Distinct Ladies Bookclub celebrate 3rd Anniversary

Distinct Ladies 3rd Anniversary Party Oct. 10, 2009

The Distinct Ladies extends an invitation for you to celebrate this milestone with us. We have Memphis' Own Recha G. Peay, Best Selling Author Jihad and HollyGrove President and the Nation Best Selling Author Brian W. Smith.

When: October 10, 2009
Time: 4pm till 8pm Doors Open @ 3:30pm
Where: St. Paul Lodge on 423 East Georgia Street, Memphis, TN
Cost: $10 Per Person
Door Prizes, Food, Poetry and More

If you would like to purchase these books in advance or for more info, please email distinctladies@yahoo.com


The Distinct Ladies Bookclub
P.O. Box 271415
Memphis, TN 38167
Tiffany Rainey-President
Josula Williams-Vice President

http://www.distinctladies.com/
http://dlbookclub.webs.com/
http://www.myspace.com/distinctladiesandgents


Intimate Conversation with the Distinct Ladies Bookclub

EDC: Share with us the history of the organization and President's biography.
DLBC: Tiffany Rainey is currently the President and one of the founders of Distinct Ladies Book Club. She was born and raised in Memphis, Tn and currently still resides there. Not only is Tiffany a member of DLBC but she is also a member of the Order of Eastern Star, Sirius Ladies Social Club, and she is also a usher in her church.

DLBC was founded in October of 2006 with 4 women who shared a passion for reading. When we first started little did we know we would grow to be such a tight knit family. DLBC doesn't just read books, but we attend movies, plays, book signing, and we just love to fellowship with one another.

EDC: What is the vision for your organization?
DLBC: Our vision for our sisterhood is to continue to promote authors who are not as well known as some of the greats like Eric Jerome Dickey or Kimberla Lawson Roby. We want to continue to give back to the kids in our community.

EDC: Finish this sentence: Living your best life includes...
DLBC: Living your best life includes being with our children.

On your nightstand now: We are currently reading The Dopeman's Wife

Book all readers should own besides the bible: The Survival Bible by Jihad

Book you've bought for the cover: Casanegra by Blair Underwood

Favorite genre, series or sequels: Urban, Erotica, Christian Fiction

EDC: Your top three authors. Why?
DLBC: Brian W. Smith, President of Hollygrove Publishing is one of our favorite authors. Brian is a very down to earth person. He keeps your interest is his books from the beginning to the end. He also brings new talent to his company, that makes you just wanna read everything he has written.

Memphis Own Sheila Lipsey, author of Beautiful Ugly is also one of our favorite authors. Sheila is a Christian fiction author who always makes you wondering what's going on next. She brings everyday problems and drama into her books.

Jihad, bestselling author of Wild Cherry is a favorite author. Jihad brings erotica to street to "I am gonna keep it real" to you in his books. He always makes you wondering which direction he's going to write in. We have a few more that we love, but since you only asked for 3. I think I am going to leave it at that.

EDC: Name three authors you would like to do a phone chat with this year.
DLBC: Kimberla Lawson Roby, Wahadia Clark, and Jane Jordan

EDC: Share your news or events with us. What's next for your group?
DLBC: DLBC is planning their 3year Anniversary Celebration. It will be held on Oct. 10, 2009 from 4-8. We will have Jihad, Brian W. Smith, Recha G. Peay, and other authors will be stopping through as well. DLBC will be having spoken word, music, and giving way door prizes. Admission is $10 and seating is limited. For more info you can contact us at distinctladies@yahoo.com

You can find us at:
http://www.distinctladies.com/
http://dlbookclub.webs.com/
http://www.myspace.com/distinctladiesandgent

We are also on Facebook and Twitter!!

Wahida Clark

Thug Lovin is the 4th installment of Wahida Clark's series. 4****
I enjoyed the previous books in the series, Tasha ans Trae's relationship changed in Thug Lovin, which left me with questions. Wahida's style is her own unique voice and I admire her a lot. Her life has been a true testimony of what you can do no matter what



Thug Lovin'
ISBN-10: 0446178098 | ISBN-13: 978-0446178099
Tasha and Trae, the hood's favorite couple, are still together following the events of Thug Matrimony. Even with their relocation to sunny Los Angeles, the drama of New York cannot be escaped. From running a nightclub to dealing with models, shady lawyers, big money, new kinds of temptations, seductions, and drugs-not to mention new love interests-can this infamous couple weather all the storms and keep it together?




