” The Rapture Of Canaan” Sherri Reynolds March 26, 2013

Ninah Huff is the granddaughter of the founder of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and Gods’s Almighty Baptizing Wind, and isolated southern religious community ruled by its patriarch. Ninah is fourteen and full of contradictory feelings. She does see the outside world only at school, where her long dresses and uncut hair mark her as odd and keep her apart from the other girls. She loves her family, but is never sure that she is truly “holy”

In particular, she worries about the sanctity of feelings for James, her prayer partner as they spend an hour a day together in prayer and meditation, “Being Jesus to each other.”

When Ninah is discovered to pregnant, the community is out raged. But in the midst of her tragedy and loneliness, Ninah continues to maintain that she is not guilty of the sin of fornication; she says that a holy child grows inside her. No amount of punishment can make her recant.

And in the end there is a miracle, though like most miracles it takes an unpredictable form. Ninah must face with sudden clarity the things she must do for the sake of  her own life, and her child’s. She will come to understand at last that to embrace the life of the normal world can be a holy act.

Hello TTT Ladies,

Please show your support on March 26, 2013 6:30 pm

The Richmond County Public Library, 823 Telfair St Augusta, Ga  30901

Inez will be our facilitator. She will present “The Rapture Of Cannan” by Sherri Reynolds

“The Color Of Water” A Black Mans’s Tribute to His White Mother

As a boy in Brooklyn’s Red Hook projects, James Mcbride knew his mother was different. But when he asked about it, She’d simply say” I’m light-skinned”  later he wondered if he was different, too, and asked his mother if he was black or white. “You ‘re a human being, she snapped. Educate yourself or you’ll be a nobody” And when James asked her what color God was, she said “God is the color of water”… As an adult, Mcbride finally persuaded his mother to tell her story-the story of a rabbi’s daughter born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist church, and put twelve children through college. The Color Of Water is James Mcbride’s tribute to his remarkable,eccentric, determined mother-and an eloquent exploration of what family really means.

Hello TTT Ladies,

” The Color Of Water”  A Black Mans Tribute to His White Mother will be facilitated by Beth Williams on Febraury 26, 2013 6:30pm at the Augusta Richomd County Public Library 823 Telfair St, Augusta, GA 30901.

I thank you in advance for your support to Talk The Talk Ladies Book Club

“The Warmth Of Other Suns” Isabel Wilkerson 22 January 2013 6:30pm

In this epic beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles on of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration if black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, the exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America.

Wilkerson compares the epic migration to the migrations of other people in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our countries, and ourselves.

With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue collard success in old age voted for Barack Obama when he ran for Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall and finally found peace in God; Robert Foster who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glittery successful medical career which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved then with discipline, drive and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, “The Warmth Of Other Suns” is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

Hello TTT Ladies,

Please show your support on 22 January 2013 6:30 pm at the Augusta Richmond County Public Library 823 Telfair St Augusta,GA 30901

We will be discussing “The Warmth Of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson

“To Dance With The White Dog” Terry Kay

Hello  TTT Ladies,

I have read the first three chapters in this novel thus far. Of course it is sad because his wife died, they were married 57 years. The author has purposely isolated Sam in a” vacuum” so that we can feel the impact of his grief.This gives the readers a  indirect 3D visions into his thoughts only we know, his family has not a clue.

I feel Sam only wants to share with me alone his true thoughts, he knows I will listen.  His children love him, but treats his feelings as if they don’t exist, I wonder if they think that because of his age how could this man have clue to discern how he truly feels about anything, his wife his dead, there is no way he has a grip on clarity let alone reality.

This reminds me so much when my mother passed away and my brothers literally just took over, I can still see the shock and bewilderment in my father’s face as they really just told him just grieve, but at point that he only existed.

Neelie is their housekeeper and we know from history, these women were the “common denominators” in lives of southern white families.

I love the comment that Kate made when asked by a visitor with the acid of cynicism in their voice if Neelie “belonged”  to them. Kate answered innocently “No we belong to Neelie” I wonder if they paid Neelie the way they felt about her?

 

 

 

To Dance With The White Dog

Statrted reading yesterday at 8 am and finished the book at 2:30 PM.  Terry Kay is a great writer; every page is packed with poetic images and symbolizism.

