Read, Dammit | Reading List 2019)

Welcome to 2018. You made it. We had this amazing 2017 and 2018 is just going to build upon what has already been made. Now that I'm done sounding like a Facebook post, we can get to it. I do my fair share of reading. It started when I was young and I haven't kicked the habit. So here we are. Me finally remembering to put together a list for the blog. I also got some free things for y'all. Teaming up with Amazon Books to give you some free stuff. 

Enough of all this talking from me. Now if you don't have Amazon Prime, we want to get you a 30-day trial, free on us.(Click here:Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial) Now if you so happen to be a student, you get six months free. (Click here: Prime Student 6-month Trial l)

 

The free haven't stopped yet. After you get Prime (Or already have it). Take this last thing with you. Because we understand that sometimes life is too busy to read, so just listen instead.Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans. Start your free 30-day audio trail when you Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks. Join the millions that are already enjoying their new favorite books on the go. The best thing about Audible, even after your membership, you get to keep the books. Join today, and find your new favorite. 

The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur (Book)

 The Rose That Grew from Concrete (1999) is a collection of poetry written between 1989 and 1991 by Tupac Shakur

 Tupac Shakur's most intimate and honest thoughts were uncovered only after his death with the instant classic The Rose That Grew from Concrete.

His talent was unbounded, a raw force that commanded attention and respect.
His death was tragic -- a violent homage to the power of his voice.
His legacy is indomitable -- remaining vibrant and alive.

Here now, newly discovered, are Tupac's most honest and intimate thoughts conveyed through the pure art of poetry -- a mirror into his enigmatic life and its many contradictions.

Written in his own hand at the age of nineteen, they embrace his spirit, his energy...and his ultimate message of hope.

 

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama (Book/Audio)  

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former first lady of the United States

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America - the first African American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the United States and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race (Book/Audio/Movie) 

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner.

Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space. 

Among these problem solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly these overlooked math whizzes had shots at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia, and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.
Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black West Computing group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War and complete domination of the heavens. 

Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the space race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades as they faced challenges, forged alliances, and used their intellects to change their own lives - and their country's future. 

 If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (Book/Audio) 

In this honest and stunning novel, soon to be a major motion picture directed by Barry Jenkins, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice.

Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche. 

  All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel by Bryn Greenwood (Book/Auido) 

 A beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives.

As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.

By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. A powerful novel you won’t soon forget, Bryn Greenwood's All the Ugly and Wonderful Things challenges all we know and believe about love.

 

A Game of Thrones / A Clash of Kings / A Storm of Swords / A Feast of Crows / A Dance with Dragons (Book/Audio) 

Winter is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in far-off King’s Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in Robert’s name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and worse—unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of the season.

Yet a more immediate threat lurks to the south, where Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, has died under mysterious circumstances. Now Robert is riding north to Winterfell, bringing his queen, the lovely but cold Cersei, his son, the cruel, vainglorious Prince Joffrey, and the queen’s brothers Jaime and Tyrion of the powerful and wealthy House Lannister—the first a swordsman without equal, the second a dwarf whose stunted stature belies a brilliant mind. All are heading for Winterfell and a fateful encounter that will change the course of kingdoms.

Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys, heir of the fallen House Targaryen, which once ruled all of Westeros, schemes to reclaim the throne with an army of barbarian Dothraki—whose loyalty he will purchase in the only coin left to him: his beautiful yet innocent sister, Daenerys.

 

  And just like that, we're at six.  That should be enough for now. I'll be updating during the year and probably even next week knowing me. So check back and follow my Twitter /Instagram to stay in the know. 

Update:  Hey hello, what you doing? Me? Just dropping off more books.

Supermarket by Bobby Hall (Book/Audio)

Flynn is stuck - depressed, recently dumped, and living at his mom's house. The supermarket was supposed to change all that. An ordinary job and a steady check. Work isn't work when it's saving you from yourself. But things aren't quite as they seem in these aisles. Arriving to work one day to a crime scene, Flynn's world collapses as the secrets of his tortured mind are revealed. And Flynn doesn't want to go looking for answers at the supermarket. Because something there seems to be looking for him.

A darkly funny psychological thriller, Supermarket is a gripping exploration into madness and creativity. Who knew you could find sex, drugs, and murder all in aisle nine? 

Enough of all this talking from me. Now if you don't have Amazon Prime, we want to get you a 30-day trial, free on us.(Click here:Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial) Now if you so happen to be a student, you get six months free. (Click here: Prime Student 6-month Trial l)

 

The free haven't stopped yet. After you get Prime (Or already have it). Take this last thing with you. Because we understand that sometimes life is too busy to read, so just listen instead.Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans. Start your free 30-day audio trail when you Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks. Join the millions that are already enjoying their new favorite books on the go. The best thing about Audible, even after your membership, you get to keep the books. Join today, and find your new favorite.