Wahida Clark Homepage- www.wclarkpublishing.com
Wahida Clark Homepage MySpace- www.myspace.com/wahidaclark

Guess who gave me a Shout Out!!!

SIMPLY SAID


http://firstborngirl.blogspot.com

What's holding your spot?.... Simply Said
The thong you want to show.....
www.simply-said.net
odebdeb@aol.com
www.facebook.com/simplysaid


I am doing the"Happy Feet" dance around my kitchen! Bernice McFadden gave Simply Said Book Thongs a shout out!!! And look who I'm in company with, Carleen Brice, Nina Foxx and Edwidge Danticat. Ahh Sookie Sookie Now is right! Thank you Bernice. This will be an awesome day, because I woke up to this!

Capital BookFest 5th Anniversary

5th Anniversary Capital BookFest
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Time: 10am-7pm EST

Location:
Boulevard at the Capital Centre
900 Capital Centre Boulevard, Largo 20774

Celebrating 5 Years of Strengthening Families through Reading

Event Description: Presented in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Bookfest features author readings, publishing workshops, poetry performances, children's storytelling, teen programs, and over 75 vendors. Free books to the first 1,000 people.

The authors talks include discussions with Nelson George, Tim Reid, Liza Mundy (Michelle Obama: Biography), Sonya Sones, Marita Golden, Lori Nelson, Ronald Cotton (Picking Cotton), Chef Gillian Clark, Sahar Simmons, Le Hinton, Victoria Christopher Murray, W. Ralph Eubanks, Lucille Clifton, Omar Tyree, Kimberly Seals Allers (The Mocha Moms Manual), Charisse Nunes (I am Barack Obama children’s book), and several teen authors.

This year, in response to President Barack Obama’s call to service, the Capital BookFest and the Prince George’s County Department of Social Services will team up to promote healthy homes for children in foster care. Meet Ella Curry of EDC Creations for live reader interviews! Visit http://www.capitalbookfest.org/ for a schedule of events. All ages welcome. Cost: FREE admission


Capital BookFest Founder
Kwame Alexander, a poet, publisher, playwright, producer, dynamic speaker, and performer, is the author of eight books -including the best-selling Do The Write Thing: 7 Steps to Publishing Success, Kupenda: Love Poems, Dancing Naked on the Floor: poems and essays, and The Way I Walk, a collection of young adult short stories.

He has conducted standing-room only publishing workshops, delivered awe-inspiring keynote speeches, and performed his cutting-edge brand of poetry to audiences at numerous conferences, colleges and venues throughout the world, including: Stratford-on-Avon, Brixton Town Hall, Oberlin College, UC Berkeley, Hampton University, Duke University, University of Maryland, America's Choice National Conference, Baltimore Writers Alliance, and the Gwendolyn Brooks Writers Conference.

Alexander has produced over two-hundred literary related special events, the most recent being the First Annual Capital BookFest, a major literary arts festival sponsored by The Washington Post, Chick-fil-A, and The Literacy Council of Prince George's County. Dubbed a "phenom" in the poetry world by The Charleston (SC) City Paper, Alexander has wowed audiences with his electric readings and performances at coffeehouses, theatres, and universities across the country and abroad. In 2002, 2004, and 2005 Alexander was selected as a special guest author for the Library of Congress Poets at Noon Series, and The Washington Post-Maryland Center for the Book Evening in The Stacks Gala.

The founder of two book publishing companies, BlackWords Press and Do The Write Thing , this publishing veteran of over fifteen years is responsible for some of the most progressive, original and exciting fiction and non-fiction on the shelves today. He has published over forty authors in different genres, including: M. Dion Thompson, former Baltimore Sun reporter and author of the critically-acclaimed historical novel Walk Like A Natural Man; Lalita Noronha, author of the short story collection, Where Monsoons Cry; and Michael Datcher, Today Show Book Club Awardee and editor of Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur . Kwame Alexander has served as a judge for several local and national literary awards, including the Georgia Writer's Awards, and the Washington, DC Parkmont Poetry Awards. Among his many board appointments are The CityLit Project, Baltimore's Artscape Festival, and the Hippodrome Arts & Education Committee. Alexander is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he studied under renowned poet Nikki Giovanni.

He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter, where he hosts a weekly radio program, Word of Mouth, and serves as poet-in-the-schools for Crossland High School/Prince George's County Schools. When not working on several new and exciting book and TV/film projects, he enjoys reading, writing, and a good game of chess.

Girl, Naw!

