Tea began as medicine and morphed into a beverage of choice!
I don't quite remember when I fell in love with tea but I do remember the most 
Until recently I had never drank Peppermint Tea made with loose leaves. And Honestly, I will probably never go back. The freshness of loose Peppermint Tea cannot be denied. When I open the can of 
I love to read! Inside a book I escape into someone else's life. There is something wonderful about turning to the next page of a wonderful story. Something intoxicating about the smell of the book and the story it brings to life. Reading brings me joy, and these days with my health in the balance, I find solace in my books.
____________________________________________________________________________
REVIEW: What Looks Lake Crazy On An Ordinary Day
The first RLT Reads book club pick was chosen because I had never read it and my shame was getting the best of me. I'm gonna confess, I didn't want to read about a Black Woman Living With HIV, fiction or not. Shoot, I'm the Black Woman Living With HIV. I've owned this book for 12 years, but I couldn't seem to get past the first five pages.
While I assigned this book out of guilt, I will go on record saying it was the best decision I could have made. It was a very timely book club first pick. A book that resonates with the life of the book club's founder, me. While reading the book with the club, I put it down many times. There were too many realities I was forced to face in those pages. But I forged my way to the very end. Pearl Cleage does an excellent job portraying the topic of HIV/AIDS for the year it was written, 1992.
In spite the time distance, there were many truths about living with HIV that still resonate in 2011. The issues of disclosure, shame, stigma, and dating, portrayed in the life Ava are very much relevant for a woman living with HIV almost twenty years later. The characters in this book from The Right Rev. and his wife, to the rise of crack in our communities and it's impact on HIV, was honest. At times it made you shake your head and at other times it made your heart sink to the bottom of your stomach.
The characters in this book are alive. You feel their pain and their joy. And yes it's a love story. Love between sisters, love between Black Woman and Black Girls and yes, love between a man and a woman. The other themes that Cleage weaves though the book, such as the impact of War on men, Black men and Prison, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Addiction, Social Change, all help to make this story not only interesting but relevant. I think What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day is a must read!
RLT Reads Up-Dates:
 |
| AIDS Awareness Book Marks Coming Soon! |
2. Within the next week I will be reaching out to the entire group by e-mail. We currently have 110 people signed up for the club, it's been a lot of work for me to balance with my health. But Soon Come! I will also generate the list of your favorite five books soon. Promise!
3. RLT Reads AIDS Awareness Logo T-shirts are available in both male and female, short and long sleeve.
4. AIDS Awareness Book Marks and Book Nook Charms are coming soon. I am still working on the designs. They should be on the RLT Collection website in another week.
