Busy bee links

Gah! I'm busy! Seems like everything is due this week...so that just leaves time for some quick links.

Check out The Book Corner on the Legal Defense Fund's (the law firm for the NAACP) website for book reviews and commentary.

The Oxford American's "Race issue" is on newsstands now. It's "a special issue devoted to the 'Past, Present, and Future' of Race in what may be among the first white-run, mainstream publications to be written by a vast majority (in this case, 88%) of writers of color."

On the Galleycat blog Jeff Rivera, author of Forever My Lady and founder of http://www.gumbowriters.com/, is writing a weekly column on interesting authors, editors, agents and book publicists of color.

Another argument for reading a wide variety of fiction: Psychologist and novelist Keith Oatley says that "fiction at its best isn't just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves." So, does reading fiction written by people of different races make us more open to connecting with real-life folks of other races? Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing! (Thanks to Readerville.com for the link.)

Anybody know if any of the Romance Writers of America 2009 RITA Awards finalists are writers of color? I didn't see any names I recognized on a very quick read through. (Thanks to SORMAG for the link.)

In April (maybe as soon as tomorrow), blogger and author Felicia Pride will be launching a new books column on TheRoot.com. Her first column asks different African American writers (including yours truly) what they'd do if they ruled the literary world. Check out her list of books by black authors from around the world.

Don't forget April is National Poetry Month. Poet and professor E. Ethelbert Miller will be here in April to tell us about some of his favorite poets. And if you want to receive a poem a day from The Borzoi Reader, go here. (Thanks to SORMAG for the link.)

Literary Obama explores the literary and historical implications of Michelle Obama's new garden. As a gardener and a writer, I find the whole topic riveting. Black women have a long history of tending gardens that have nothing to do with sharecropping or working plantations. (Check out Harlem renaissance poet Anne Spencer's roses and Jamaica Kincaid is renowned gardener.)

Anika at Writeblack has a review of Claudia Burney's Murder, Mayhem & a Fine Man, a Christian mystery, and a podcast with author Uwem Akpan, who wrote Say You're One of Them.

Anika also hipped me to a conversation about people of color and sci-fi over at deadbrowalking. And there's more about "Racefail 09" (about diversity in speculative fiction) over at Readersroom.com.

Check out Color Online's Potpourri Quiz. Answer their questions about a female author and you could win a prize!

Color Online and Diversity Rocks is starting a weekly meme on Fridays. Sounds cool!

Oh, and a question: who watched The No. 1 Ladies' Dectective Agency pilot on HBO last night, and what'd you think? I'm so pissed. I was planning to get rid of HBO, but they got me! (A friend says I sound like this guy.) I really liked the show and will be watching the entire series.

Speaking of romance...

Life is Short But Wide, (due out March 24) the Essence Book Club pick for March, by 77-year-old J. California Cooper is a "love affair between old people." It's narrated by a 91-year-old! Now that's something we don't see enough of!

Essence points out while these characters are mostly "Black and either poor or working class, Cooper's message is universal." Says Cooper in the same issue, "There are no Black liars and White liars. If you're a liar, you're nothing but a liar. I think in Black, but these stories apply to the human race."

Black Romance Novels: Guest Blogger Dee Stewart

With Valentine's Day on the horizon, we're talking romance today. Guys, a juicy novel is a great way to let your sweetheart know how you feel. Smart Bitches Who Read Trashy Books will help you decide what she might like. Want more ideas for your sweetheart, your best friend or yourself? Check out APOOO's All About Love Virtual Tour for interviews with a variety of romance writers. And White Readers Meet Black Authors is also here to help!

Here's a great article about the genesis of black romance novels.

Some authors to try:
Donna Hill
Leslie Esdaile Banks
Brenda Jackson
Francis Ray
Rochelle Alers
Readers, what are your favorite romances?

And from Guest Blogger Dee Stewart comes her favorite overall romances (see, told you we read your books!) and her favorite black romance novels. Thanks Dee!
Everything below is from Dee:

I'm a big romance novel fool. So big I watch the Sound of Music weekly. I have Pride & Prejudice on my nightstand, a complete collection of Shakespeare and the brooding Thomas Hardy novels , and I have a huge, big crush on all things Chris Botti and Sade. I got it bad y'all. I can find romance in just about any good tale. But the novels below drip with heart-yearning love and are page turners. Enjoy!

1. Atonement, Ian McEwan. Tragic, heartwrenching love story. The title tells the tale, the plot kicks in the gut. heart break at its best.
2. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Teen angst set during the Biafran war. Beautiful prose despite so much national confusion
3. Zora & Nicky- a modernized version of Romeo & Juliette set between two racially divided megachurches.
4. Shopgirl- Steve Martin is a comic icon, but I crave his romanctic novellas. Shopgirl is poignant, succint, and pitch perfect.
5. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer.You're never too young to fall in love with a vampire. Really. Edward's tortured love for Bella makes you fall for him so badly.
6. Nella Larsen, Quicksand and Passing. Both novellas are about African American women during the Harlem Renaissance who chose to pass for white for a better life. But the love story, that thing we women want so badly, kills them.
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Schaffer. I'm a sucker for period pirces with love stories intertwined. This one is set in WWII with a twinge of humor to get through the hard parts.
8. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates. Skip the movie and read the book. Although I want to see Leonardo and Kate again. I urge you to relish the book soon after if you can't resist the cinema. What Yates does with a story is profound and the unraveling of a marriage/rebirth of a marriage is incredible. Your heart will tear apart reading this one.
9. Stardust, Neil Gaman. Oh, I love a good fairy tale. I love an adult one even better. This beauty is reminiscent of Princess Bride, but so much more. The idea of falling in love with a star reminds me of Stevie Wonder's hit "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Me." You'll love this fantasy.
10. Tess of the D'ubbervilles, Thomas Hardy. I love pastorals. I do. Mariette in Ectasy, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. But Thomas Hardy...ooh what it does with a simple cow milking scene takes my breath away.
A bonus, an unconventional love story is Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. Forget Brad Pitt for a moment. What Chucky P does with the story frame is amazing. More importantly the premise of a disturbed man who believes the only way to a disturbed woman's hurt is to believe in his own reinvention of himself is what Crazy in Love has to mean. LOL.
Dee Stewart's Top 10 Black Romances
1. Zora & Nicky, Claudia Burney
2. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. Kindred, Octavia Butler
4. Abraham's Well, Sharon Ewell Foster
5. Quicksand, Nella Larsen
6. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
7. Awakening Mercy, Angela Benson
8. Jewel, Beverly Jenkins
9. Too Beautiful to Die, Glenville Lovell
10. Love, Toni Morrison