Girl, Naw!
LaCricia A’ngelle



Antoinette Walker seems to have it all. Great kids, a wonderful husband, and a counseling practice that’s doing very well. Secrets have a way of resurfacing and threaten, all that Antoinette loves. As she counsels women to forgive on the very issues she’s dealing with, and not forgiving of. Her hubby Maurice, is not aware of the secrets the may destroy their lives. This book was a great lesson on keeping secrets and how they can come back to haunt you. Forgiveness is something you must give yourself first before you can receive the blessings in store for your life.

4**** STARS



Meet LaCricia A’ngelle, author of Girl, Naw!
LaCricia A`ngelle is a licensed Evangelist, writer, and the President and CEO of His Pen Publishing LLC. A native of Chicago, LaCricia currently resides in Tennessee with her four children. Girl, Naw! is her first novel.
Her writing career began when she was a child writing songs, and short stories. LaCricia has always had a God given gift of putting words together.
As a Christian Fiction author, LaCricia not only writes for entertainment, but she also writes for ministry. Her goal in every piece of written work is to draw someone closer to Christ. The characters face real situations. LaCricia writes so that anyone can read her work and get something out of it, whether they are young or old. When you read a LaCricia A`ngelle original prepare to laugh, cry, pray, and stop to say “hmmm.”

Girl, Naw! by LaCricia A'ngelle (excerpt) - ">

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Who Is He To You by Monique Mensah

Who Is He To You by Monique Mensah

Monique D. Mensah is a native Detroiter. She declared her dream of becoming an author at eight years old. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan, she completed her first manuscript. Shortly after, she launched Kisa Publishing, and published her first novel, Who Is He To You. Monique now resides in Southfield, MI where she is raising her daughter and working on her second novel.

Readers will be intrigued by the intelligent exploration of sensitive issues such as cutting, emotional abuse, depression, and drug-addiction.The first page which is filled with intense emotion and a descriptive setting that pulls the reader right into the scene.

Who Is He To You by Monique D. Mensah

When love involves incest, self-mutilation, drug-addiction, and murder, will Simone, Jessica and Ryan fight to hold on or will they escape before it's too late?

Simone, a shockingly beautiful teen, is on the downward spiral of destruction as she battles incest and self-hatred. She finds cutting to be the only way to relieve her pain. She must do something to regain control of her life and restore her family back to normalcy. But Simone may be too late as unexpected events threaten to throw her dream of contentment far out of reach.

Jessica lives the upscale lifestyle of a refined society matron. She strives to be the perfect wife, but without her husband, Ross, she would be nothing more than the abused stripper he rescued 16 years ago. When their marriage is threatened and it forces her to face her past, Jessica vows to do whatever it takes to protect what she has rightfully earned, even if it means murder.

Ryan, a fiery thirty-something, is quickly slipping into depression and prescription drug addiction. As her boyfriend, Anthony, artfully dangles the empty promise of marriage, she watches helplessly as their relationship dissolves. In an attempt to regain her sanity and self-esteem, she finds herself on a mission of self-restoration while trying to save the life of someone she doesn't even know.

As the shattered lives of three very different women collide, they find that they have one thing in common: They're all in a desperate fight to hold on to love. Experience their emotional journey through to the shocking end where these women will experience injury, imprisonment, and even death while crafting new lives from the ashes of their ruination.

Book Video Preview

Book info: ISBN-10: 0578023482; ISBN-13: 978-0578023489.
Visit Monique's site: www.MoniqueDMensah.com

Who Is He To You Book Reviews

“Monique D. Mensah’s debut novel reads more as if written by the hands of a seasoned veteran. Who Is He To You, a riveting story touching on topics such as incest, self-mutilation, and drug-addiction, pulls you in from the first page and doesn’t let go until the final period. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!”
– Brian C. Conley, author of Stay and We Were Broken Here.


“Monique D. Mensah has captured the literary world by storm, “Who is he to you” is captivating, intriguing, suspense, and drama all wrapped up into one. A must read for all you book lovers. I read the book in two days, I couldn’t work for reading. I was so caught up in each chapter, I was hungry for more. My sincere congrats to you Monique!”
– Gwen Cannon, author of Scandalous


"This was Excellent and a great piece of writing. Your character development of capturing the essence of each unique character was flawless. You got 'it'".
– Vincent Alexandria, author of Black Rain


“Who Is He To You vividly exhibits Monique D. Mensah’s ability to create a and project animated images from cover to cover. The allure of her hypnotic writing style pulsates immensely within the psyche of each reader…thus addicting them eternally.”
– Marc Lacy, spoken word artist and auhtor of Rock & Fire: Love Poetry from the Core and The Looking Heart: Poetic Expression from Within

