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BOOK NOTES |
Like Boogie on Tuesday Linda Dominique Grosvenor $15.00 / Paperback / 440 pages Buy this book ISBN 1583142606 BET Books – Sepia / 2002 Fiction In this realistic novel about the personal struggles of four rather young, groping African-American characters, Linda Dominique Grosvenor sketches out a nearly holographic picture of the often unspoken concerns that define a broad section of the younger segments of the educated black urban middle class. Nina, the central of the four main characters whose story is told in Like Boogie on Tuesday, is a smart and capable, single woman. She is a good looking, full-figured, well-spoken woman. Although she takes much pride in her professional and business achievements, she is lacking in proper self-appreciation, allowing herself to be emotionally abused by the men in her relationships. After a number of crises comes the realization of freedom and self-worth and that although as a human being she could never renounce her need for and dependence on other people, the fundamental meaning of her life must come from her deeper self. Very different from Nina, Tim, the aspiring filmmaker, and Nina’s eventual partner, is somewhat confused about his goals in personal relationships. He has numerous beautiful women flocking around him, yet because of his perception of women as needy, burdensome creatures, he is unable to strike up a permanent relationship with any of them. He feels alienated from society after his parent’s death and only at his sister’s request, and out of fear of alienating himself from her, does he attend church. Although he appears to be moving in the right direction, events from his past catch up with him, dealing him a blow that causes him to reconsider his entire life. Tim has purposely pushed people aside all his life until, having purged himself of his past, he finally understands that it is high time he stopped battling against something that he wanted so desperately. Nina’s sister, Troi, seems to have it all: An ideal husband, a beautiful child, and financial comfort as a result of her successful management of her own business. But her charmed life is shattered when a startling revelation turns her whole world upside down. Vaughn, Troi’s husband, with his gorgeous matinee idol looks attracts the wistful stares of many admirers, but all is not as it seems, and eventually a dark secret threatens to destroy his marriage and even his life. Vaughn had struggled with feelings of homosexuality since college, and he had for a while managed to suppress his thoughts of other men by praying, rebuking himself, and focusing on his studies. Yet he has not been able to conquer them completely, and he is tortured by the thought that his gay or at least bisexual. Until he me Troy, there had never been a woman that stirred him deeply. But though she was intelligent and attractive, and he had originally been strongly attracted to her, he was beginning to realize that marriage was not a cure-all for his condition, particularly after he met Tracie. Tracie had unleashed the sense that it was acceptable to feel this way and that these feelings were normal. But Vaughn had grown up with a different set of values and continued to feel divided about his sexual preferences. Only when disaster strikes and it is almost too late is he able appreciate Troi’s qualities and to make a proper evaluation of his situation. For all four, the importance of a proper understanding of their circumstances—never easily attained—is crucial as they make valiant attempts to settle into viable and fulfilling patterns of life, while being subject to the influences of circumstances and the temptations of the conflicting life choices forced into the consciousness of their generation in our confusingly expectant and spiritually demanding fin de siécle era. Linda Dominique Grosvenor paints an engaging realistic story of what happens when human beings act upon their innermost desires, commonly motivated by unconscious weaknesses and fragile and misunderstood emotions in often fused in destructively explosive combinations. As various crises lead to moments of truth and realization, new directions and new vistas of meaning open in the lives of the characters. Our participation is fully engaged in the dramatically intense moments experienced by these palpable personalities into whose lives we have the privilege to peek, makes for exciting and rewarding reading.
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Brown Sugar : Soul Food Desserts from
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In the Deep South of the 1950s, journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity-that in this new millennium still has something important to say to every American.
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