the reading spot

Back in college, the thing to do besides going to classes was to go downtown to the bars. I use to go with my roommate on Thursday nights for the drink specials (Buy One Get One Free).  We would sit at the bar and savor the flavor of one of the BOGO drinks unlike the red-face guys standing in the corner with a beer in each hand laughing and talking with their friends.  The Two-fisted Drinkers (which I heard the guys refer to each other) would first guzzle the beer in their right hand and then their left until they were both empty.  The look of disappointment would gloss over their face.  They would sway back and forth slurring their words on their way back to the bar. Obvious, they did not need another round but insisted on it and the bartender would oblige. Personal library Photo by Sandra Proto Just thinking about this reminds me of reading two books at once. Even though I am not like the guys who are two-fisted drinkers, I usually only have one book ...

Nine months ago I finished reading A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. I initially gave it a four-star rating because I felt it was lacking in showing Jefferson’s side of the story.   If you have never read A Lesson Before Dying , the story is about a young man who was found guilty of murdering a liquor store owner during a robbery and was executed.   Jefferson is a young man who is described as being “slow” and who follows two young men into the liquor store. Jefferson claims that one of the two men was the one that killed the liquor store owner. When the police officers arrived, they found all three men dead and Jefferson taking money from the cash register.   Jefferson went to trial for the robbery and murder of the liquor store owner.   His lawyer tried to establish his innocent by comparing him to a “hog.”   This comparison of “hog” brings me to Claude McKay’s poem about the race riots of 1919, If We Must Die : If we must die, let it not be l...

This year, I participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge .  I am happy to report that I completed my challenge of five books (I know this may seem like a small amount, but these were the books that I chose to read as compared to the array of books requested by my daughters at bedtime). Femme du Monde: Poems  by Patricia Spears Jones Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden Rhythms by Donna Hill Half-Lit House by Tina Chang I am currently, reading The Yellow House on the Corner by Rita Dove and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle for 2012.