"Poignant and stirring, WHO IS HE TO YOU draws you in with the story of Simone. Gorgeous, but greatly misunderstood, we truly understand how beauty on the outside hides ugly underneath. Monique Mensah's writing grabs readers instantly from the first line. WHO IS HE TO YOU was a pleasure to read."
–Sylvia Hubbard,author of Secret, Lies, and Family Ties

Lies of Blue

Lies of Blue by Lynne Forde

This was a great story about what really goes on behind prison walls, between some prisoners and guards. Lynne is a correction officer at a well known prison. She tells a grim story about the un-written rules and goings on within the system. She is also dealing with her own self worth and value. Lynne's lines get very blurred by what she see's and what it really is. She finds out the hard way, there's a thin line between love,lust,abuse,and manipulation. I thought the story was quite real, fascinating and gritty.
4****Star read




Lies of Blue is the story about a young woman who tries to reach her dream by making sacrifices. Somewhere along the line, the wrong sacrifices get made. It's Training Day meets OZ, with a twist of Set It Off.

When Forde gets tired of her dead end job in the City Courts, she embarks on a career in the belly of the beast. With a degree in hand and a little bit of street sense, she decides to try her hand working in River Edge Jail Complex. From day one at the Academy to her last day at Prison, Forde evolves from your average "rookie" into something other than just a woman. To make matters worse, if you put a sexual being in the midst of some of the city's most conniving men and women, you are bound to come up with something a little kinky and very destructive. The more dangerous the game became, the more erotic the encounters became. She goes from Officer, to Hustler, to Vic, to CEO in a matter of 8 years.

Lies of Blue is an expose of what goes on in the belly of the beast, through the eyes of one woman. Lies of Blue teaches you that there are so many people you may come across in life, you never know who is real and who is fake, but that the journey can become a battle of life or death. Choose wisely. What is the price for fulfilling your dream?

How I Made The Angels Cry

How I Made The Angels Cry
Meleisa Betts
Website: www.myspace.com/433250625

"Meleisa Betts has written a soul-searching memoir in order to release her demons, and the depression associated with personal trauma. With her narrative, therapeutic approach, she emancipates herself and her readers--taking us from DESPERATION to INSPIRATION. What a liberating ride!" DR. GWENDOLYN GOLDSBY GRANT, Multimedia Psychologist, Contributing Relationship Expert, Essence Magazine, and Author of "The Best Kind Of Loving"

RAWSISTAZ says
Molly is a woman who never has a dull moment! HOW I MADE THE ANGELS CRY takes the reader on a roller coaster ride filled with many ups, downs, twists and turns. It is almost unfathomable to think one woman can lead a life fraught with so much soul-searching. Her drama-filled life definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Molly's story has moments of happiness, sadness, craziness and madness. Betts did an excellent job of sharing not only her life, but also her life's lessons. Betts has the makings of a great writer with this debut work.

Reviewed by Marcia Brevard Wynn
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Reviews
Missy T says
By Babes on Books Bookclub "MissyT" (Alabama) - See all my reviews
This is such a compelling and gripping account of the authors life. It's all there, the journey though childhood which explains her amazing relationship with her mother, the events that led up to the horrific accounts of rape and injustice. Her fall from Grace which led her to occult practices due to lack of faith and conviction. Her journey into self discovery and love of self while reclaiming her love for God. But this narrative was more than just a account of the authors' life. It was also a form of therapy. The writing of this book offered a chanel to convey messages about abuse, sexuality, and murder.

David A. Jackson
I read this book in one sitting. This book was well written. It took me on an emotional roller-coaster ride. I am not a big fan of memoirs, however-after reading Ms. Betts personal journey, the next book I read will be a memoir. I felt touched by the honesty of Ms. Betts as she gave a bird's eye view of her fantastic and amazing journey. Ms. Betts was very intimate and pulled no punches in expressing her feelings in that experience. At times, I laughed when she was vividly describing her characters physical attributes. I felt sad in her painful telling of her experiences especially when she was raped. I admire her bravery and courage to boldly stand up and bounce back in light of that and many other painful experiences that she had to endure. I am looking forward to her next novel. Thank you Ms. Betts for opening up and sharing your life's experiences. I will strongly recommend this book to my beautiful wife, my family members, my co-workers, and my friends.

Melesia Betts Memoir life and times of Lesbian/Bi-sexual Woman
http://www.blackpearlsmagazine.com/meleisabetts.htm
ISBN-13: 9780615290508
(self-pub)