Upwards and Onwards on a Roll for 2024 Reading

 After cataract eye surgery last year, I went CRAY-CRAY reading books. So, in 2023 I read 51 books 😊. Here's my Personal Book Diary List:

Notable Mentions for great reads include:

1.#18 Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

2.#19 Trees by Percival Everett 

3.#28 The Last Duel by Eric Jager 

4.#39 Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson 

5.#25 The Black Mozart (Le Chavalier de St Georges)  

           by Walter Smith 

6.#6 Spare by Prince Harry. 

Also, I found my niche book genre in reading Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Series Murder Mysteries. I love Murder Mysteries~ Who Dunnit~ books. I finished the Gaslight Series this year 2024 except 1of 27. She has a new one ~Murder on Rose Hill~ released April 2024.Can't wait to read it.

I fell in love with the "All Creatures Great and Small" PBS Masterpiece Series, so I'll start down that reading journey later this year. 

This looks like a great upcoming year in the reading of WORDS! 💖

 Here's my Progress Report for January 2024:

Notable mention for great reads for January 2024:

1. #3 "How to Say Babylon" by Safir Sinclair 

2.#1 "Unprotected" by Billy Porter. *Now I understand that, Diva.  

 

February 2024 is shaping up as a good one. I will try to share each month so that I don't get bogged down at the end of the year listing all the books I've read.  

ANYWAY....She's BACCCCCCCK 😍 

Reading does a Mind & Body Good! Plus, a good cuppa or glass of Wine!!!

Reading can seriously damage your ignorance~ Mindset of Greatness~ 

SeriouslyY'all, I've been reading some words since Ms.Covid walked into the Universe and decided to stay a spell. The last couple years was a great journey into subjects that enhanced my Mind and gave me pause. Here's a sampling of what I read. 

Books in 2021

Books at the end of 2021 my "Russian Series". To say the least, I needed THERAPY after reading "The Life and Times of Rasputin". Wow! I also watched related movies on some of these books.

Seems I got hooked on "Whodunnit" Murder Mysteries by M.M. Kaye. What a great writer. I think I'm on to her because it is the least talked about person in the scheme of her books that is the criminal. They are quick reads for me with only 275-300 pages, takes 2 or 3 days to complete. The fact they are based upon real locations and all the pertinent facts are true (I looked them up of course). Had not ever heard of Andamans, Zanzibar and Kashmir geographically and the culture was an eye opener.

Another covid-related "Staycation" I really got into ~WINE~. Since 1983, I've loved different Wines. I started buying books back then, never really took off until 2019. I always loved Cabernet Sauvignon. But, I started tasting other REDS as I'm not fond of White Wine except Bubbly stuff (Prosecco or Champagne). Seems I really like Pinot Noir as a first choice now. I did a personal  Wine tastings of several different Pinot's from various Countries. For example:

My second choice are two grapes I'd never heard of before my Wine Education began. 

Negroamaro...

& Porrera

Other discoveries:

What a 3-year journey of discovery of new Books & Wine ...oh & new Teas!

I'm on a ROLL...

Check out my 2022 Reading List. Y'all Come Back Now😍

Greetings for the Holidays!

We are just about rounding out another year that has been shocking and devasting to many since 2019.Whether it's been Covid-19, Politics, Forest fires, Floods, unrest World-wide, Far Right, Far Left, Food shortages, Job shortages, Climate Changes, Believers of the BIG LIES that flow each day, JANUARY 6,2021 coup d'etat  at The D.C. Capitol and the List goes on. 

Regardless, "Be Thankful" for what you do have & always show "Kindness to another Human Being".

Back in 2013,I Posted this Holiday Greetings to Friends Around the World, The Sage Book Whisperer: ~ Friends Around The World ~ Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!    I'm repeating it AGAIN with so much Love to You & Yours Around the World!

 

See you in 2022 with soooooo many Books,Movies,Wine ,Food and more to explore. 

