QuoteLady

says

"Mz. Cool" Author of "CHUBBY": The Hydraulics of a Neurotic says

CHUBBY" is urban fiction, drama, suspense, humor, ghetto, cheating, families in crisis, mystery, horror, love & sex, a could not put down, a must read and brand new. You won't be disapointed! You'll love it! Get ready to laugh, cry, empathize, anticipate and experience the hydraulics!

Change didn't come when her father tried to open her ryes to the wrong choices she would make or when a Madame became her mentor. Or when she married the preacher's son. Not even when she became a crack addict and her girlfriend became the "snake" who CHUBBY thought was the denominator in the death of her child. Change didn't come when she was pilfered for every dime she had or when she tried to commit suicide almost rendering her insane. No, change didn't come to better CHUBBY's life until she came face-to-face with the unspeakable. Not until then was she forced to take a look at her past. Yes, this rude awakening would be the beginning of her sanity and eventually the overall sweet smell of revenge and an entire newfound life.

"CHUBBY" is the gritty soul depiction of the reclamation of an addict's dignity. One can't help but to share her agony and think that she somehow manages to escape from the clutches of her twisted life in the streets of St. Louis.
www.myspace.com/charonhall read part of chap. 1
www.amazon.com read pages

posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

Debra Phillips says

Poignant. Shocking. A page turner. These are some of the words found in the good reviews of d.y. phillips’ new book: Love Trumps Game. Reviews can be found on
Amazon.com.

Love Trumps Game by d.y. phillips

For an excerpt of the book, check out the author’s website at. www.debraphillips.homestead.com .

posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

Doris T says

Please come join us in the group, Women Speak. We'd love to hear your voice.

posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

Jaya says

Hello dear member of the Black Feminist/Womanist Literature group! It's J., the admin., and I'm writing to inform you of the group's new look! (And it goes beyond the change in our group picture, though it is nice, don't you agree?) :) What we're discussing now: Patricia Hill Collins' Black Feminist Thought, Toni Morrison's Sula for our July read, our little BIG Read: 7 short stories in 7 days to begin later this month, the National Black Arts Festival where Alice Walker and Pearl Cleage are featured speakers, and more!

We'll soon have a group blog up and running, will begin profiling the uberly dynamic authors within our own group, discussing women's/girls action coalitions in your city, reviving some of our good ol' threads, etc.

I challenge everyone to invite at least one friend (already a member of shelfari or otherwise) to join the Black Feminist/Womanist Literature group and to log in at least bi-weekly. (Though weekly would be wonderful!) And I pledge to do the same.

And did you know that Toni Morrison's new novel, A Mercy, is due to be released in November? Ah, you would if you'd visited our group page! (No, actually, I haven't posted this information. lol) But do stop by and fall into the purple haze that is extraordinary literature by feminists of color!

Love, Jaya

posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

ishamcovin says

suggesting a group read African Spirituality by summer: Of Water and Spirit, author Malidoma Patrice Some

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

LaTonya aka z says

QL, where are you? Miss chatting. I just started reading a book and I had to jump up and tell you about it. Check out _From The Notebooks of Melanin Sun_ by Jacqueline Woodson. Melanin is into endangered animals and he's a writer who is close to his mom. Made me think of you and your son. Hope to hear from you. Peace. ~zawadi

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

angel says

how are you my friend

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

LaTonya aka z says

Hey, it's been way too long. Holla at me. Request: looking for authors of color and/or books with children of color for boys between the ages of 9-12. Hope you and your little man are well. Peace. ~zawadi

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

TheBeautiful says

Stopping by to wish you & your family an 'Happy Easter'. Be Blessed!

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

sweetafton says

I'm looking forward to watching "Prince among Slaves" this weekend... finally!

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

AlmondEyedTrini says

Beautiful books on your shelves.

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Karen says

As you can see, I copy and pasted the Bullying commentary below! It's probably the longest note you ever got. I know it's the longest one I've ever sent. Let me know your thoughts.

