Searching For Tina Turner

Searching For Tina Turner
I have gotten to used to easy reads. Things I could read easily without much effort, not much of a challenge. Easy words, simple subject matter or same subject different title. So when I started reading Searching For Tina Turner, I hate to say I was expecting same topic different day. What a pleasant surprise. At first, it reminded me of Terry McMilan.. I love complex books that make you think and feel and identify with the characters and subject, and make you read slow to savor the favor. Lena grabbed me into her world. Always doing and settling and waiting for her turn to live. She has a great life, a hubby, two kids and a dream. She really doesn’t want much, all she wants is to be herself and do what she’s always dreamed of. She wants to do something that makes her feel. She has become uncomfortable in her own skin and circumstance and starts reminiscing of better days and Tina Turner.

Discontentment makes you do things to satisfy an urge. It also makes you feel disconnected to your self.

Lena is tried of waiting for her turn and takes it. She leaves her “perfect” life to satisfy her life long dream that was always being put on hold. She decides to embark on a journey to find herself and Tina Turner. The people who she’s put her life on hold for are not getting that she has to do this for her, and it’s not about them. Lena jets off to Europe with a friend and a camera and Tina’s sprit in her heart. She has tickets to see her in concert and while waiting for that day, she starts to discover the Lena , she has always wanted to be.

I loved this book. I call a grown woman read. It’s about taking your control back and about being uncomfortable in a too comfortable situation.
5*****

About The Author/

As a teenager, Jacqueline enjoyed telling stories to her younger cousins. To this day, they describe her as a master storyteller. So, it wasn't a surprise to her family when she began writing a novel. She kept diaries, wrote poetry and had stories published in a local newspaper. But Jacqueline put writing aside while attending college. After graduating from California State University, Hayward in sociology, she worked in sales for a major corporation. She married, raised a family and in 1999 took a creative writing class on a dare, from herself, and happily found her love of writing re-ignited.

By a lucky coincidence, that same year she discovered the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and participated over the next four years in workshops with Christina Garcia, Danzy Senna, Junot Diaz, Ruth Forman and Terry McMillan. VONA provided a safe haven for a new writer still unsure of her abilities, yet eager to learn. She attributes much of her growth as a writer to the VONA workshops.

In 2004, Jacqueline formed the Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, October 2007) along with seven other women writers-of-color. The Finish Party meets monthly to workshop their projects-in-progress. Jacqueline calls these outstanding women her mentors and advisors, her friends and the toughest (and most loving) readers around. The group provides strong support for each other's writing, good meals, friendship and fun.

Jacqueline describes herself as an avid reader and lover of books, excellent cook, aspiring photographer (all the photos on this site were taken by Jacqueline) and world traveler. She lives in Northern California and, though she loves that city and all of the friends she has there, she takes frequent breaks to fly off to foreign destinations.

Searching for Tina Turner, her first novel, will be published by Grand Central Publishing in January 2010 — and, as you can imagine, she is thrilled!