things fall apart, well written novel with multiple types of literary devices. It's a sad fact of european colonisium, looking to redeem themselves by usurping their religious viewson people who they percieve to be primitive

I never knew their was a sequel, I will look for it. Thanx

Right now I am currently reading Beloved. I'm on page58 and I gotta say it feels so new to me. There's no denying that the book is always better than the movie because you get so much insight on the character thoughts and feelings. Not to mention there's so much that you get in the book that you don't get in the movie. For instance, in the movieand in the book Paul D is portrayed as a decent hardworking man, for which I can't dispute, However what the movie didn't tell me (or maybe I just missed it, which I doubt) was that when Paul D was part of the Sweet Home men in Kentucky, he and his crew didn't have much contact with women so they resorted to beastiality in which they would have sexual contact with cows. When I read that I was like Jesus Christ andI thought we had it bad with these down low brothers.

I have two other books that I intend to read after Beloved. One of them is the Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat. She's the author of Krik? Krak! which is one of the books I talked about on this site. Anyway since I didn't read it yet I will post the synopsis so you all can see for yourselves...

From the Book Jacket:






From the universally acclaimed author of Breath, Eyes, Memory and Krik? Krak!, a brilliant, deeply moving work of fiction that explores the world of a "dew breaker"—a torturer—a man whose brutal crimes in the country of his birth lie hidden beneath his new American reality.

We meet him late in his life. He is a quiet man, a husband and father, a hardworking barber, a kindly landlord to the men who live in a basement apartment in his home. He is a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood, recognizable by the terrifying scar on his face. As the book unfolds, moving seamlessly between Haiti in the 1960s and New York City today, we enter the lives of those around him: his devoted wife and rebellious daughter; his sometimes unsuspecting, sometimes apprehensive neighbors, tenants, and clients. And we meet some of his victims.

In the book’s powerful denouement, we return to the Haiti of the dew breaker’s past, to his last, desperate act of violence, and to his first encounter with the woman who will offer him a form of redemption—albeit imperfect—that will change him forever.
The Dew Breaker is a book of interconnected lives—a book of love, remorse, and hope; of rebellions both personal and political; of the compromises we often make in order to move beyond the most intimate brushes with history. Unforgettable, deeply resonant, The Dew Breaker proves once more that in Edwidge Danticat we have a major American writer.




Another book that I'm going to read (as a matter of fact I'm going to read it right after Beloved because after I finish reading that, I don't think I can go on to something else that's deep. I'll need time to recover so I'll save Danticat for last) How to Make Love Like A **** Star by Jenna Jameson. Anyone who's familiar with **** should already know who Jenna Jameson is. The book isn't really about how to make love like a **** star (though I'm sure she has a few pointers) but it's actually an autobiography. I thought it would be interesting and fun to read. I also might add that the book also has some photo's that are like WHOA!!!





Another book that I plan to read in the future is Smells Like Chicken by my girl Miss Lolita Files.Taste Like Chicken is like the third installment of the lives of my two girls Misty Fine and Reesy. What I like about them is that they're career women but yet they're sexy savvy and all around divas with lots of attitude. Before you read TLC I advise anyone to read Scenes from a Sistah and Getting to the Good Part so you can truly appreciate the Misty Fine and Reesy experience!

NO Doubt about it, "Sins of My MOther" www.sinsofmymother.com

Cornel West's Democracy Matters: Winning The Fight Against Imperialism (2004, The Penguin Press) is a very captivating read, and has significant relevance even outside the US context. West skillfully weaves together both modern and historical philosophers, as well as both outsider and insider perspectives, in demonstrating a need for societal vigilance against pervasive ideological strongholds that threaten to suffocate freedom.

As a reader, one has more of a sense of attending a seminar, than of having a conversation. But this tutorial is quite welcome in framing current trends in a manner that challenges one to step beyond complacency.