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Karen says

Bullies' hidden danger
End the spiral of cruelty through intervention of bystanders
By Ira Chaleff
February 14, 2008

If you think bullying is just "kids being kids," think again. It may seem like harmless schoolyard antics (although almost any bullied child would disagree), but the road that we take when we tolerate childhood bullying is a dangerous path.
How often does bullying occur? The first report issued in March 2007 by the Maryland State Department of Education, in response to Maryland's Safe Schools Reporting Act of 2005, found 2,165 reported cases in the first seven months of data collection. Many more cases certainly go unreported.
The Safe Schools Reporting Act is a clear sign that officials in Maryland - like those in many other states, including neighboring Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia - are beginning to treat this problem with appropriate seriousness. The General Assembly is considering additional legislation to create penalties for schoolyard and online bullying. Unfortunately, such bills address only procedures for investigating reported acts of bullying and punishing bullies. They are silent about what experts on bullying find most important for prevention: the actions or inactions of bystanders.
It may seem a stretch to link schoolyard bullying to atrocities such as ethnic cleansing and genocide. Yet, in her book Extraordinary Evil, Barbara Coloroso offers a convincing analysis that the structure of bullying and genocide are frighteningly similar.
What alarms Ms. Coloroso most is that her research of anti-bullying programs throughout the world showed they "had as their foundation conflict-resolution solutions" when "the problem is that bullying is not about anger or conflict; it is about contempt." In bullying, she notes, there is always an imbalance of power and the use of that power to terrorize the target.
In The Art of Followership, a book released last month that I co-edited with two professors from Claremont University, Lorna Blumen, an education consultant, shines a clear spotlight on the most effective antidote to bullying: "Research has shown that when bystanders intervene, the bullying stops in half the time. For that to happen, there must be an underlying support structure that makes intervention the norm, not the courageous, risky exception."
Bystanders, especially children, often do not know what to do when witnessing an act of bullying. Ms. Blumen gives clear examples of the language that student bystanders can use to stop bullying in its tracks. Surprisingly simple statements can be highly effective: "Stop that. We don't treat people that way here," or, to the bully's target, "He's having a bad day. Come play with us. When he's feeling better, he can join us."
For the above examples to work, however, in most cases, two or more bystanders must be willing to speak up. This is why it is necessary for schools to create a culture that understands, in Ms. Blumen's words, that "failing to intervene to stop the bullying of others makes us silent colluders."
This line of thinking about effective strategies is well supported by the famous experiments conducted a half-century ago by Stanley Milgram at Yale.
In experiments conducted repeatedly in many cultures, Mr. Milgram and those who replicated his experiments found that about two-thirds of people will inflict harm on others in compliance with an authority figure issuing the order. However, if one other person refuses to do so, the percentage drops considerably, and when two others stand up to the authority figure, according to Thomas Blass, a contributor to The Art of Followership, "only 10 percent of the subjects ended up being completely obedient."
In the schoolyard, the bully becomes the illegitimate authority figure. Two or more vocal bystanders who are not the bully's immediate target can neutralize the bully's toxic sway. The dynamics are similar online, where bullying incidents among schoolchildren increasingly occur. Onlookers such as Facebook friends can stop bullying by speaking out against it.
Obviously, we cannot police every conversation in a schoolyard or online. Therefore, developing an ethic where peers do not tolerate bullying behavior toward others is the real solution.
School systems need the time and funding to teach children how to counter bullying, and administrators need to be willing to remove bullies until the school population, adults included, is trained to deal with bullies.
They will not just be making the schoolyard and cyberspace safer for the significant number of kids that are traumatized by bullying, and who sometimes murderously snap - most infamously, but certainly not only, at Columbine High School - or commit suicide out of desperation. They will be equipping a citizenry to recognize the toxic leadership that is bullying and refuse to be silent, collusive followers.
This is especially critical for those who go into professions that are trusted with the violent power of the state. Failure to train such a citizenry sooner or later results, to our national shame, in an Abu Ghraib or the sexual abuse of a Haitian immigrant by New York City police officers. On a global level, it is the road to a Rwanda or a Darfur.
While making our schools safer and more productive, we can develop the models that educate future generations to make silent bystanding unthinkable in the face of humiliation, hate crimes and worse.
Ira Chaleff, a management consultant, is the author of "The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders." He lives in Kensington. His e-mail is irachaleff@cs.com

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Lillian P says

I wasn't thinking about a particular book to discuss. I had looked at the group shelf and I wondered if those books had been read by the group and wondered how they had been chosen.

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

NighEve says

Thank you! I am glad you like "her?" She won't last long. I have been on the hunt for more strange and unusual pictures. Have a wonderful weekend sis!

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Quintessential Love says

Hey there! I've been down for a few weeks, but I'm back! How's everything going?

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

NighEve says

I love your new picture! I'm glad to see that you are still hangin" out in DW too!

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )