Category Archives: amazon.com

5 minutes 5 questions with, african american author, african american authors, african american book, african american books, amazon.com, interview

JoeyPinkney.com Book Review: Letters to a Young Sister by Hill Harper

JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny
by Hill Harper
(Gotham)
5 out of 5 Stars

From the foreword by Gabrielle Union to the email from Nikki Giovanni just before the acknowledgement page, Hill Harper’s Letters to a Young Sister is a beautiful dialogue between Hill Harper and a fictitious African American girl. Harper employs the wisdom of his famous, yet forthcoming, friends as he offers advice on a multitude of topics from sex to sexism and almost everything in between. Hill Harper writes in a voice that is like an older, caring brother instead of being preachy like a parent.

Letters to a Young Sister grew out of a vocal desire for a book for females while Hill Harper was touring to promote Letters to a Young Brother. Letters to a Young Sister definitely stands on its own merits with the theme being DeFINE Your Destiny.

Hill Harper does not try to tackle all of the questions by himself. He gets input from a group of extraordinary African American women. From Eve to Ciara to Michelle Obama to Alfre Woodard, each person shares words of wisdom and inspiration relevant to the question that the young sister poses to Hill Harper.

There is truly no other self-help book on the market that you can hand a young African American female that is on point in terms of appropriate cultural references to today’s music, technology and methods of communication. Letter to a Young Sister comes across more so like a story. The readers gets to look over the shoulders of both Hill Harper and the “young sistah” as they try to make sense of and navigate the beauty and pitfalls of maturing into a unique African American woman in today’s society.

[include file=current-advertisers.html]

5 minutes 5 questions with, african american author, african american authors, african american book, african american books, amazon.com, interview

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Tony Gaskins, Jr., author of What Daddy Should Have Told His Little Girl

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Tony Gaskins, Jr., author of What Daddy Should Have Told His Little Girl
(SokheChapke Publishing )

What Daddy Should Have Told His Little Girl is a key to the mind of a man. It answers the ten most asked questions asked by women today. Gaskins opens up and gives insight that is eye-opening, enlightening and at times shocking.

This book is answered from experience, every questioned answered is one the author learned the hard way. With that being the case Gaskins goes much more in depth than your average relationship expert.

After reading this book you’ll never approach a relationship the same.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write What Daddy Should Have Told His Little Girl?

Tony Gaskins: The inspiration to write this book came from my little sister. Seeing her live what I put so many women through changed the way I viewed relationships. My heart went out because she had no defense against the games men play because she didn’t understand men. So I decided to give away the game.

JP: What is the first step of overcoming domestic abuse?

TG: The first step to overcoming domestic violence for a woman is to speak up to someone who cares, i.e. police, pastor, teacher, etc. For a man, the first step is a desire to change.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to What Daddy Should Have Told His Little Girl getting out to the public?

TG: As an author, the key to getting national exposure is faith and persistence. You have to identify your target audience and go to the people with the platform to reach them. Then keep knocking until they open the door.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish What Daddy Should Have Told His Little Girl?

TG: When writing a book, the amount of time it takes you depends on whether you are an author or a writer. I consider myself a writer. When I start, I don’t stop. It takes me 5-10 days to write a 100-150 page book. It’s the post production that takes the most time.

Question 5: What’s next for Tony Gaskins, Jr.?

TG: At the present moment, I am adapting my books into screenplays and preparing to shoot the movies based on the life I lived to gain insight for the books. Beyond that I’ve started consulting other authors, ghostwriting, life coaching and motivational speaking.

http://www.whatdaddynevertold.com/
http://www.twitter.com/tonygaskins
http://www.myspace.com/whatdaddynevertold
http://www.facebook.com/tonygaskinsjr

Tony A. Gaskins Jr. is making power-moves in the industry. In 2009 alone he has been a featured guest on Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks and the 700 Club, just to name a few. He is open about what it takes to succeed and accepting new clients’ daily who are seeking media training, and his very informative and creative consultations. Book yours today! TonyGaskinsJr@gmail.com

[include file=current-advertisers.html]

5 minutes 5 questions with, african american author, african american authors, african american book, african american books, amazon.com, book reviews, interview, urban lit

JoeyPinkney.com Book Review: Fat Kills, by K.Reid

1 Comment

JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
Fat Kills
by K.Reid
(K.Reid Productions)
5 out of 5 Stars

K.Reid’s Fat Kills has The DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia) written all over it. It’s more than being “blown” or “siced”, K.Reid has worked hard to include neighborhoods, restaurants, clothing stores, regional websites and so much more.The world as told as through the eyes of the main character Mia Nickole Rose is full of music, memories of “The Metro” newspaper and chicken wings and mumbo sauce.

Working in downtown D.C. by day and moonlighting as a singer at night, Mia is conscious of her weight almost as much as she is cognizant of the effects of the recession that has rocked the globe. Nothing a perfectly rolled joint and some late night sitcoms can’t smooth over another day in the economic jungle.

Speaking of financial woes, Mia is no stranger to the struggles we all face. Student loans, garnished wages and helping parents who are struggling to keep their dream home equals little to no money for Mia to pay the everyday bills. A chance email with the promise of money for simply meeting up leads to Fat Kills becoming a veritable Urban Thriller.

Mia is statuesque, voluptuous and bodacious. In her mind, she is fat and not “phat”. She constantly gives herself pep talks and confirmation of her greatness whenever she’s about to step on the stage to sing and even when she walks into a place with a bunch of people. A twist of fate has her at the beck and call of a murderous doctor who treats people that struggle mentally with how the are treated because of their weight. That same doctor, known as Professor, kills the people who ridicule overweight people as payback for private school bullies beating his son into mental retardation.

K.Reid gave Mia a sharp sense of humor and a profound love of music. This makes Fat Kills doubly entertaining. The personal thoughts and comments that Mia injects into Fat Kills are classic. Sometimes her humor is subtle like Seinfeld, other times she is openly funny as Comic View used to be. Just like a conversation with an unintentionally funny friend, Mia catches you off guard with her dialogue and thought processes.

Mia’s musical palette ranges from the Go-Go bands native to the D.C. area to Bjork to everything in between. This gives Mia’s character a more realistic feel as she weaves her way through the plot twists of her literary world. Throughout Fat Kills, K.Reid blesses Mia with some of the deepest, most comprehensive playlists for her iPhone. It quickly becomes obvious that K.Reid did not just put a bunch a random songs together. The author really put her heart and soul in making sure the songs happening throughout Fat Kills fit perfectly and realistically with whatever is going on in Fat Kills.

The one thing that was a pleasant surprise about Fat Kills is that it was unpredictable. Each plot twist was unexpected, yet when things went in a new direction it made sense. Without giving away the juicy details, I thought Mia was going to lead me through a typical hood story. She didn’t.

Instead, Fat Kills was written well enough that I actually went through the myriad of emotions that experienced as she slowly went through a mental breakdown. It took more than marijuana to mellow out the mangled murder mystery Mia experiences. From not knowing the true identity of the psychopath who controlled her every move like a demented puppeteer to having to sing and perform during heinous acts of torture and death, Mia suffers a jarring mental breakdown that will shake even the most emotionless reader.

[include file=current-advertisers.html]