The Urbane Urbanite

The day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Kathryn Stockett found herself sitting in her downtown New York City apartment, reflective, lonely and terribly homesick. "I was thinking about my family and thinking about this woman named Demetrie," said Stockett. "She was the African-American woman that worked for our family for 32 years and for the first time in my life, I started to ask myself 'what was she thinking all of those years?' I had totally taken it for granted. I was so naive as a child. She knew everything about us and I didn't know anything about her. So I started writing in what to me was her voice." Ten years and over 60 rejection letters later, Demetrie's voice has become the bona fide literary phenomenon that is The Help . Stockett's debut novel about the complex relationship between black maids and their white female employers during the dawn of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mi...

Teyari Jones’ new novel, Silver Sparrow , a stirring first person narrative told from the point of view of two sisters (Dana Lynn Yarbor and Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon) who live in the same city, share the same father but don’t know each other, is so specific, so personal, so authentic it almost feels more autobiographical than fiction.

If you ask Jack, the 5-year-old little boy who narrates Emma Donoghue's audacious 2010 novel, Room , life is grand. He's got the whole world at his fingertips, at least the world he's come to know. Trapped in an 11-by-11-foot room since the day he was born (there's a spot on the rug that "marks" the occasion), he and Ma, his 26-year-old mother, live day in and day out in a soundproofed shed in the backyard of their captor's house. A man Jack and Ma refer to as Old Nick, kidnapped, rapped imprisoned and impregnated Ma seven years earlier. Now, she's left to raise her smart, inquisitive son under the constraints of this hellish lifestyle. Tough stuff. Donoghue's brave decision to give herself such tight quarters to play with is admirable. The entire first half of the book takes place in the room where mundane tasks - bedtime stories, bathtub time, breast-feeding! - are novelized and made to sound interesting. She also pulls off another daring f...

Okay. I'm just going to jump right in and say it.  Here it goes. *Lip Quiver* I've started writing my novel. *Grabs MacBook and Hides Under Desk*

I said I wouldn’t talk about For Colored Girls , the Tyler Perry produced, written and directed big screen adaptation of the iconic 1975 Tony Award nominated play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. I was tired of reading and hearing about the film a week before it opened. The grumblings from die hard Shange fans reverberated throughout the internets – and rightly so. A Hollywood mogul whose films are filled with hackneyed themes and story lines on the Black experience was helming a treasured literary masterpiece written by a Black woman about the Black woman’s experience.   But after watching the film yesterday afternoon – and enjoying it – I had to add my two cents.

One of my many dreams is to meet Oprah Winfrey one day - and I know exactly what I'm going to ask her: "Oprah, how the hell you find time to read all those damn books?!"   Can you tell I'm frustrated? Here she is, OPRAH, leader of the free world the most powerful woman in television, founder of O magazine, runs her own production company, builds schools in Africa, has her own radio station and television channel and she finds time to not only read but read a lot. So much so, that she helms the most popular book club in the world.   I work a 9to5, run this blog and freelance on the side. That's it.  And I complain that I can't find the time to read anything.   *sigh* I read two books this year. The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi W. Durrow and Platinum by my BFF Aliya S. King . Both books were excellent!  But I want to read more. I want to be that person who's engulfed in one book but already has the next good read lined up.  I'd love t...

With Oprah on her way out, it's only right that I step in and start my very own favorite things list. It's the same set up: I list my favorite clothing, food, games, books and snacks that I couldn't do without this summer. The only difference is that my list isn't as nice as Oprah's. Or expensive. Or exclusive. And I ain't giving away any of this stuff for free.  But aside from all that, it's just Oprah's. Yes, summer is almost over but I assure you that everything on this list can be used all year long. Enjoy!

Aliya S. King is a mess right now. A few weeks ago, Original Gangster , the memoir King wrote for legendary Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas hit stands and she didn't so much as blink an eye. It's not that she doesn't care. She simply doesn't have the time. "I'm going nuts" says the wife and mother of two who is juggling multiple national magazine projects and book proposals all while promoting her debut novel, Platinum , an up close and personal page-turner that chronicles the lives of four women involved with men in the hip-hop industry. The novel hits stores nationwide on July 6. "I've never been under so much pressure in my life." She's right. I've known King in numerous capacities over the last 15 years: Teacher Friend Confidant Advisor Mentor Boss And I've never seen her this busy or stressed out. She wasn't this stressed out when she was living under her desk at Billboard magazine. She wasn'...