Sheeeeee's BACK! Book Review

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

The last 4 years have come and gone...Thank Goodness! I chose to spend my time Reading Book, watching movies, exploring Cooking recipes from around the World, losing weight etc...then in walks Covid-19 _so I added Social Distancing to the Mix. I'm looking Onward & Upward since January 21,2021. Although,I did NOT keep a Record for the entire 4 years of books read, here's a couple of Books from 2020.

 

There's a couple missing_they didn't make the Photo Shoot (lol). Of all the Books  I read "The Outlander "by Gil Adamson (not part of the Series aka Outlander) was my #1 Favorite. It told the story of a very brave women living in the times when women were really belittled and had no rights.

~JUNETEENTH A FAMOUS CELEBRATION SINCE c.1865 IN TEXAS~

CONTRARY to what the 45th President of America in 2020 says_that HE made June 19th Famous; it was President Abraham Lincoln 16th President of America in 1863 that freed the Slaves. It was NOT until 1865 that the Slaves of Texas got that message they were FREE! Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.IT IS NOW A WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION.IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THE HISTORY OF ALL MANKIND.

For further Knowledge...this Link will help...https://www.history.com/juneteenth 

Martha and Pinkie Yates in a buggy decorated for the annual Juneteenth celebration in front 319 Robin St. in the Fourth Ward (c.1895-1905). Courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public  

Early Celebrations 

May31-June 1,1921*** ~Remembering Greenwood Oklahoma Massacre of an All Black Community~

           ~FLASHBACK~ 

In these days of Social-Distancing, a Friend CHALLEGED me to list the top 10 Albums that influenced my taste in Music. My First thought_well this SHOULD be a piece of Cake. Wrong! Today was Day 9. I posted: 

DAY 9 Album Challenge...The Gap Band...The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson; and it was named after streets (Greenwood, Archer, and Pine = GAP)_ in the historic ~GREENWOOD~ neighborhood in the brothers' hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. GREENWOOD WAS BURNED DOWN BY WHITE PROTESTORS May 31 & June 1, 1921, when mobs of WHITE RESIDENTS attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "Early in the Morning" was my Exercise Routine dance song of which I still remember the moves! 

                                                     OFFICIAL VIDEO...1982
Note: I love the girl in Yellow Exercise tights...that would be me. lol 

Anyway...
It dawned on me that 99 years ago TODAY...May31-June 1,1921 _A White MOB burned down Greenwood Black Community. The event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history, and one of the least-known: News reports were largely squelched, despite the fact that hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless. 

  

BACKSTORY:
On May 30, 1921, a young black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. At some point after that, the young white elevator operator, Sarah Page, screamed; Rowland fled the scene. The police were called, and the next morning they arrested Rowland.......AFTERMATH...In the hours after the Tulsa Race Massacre, all charges against Dick Rowland were dropped. 

For decades, there were no public ceremonies, memorials for the dead or any efforts to commemorate the events of May 31-June 1, 1921. Instead, there was a deliberate effort to cover them up.

The Tulsa Tribune removed the front-page story of May 31 that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and scholars later discovered that police and state militia archives about the riot were missing as well. As a result, until recently the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools or even talked about. Source:https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

Further Sources: James S. Hirsch, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

Scott Ellsworth, “Tulsa Race Riot,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Tulsa Historical Society & Museum.
Nour Habib, “Teachers talk about how black history is being taught in Oklahoma schools today,” Tulsa World (February 24, 2015).
Sam Howe Verhovek, “75 Years Later, Tulsa Confronts Its Race Riot,” New York Times (May 31, 1996).

FAST FORWARD MAY 2020 

George Floyd: US cities brace for new protests after another night of violence....

George Floyd protests spread globally while China reacts.... 

But, this says it all (Quote)... 

Hua Chunying, a "Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman", pointed out America’s racial unrest by tweeting ~“I can’t breathe,”~ which Floyd said before his death. 

All this + COVID-19 PANDEMIC..."I Can't Breathe" either. Guess, I just listen to the GAP BAND...sigh!