There were many questions that flooded my mind as I read the book:

1. What are who is the White Dog?

2. How do we treat our elderly?

3. At what point do we become more like parents to our parents?

 

“To Dance With The Dog” Terry Kay November 20,2012

“To Dance With White Dog” is an award-winning 1990 novel by Terry Kay. At its center is a mysterious white dog that appears after Sam Peak’s wife of 57 years has died. This novel will appeal to readers who love a poetic use of the language and to the fans of Southern literature as well as those who have had or lost a great love or worry too much about an aging parent. The book has parts that will make some reader’s laugh aloud but also will provoke tears for some.

“To Dance With The White Dog” is the story of a dog that mysteriously arrives at-and-won’t leave– the home of an octogenarian after the death of the mans’ wife. Sam’s adult children are worried about him living alone and tend to hover over him uncomfortably, They mean well, but they are not helping. When the dog shows up. at first the kids think Sam is making it up, but when the dog “appears” to one of the daughters. White dog helps the old man get on with business of living while also allowing him to reminisce about the past, including his lost love and their lost youth. To Sam, the dog is a guardian that provokes the comfort and warmth to survive his final years. The Dog stays with Sam until just before the mans death. The book is gentle, moving story about an old man’s final rites of passage, about family ties and about true love and the universal experience of grieving love lost. The character-driven story is inspired by the relationship of the authors’ father and mother

Hello TTT Ladies,

Please show your support on  November 20, 2012 6:30pm The Augusta Richmond County Public Library 823 Telfair St. Augusta,GA 30901 (3rd floor)

“HoneyBadger”  has selected this novel “To Dance With The White Dog” by Terry Kay, Please show your support as she takes us on an adventure that promise to provoke an evening of “Talk”

We always welcome new members and guests.

 

 

“What Looks Like Crazy On A Ordinary Day” by Pearl Cleage

Hello TTT Ladies,

Ava Johnson has” AIDS”, and makes no excuses she’s had several relationships and has contacted all the men she has been sexually involved with. One of the letter’s she sent to a man was married, his wife came to her salon and wanted her to ” Take It Back”  She is obviously angry, hurt and in shock, this a understatement.

TTT Ladies how would you feel if you were the wife who received this letter?

Ava lost her clients when this woman started yelling she had AIDS, do you think AVA should have told them when she learned that she was infected with virus?  She is after all a professional cosmetologist she is working with chemicals, scissors ect.

Was this woman wrong to yell out to Ava’s client’s she had AIDS?

Do you think Ava’s clients’s left because she had the virus or was it because she did not tell them?

What would you do if you were one of Ava’s client’s?

Is Ava a victim?

TTT Ladies what are your thoughts?

 

 

“What Looks Like Crazy” by Pearl Cleage October 23, 2012

After a decade of elegant pleasures, and luxe living among the Atlanta brothers and sisters with the best clothes and biggest dreams, Ava Johnson has temporarily returned home to Idlewild-her fabulous career and power plans smashed to bits by cold reality. But when she imagines is the end is, instead, a beginning. Because, in the ten-plus years since Ava left, all of the problems of the big city have come to roost in the sleepy North Michigan community whose ordinariness once drove her away; and she cannot turn her back on friends and family who sorely need her in the face of impending trouble and tragedy. Besides which, that one unthinkable, unmistakable thing is now happening to her: Ava Johnson is falling in love.

Accalimed playwright, essayists and columnist Pearl Cleage has created a world rich in character, human drama, and deep compassionate understanding, in a remarkable debut novel that sizzles with sensuality, hims with gritty truth, and sings with and crackles with life-affirming energy as moves the reader to laughter and tears.

Hello TTT Ladies,

“What Looks Like Crazy” by Pearl Cleage is our TTT Ladies October book club selection

Dstinguished5 is our facilitator.

Please show your support on 23 October 2012 6:30pm at the Augusta Richmond County Public Library 823 Telafair St. Augsuta Ga 30901  (3rd floor)

“NAPPILY EVER AFTER” TRISHA R. THOMAS

” If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else you have succeeded” a quote by  Dr.Maya Angelou

Hello TTT Ladies,

This was an evening of dynamic conversation as we discussed how our hair can be the catalyst in our relationships with friends, family, occupations, spouses and significant others.  Society will always judge us by our hair. It is only an issue if you care.

