What’s your thing? Your hobby? I read something recently that said something like, “I’m an adult. I don’t have hobbies. When I have free time, I sleep.” I know so many people can relate to that. For a while, I thought I didn’t have any hobbies either. Being a wife and mother of two kids seemed to leave little time for something I did just for my enjoyment. I had to figure out how to carve time out. It was a slow process. I started with taking a class here and there. I took an evening jewelry class. I saw a one time candle making class and took that too. Then I remembered that I know how to knit and bought some yarn and needles to get cracking on that.
Of course, my love of reading it at the top of that hobby list. It’s my most consistent hobby, for sure. I’ll always make time for a good book. My love of reading has led me to start an Instagram just for my book shenanigans. Follow along, yes? I’m at Camesha’s Book Club. I hope you have some hobbies you make time for. If not, take this invitation to find something that interests you and dive in as much or as little as possible. It’s good for you, I promise.
July Reads
Speaking of books, I had to drop a recent book list for you. I haven’t updated my reads since June, if you can believe it. Well, I’m finally coming through with July reads. July was a busy month with my daughter’s birthday and my wedding anniversary. It was also busy with good books. Check out what I was able to get into. You might find your next great read.
I’m so drawn to memoirs. They require such vulnerability. It’s always introspective to learn about someone else’s life too. In this book, the author, Ashly talks in great detail about growing up with a single mother caused by the imprisonment of her father. She details the toll it took on her mother and by extension she and her siblings. When it’s revealed why her father is in prison, my heart broke for her. She endures so much in private and when she learns why he’s been sent aways it’s a gut punch I wasn’t ready for. You can’t help but to admire her capacity for growth and forgiveness.
How the One Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
The title of this book comes from a cautionary tale told at the beginning of the book. It certainly sets the stage for the story woven in these pages. The novel is based in Barbados. It shows its beauty as well as a dark criminal side. The main character, Lala, is 18 and about to give birth to her first child with husband, Adan, who is a professional thief. They have a tumultuous relationship to say the least. I found myself wanting an escape for Lala. She was raised by her grandmother after her mother’s death. There’s a history in the family of sexual abuse and you’ll be angry at the difference in treatment between the victim and the victimized. This book is a mystery thriller with a new twist at every turn. It also touches on race, class and generational trauma.
A life changing weekend shared between two strangers – a therapist and the man she saved from taking his life. Tallie, the therapist, was on her way home from work when she spotted a man standing on the side of a bridge in the pouring rain. She stops the car and speaks to him. She learns he’s about to jump and talks him down. Somehow she convinces him to have coffee with her. From there she asks him to come home with her because she now feels a responsibility for him. He’s clearly unstable and she’s worried what he’ll do if she leaves him alone. What she doesn’t tell him is that she’s a therapist. They spend a weekend getting to know each other and sharing things that have traumatized them. Over the weekend they discover that they both are keeping secrets and need healing. The ending surprised me a bit. I thought that it would take a different turn. It’s a beautiful read.
Cleo and Layla were best friends until they weren’t. When it ended, things went WAY south. Because it ended so badly, Cleo is on a mission to erase every memory and experience that reminds her of their friendship. She’s got a list of things she’s done with Layla that she plans to recreate with new friends. From eating at their favorite restaurant to hanging at the park. While she’s focused on her mission to erase, there’s a whole other implosion happening in her own home. I root for their friendship the whole way. I don’t know why because Layla is a special kind of evil. This book is a journey of forgiveness and new beginnings.
Grace completes her PhD in astronomy and takes a trip to Vegas to celebrate with friends. After a night out partying, she wakes up in her hotel room and realizes she’s married. Her bride is gone and left a note behind. One thing she didn’t leave behind is her name. When she pulls herself together to leave Vegas she’s got more to grapple with than a new wife. Her dad is a strict military man and she feels like she hasn’t fulfilled any plans he had for her life and is drowning under the weight of it all. Now add an impromptu marriage to the mix and she’s sure she’s her dad’s biggest letdown. This is a story of figuring out how to live up to your own expectations, finding yourself, being true to yourself and healing yourself.
Quinn keeps a list of EVERYTHING. From the days she ugly cried to her list of things she’d never say out loud. Her notebooks are like journals. In her mind, if she writes her fears down, she never has to face them. So when her notebook goes missing – she freaks out! An anonymous account pops up on Instagram and shares one of her lists tagging her entire school. The anonymous account blackmails her to complete the things on her to do list of all her worst fears. If she doesn’t do it her whole notebook will be released. She teams up with fellow classmate, Carter, the last known person to see her notebook. But is he the one blackmailing her? She can’t be sure.
Yes. That’s it. Yes.
There was so much to unpack with this book. I wanted to {at}Clint Black on Twitter and suggest a book club meet-up to discuss! I really need this to be an in person book club read. So, let me back up. I was listening to the Black History Year podcast and Clint Smith was a guest. I loved the discussion and found myself nodding along to the points they were making. The host of the pod was talking to Clint about his new book “How the Word is Passed” and I was sold! I knew I had to read this book.
In it, he visits several places that have ties to slavery. These aren’t just drop in visits on the page as he weaves in the history of the place while incorporating conversations with people there present day. He visits one place I follow closely, like Whitney Plantation and a place I never want to see, Angola prison. The chapter on that prison is mind blowing, by the way.
I learned things I didn’t know and definitely felt smarter at the end. Plus. His writing is so beautifully poetic it’s easy to get caught up. (No surprise, he’s also a poet) That’s probably part of why I couldn’t put it down.
I know what I’m in for when it comes to a Richard Wright book. I know there’s going to be racism and enough of it to really make me angry. This book almost made its way back to the library. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t required reading and I could opt out at any time.
Wright was an excellent writer and part of that is because of its realism. That’s the part though that can make it hard to read. This book was released by his estate to be published. It had only been published in short form before. Still, me being me, I like to finish what I start. So even though I was angry, I kept reading.
This story starts with a Black man leaving a job and heading home. His church found him work with a lady that needed help around her house. He’s been paid and is headed home to his pregnant wife. That’s when the police spot him and decide he’s the murderer they’ve been looking for. With no evidence, they don’t listen to a word he says and take him straight to the station where they torture him.
He makes his way out after being beaten and convinced to sign a confession. After signing he manages to escape custody by going underground to the city’s sewer system. He witnessed things that shake him and open his eyes to a whole other world. And it’s not necessarily for the better.
While I finished the book, I have to say I was angry through most of it and really angry with how it ended. Richard Wright gives what could very well be a real life view of things that happen in Black America. No imagination needed. The way this man was treated in this book immediately made me think of the exonerated five. That reality is heartbreaking enough on it’s own.
