read a new book every two weeks

Ok, I finished “The Wave” Sunday, and I’m glad. It was a decent book, but I struggled through it, I’m just not into Sci-Fi. Anyway, today I picked up my next book…...”Babylon Sisters” by Pearl Cleage. I’ve been wanting to read this book for several months, and I’m excited that I’m finally getting the chance! I will start reading it this Sunday, just enough time to get “the Wave” out of my system, lol.

Dang, I forget I had this as a goal and that I was keeping it up to date. Anyway, I started reading “The Wave”, by Walter Mosley last Friday. It’s pretty good, it’s a sci-fi type book, hadn’t read anything of that genre since Octavia Butlers’ “Parable of the Sower”.

Octavia Butler, prominent science fiction author, dies at 58

By GENE JOHNSON

The Associated Press

SEATTLE – Octavia E. Butler, the first black woman to gain national prominence as a science fiction writer, died after falling and striking her head on the cobbled walkway outside her home, a close friend said Sunday. She was 58.

Butler was found outside her home in the north Seattle suburb of Lake Forest Park on Friday. She had suffered from high blood pressure and heart trouble and could only take a few steps without stopping for breath, said Leslie Howle, who knew Butler for two decades and works at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle.

Butler’s work wasn’t preoccupied with robots and ray guns, Howle said, but used the genre’s artistic freedom to explore race, poverty, politics, religion and human nature.

“She stands alone for what she did,” Howle said. “She was such a beacon and a light in that way.”

Fellow Seattle-based science fiction authors Greg Bear and Vonda McIntyre said they were stunned by the news and called it a tremendous loss.

“People came the world around to talk to her,” Bear said. “She was sweet. She was smart. She knew science fiction and how to work with it.”

Butler began writing at age 10, and told Howle she embraced science fiction after seeing a schlocky B-movie called “Devil Girl from Mars” and thinking, “I can write a better story than that.” In 1970, she took a bus from her hometown of Pasadena, Calif., to East Lansing, Mich., to attend a fantasy writers workshop.

Her first novel, “Kindred,” came out in 1979. It concerned a black woman who travels back in time to the South to save a white man. She went on to write about a dozen books, plus numerous essays and short stories. Her most recent work, “Fledgling,” an examination of the “Dracula” legend, was published last fall.

She won numerous awards, and most notably in 1995 became the first science fiction writer granted a “genius” award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which paid $295,000 over five years. She served on the board of the Science Fiction Museum.

Peter Heck, a science fiction and mystery writer in Chestertown, Md., said Butler was recognized for tackling difficult and controversial issues, such as slavery.

“She was considered a cut above both in the quality of her writing and her imaginative audacity,” Heck said. “She was willing to take uncomfortable ideas and pursue them further than a lot of other people would have been willing to.”

Heck’s wife, Jane Jewell, executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, called Butler one of the first and definitely the most prominent black woman science fiction writer, but said she would have been a major writer of science fiction no matter her race or her gender.

“She is a world-class science fiction writer in her own right,” Jewell said. “She was one of the first and one of the best to discuss gender and race in science fiction.”

Butler described herself as a happy hermit, and never married. Though she could be very private, Bear said, she had taken classes to improve her public speaking and in recent years seemed more outgoing.

“Mostly she just loved sitting down and writing,” he said. “For being a black female growing up in Los Angeles in the ‘60s, she was attracted to science fiction for the same reasons I was: It liberated her. She had a far-ranging imagination, and she was a treasure in our community.”

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

“72 Hour Hold” earlier today! It was a hard read, mainly because I kept wondering how I would feel in that situation. Mental illness is a tough disease, and I imagine it’s harder to deal with when it’s “your” child and they refuse to take their medication.

“72 Hour Hold” was about a divorced mother and her daughter who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and refused to take her medication. The author takes us on her daily struggle with her daughter, boyfriend, his sons, her business, ex-husband, her alcoholic mother and her various friends. She shows the reader how difficult it can be when the child reaches 18 yrs. old and how the laws change concerning the care of that child.

I’m not sure what my next book will be, I think I’m going to take a week off from reading.

Due to complications beyond my control, I will not longer start Babylon Sisters on the 10th. But, I did pick another book to read in it’s place…....”72 Hour Hold” by Bebe Moore Campbell. I’m determined to do well on this goal. I’ve already placed the book on hold and will pick it up tomorrow.

I was dissappointed that I have to wait to read “Babylon Sisters”, as soon as I get the chance I will read that book.

is by Pearl Cleage, titled “Babylon Sisters”. I enjoy how Pearl Cleage write, last month I read “What Seems Like Crazy on An Ordinary Day”. Such a delightful, engaging book, I couldn’t put it down. Eventaully I would like to read all the books that she’s written.

I enjoy reading, but often I don’t read as much as I could. So, I’m adding this to my list in the hopes that I can achieve this goal.

Last Friday I purchased a book by Marthe Blau titled “Submission”. She’s a French author and it was her first novel, and I thought she did a great job drawing the reader in and allowing them to experience her journey. It was hard to put te book down, I managed to finish it Tuesday. It was a pretty intense book, I’ve never read anything like it before, but I enjoyed the experience of reading something new.

So, to keep on schedule I have to start reading another book on the 10th. I have decided what I’m going to read as of yet, but when I make my choice I’ll post it.