I love the quote above by Dr. Maya Angelou, There are so many books on relationships on how we should respond and receive love.  Venus, Clint, and Kandi are three people who needed love for selfish reasons, even at the expense of compromising their individuality. I know that may sound desperate, but really who wants to wake up every morning to a pillow? I am just being real.

I could go and write about how we need to be whole people before we integrate people in our lives, but I am learning that most of us know that, “loneliness” captivates your spirit, that is a hard point to argue.

Today I say “Build Your Wings As Fly” just make sure when you land it was worth the flight.

TTT Ladies and I thank you Inez for choosing a “read”  that activates our conscious.

Please show your “love” for Diane a new TTT book club member, thank for your thoughts and comments last night.

TTT Ladies I thank your for your support and commitment.

 

“Nappily Ever After” by Trisha R. Thomas

Hello TTT Ladies,

This is an excellent article I feel that is essential to the conversation about relationships. This article was written by Donna Labermeier, It is called   “Answer This Simple Question: Do You Love Yourself?

The question “Do You Love Yourself” is in fact not a simple question at all for possibly the majority of people on the planet. For many, it can be a terribly painful question.

As Valentines Day looms just around the corner, we must realize that the most important thing we can do is shower ourselves with love and attention. Don’t expect or wait for someone else to do it. Instead, consider these three ways to be able to love yourself.

1.  Realize You Are Whole: If we are looking for someone or something outside ourselves to complete us, we will inevitably be disappointed for wholeness can be experienced only within the self. If parts of you feel incomplete, send love to them and about where the sense of incompleteness comes from. Reflect upon actions you could take and attitudes you could change to feel whole within. You are whole and complete now in this very moment. So keep in mind that when you want to what the future holds, sometimes you totally miss the present moment you are supposed to be having and experiencing.

2.  Beep. Beep. Beep. Back it up! We have to allow others the right not to accept our love. Sometimes we expend a lot of energy that doesn’t seem to be returned in kind. We maybe trying to reach a certain person to get his or her attention, gratitude, or love only to be ignored or even rejected completely. When this happens take a step back and examine why we continue to give our best to those who are neither ready nor willing to accept it. Love and connectedness can come only to us when the other person desires the same thing and is open, not closed to our energy.

If we experience repeated blockages in a relationship, we first need to withdraw our energy from it so that it can be breathe and we can heal. Then we need to reconnect to ir inner strength and reaffirm our value, our goodness, and our right to have genuinely loving relationships. Are your relationships generally fulfilling and energizing or frustrating and draining? Is there anyone in your life who is not accepting the energy you are sending? If so ask yourself why you continue to put out the energy and engage in an uneven exchange? Allow the person the right not to receive your energy and reflect upon where you could better direct your effort. Learn the secret of how much to give and receive in your relationships.

3.  Treat Yourself:  This is a wonderful life, Treat Yourself with kindness and compassion. You can treat yourself with material items. Is there a pretty outfit or piece of jewelry you’ve had your eye on? Buy it for yourself! Would you love some fragrant flowers to make you happy? Send them to you yourself! Last year I had to pick out my own birthday card on behalf of my father who no longer drives because he wanted to make sure I received a card from him. surprisingly enough , that was one of the most fun experiences of my life! I could be anything I wanted! And I tell you right now, according to that card. I’m apparently the most fabulous person I have ever met! Who Knew?

We are on this earth to take care of ourselves first. Only then we will be able to truly care about another’s well-being. Do you treat other people, even strangers, better than you treat yourself? We can be our own best friend or worst enemy… Which are you going to be?  Look in the mirror and say ” I love You” to yourself. Can you do it? Keep saying it over and over again. You may become very emotional and say it through your tears. This is healing. Now you are all you need. You are truly perfect exactly as you are and can have, be and do whatever you choose for your self.

Remember that the future is not ours to see, but ours to create. As you live in the present moment to the best of your ability, you create the future you were meant to have. know that there is a magnificent plan for your life. Love yourself, and you give this unique plan permission to unfold.