I don't quite remember when I fell in love with tea but I do remember the most special moments of me drinking tea. I was eighteen years old and I went to live with my biological mother for four months. I had just met her months earlier and it was awkward for both of us. She and her ex-husband lived a very quiet life in Boulder, Colorado. He was a professor at one of the universities and she was a housewife. After years of drug addiction and being in and out of jail, she deserved the break. I was homeless so she and her husband agreed to let me come live with them. Each evening my mother and I would find a spot in the living room with a cup of tea and a book.

Now, years later, I'm a self proclaimed tea expert. I start each day with a wonderful English Breakfast tea to get me going. As the day progresses, who knows what wonderful tea I will crown queen. But for sure, I have at least three cups of tea a day. And yes, when I can, I have tea everyday at about 3:00 P. M. I love to invite my friends over for tea and cupcakes and so far everyone thinks it’s a delightful experience. I am always in search of the best blend of tea. Yes, I’m a tea snob, I prefer loose tea but I do like some bags also. I have learned not to judge a book by it’s cover. Some bags can be quite nice. And yes again, any Diva knows, what you drink your tea out of is very important.

Tea for me is a way of life. It's wellness for the mind body and spirit. Here, I will explore every expect of tea possible, with a high concentration on wellness. I will review the best teas, the best places to have tea, the best ways to brew tea, the best tea accessories, what tea goes best with what foods, and the list goes on and on. I plan to share my passion for tea with you. And I've been told, nothing I do is ever boring so be prepared to go on this tea journey with me.





RLT Collection Tea Ball Frosted Clear Beads!

Mint Medley by The Persimmon Tree Tea Company

About This Tea:

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 Mint Medley, From The Persimmon Tree Tea Company, I feel as if I stepped into a garden of peppermint leaves. It is a perfect blend of organic peppermint and spearmint leaves grown in the US.

Mint Medley has become a favorite and I find myself reaching for this tea tin almost everyday. It is great for on-going nausea. The health benefits and endless. It relieves muscle aches, headaches, migraines, stress. And now that it feels like someone is sitting on my chest and I have a mean cough, I'm sure it will help to relieve some of this congestion in my chest. Mint Medley has been in my tea cup more than any tea as of late. It has really helped with my winter cough, congestion related to this bout of pneumonia. You can read my full review on The Persimmon Tree Tea Company Mint Teas.


RLT Collection AIDS Awareness Tea Ball!




Welcome to my world of books! As an pre-teen books changed my world. I fell in love with the writers of the Harlem Renaissance period and the more I read the more I wanted to read. The fiction of this period was powerful and empowering all at the same time. It spoke to my own degradation and gave me hope for a better tomorrow. It gave me purpose for my own life and the courage to fight the good fight and never surrender.

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.

I spent hours in my bedroom sequestered with the door closed reading the classics from the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes, Larsen, Hurston, Wright and Baldwin. Books became my escape and my salvation. The fiction of this period was powerful and empowering all at the same time. It gave me purpose for my own life and the courage to fight the good fight and never surrender.

Reading is the one thing that the pain of my life could never take away from me. It was the thing that helped to make it better. And even today, living with AIDS, books continue to be the safest place for me. It’s the one thing that belongs to me that AIDS cannot take away from me.The RLTReads book club will be books that I choose. It’s me sharing a part of me with you that has nothing to do with AIDS. It’s actually in spite of AIDS.

The RLTReads book club will be books that I choose. It’s me sharing a part of me with you that has nothing to do with AIDS. It’s actually in spite of AIDS. I have read hundreds of books from many different genres and I will pick the best of my reads over the years. I warn you, it will not be exclusively white or black, male or female, fiction or non fiction, it will be all of them.

I’m so excited and I’m grateful to everyone who wants to be a part of this venture. We already have 110 Book Club Members. You can email me @ RLTReads@raelewisthornton.com. The Twitter hashtag is #RLTReads. We can make this book club as wonderful as we want to make it. Who says that Oprah has to have the only ownership to a wonderful book club?

This Month We are Reading In My Fathers House by E Lynn Harris


Read along and join our discussion July 19th at 7 pm CST







For more Tea with Rae "Vlogs" Click here to visit her youtube channel

Thursday, January 21, 2016

RLT Reads Book Club Is Back! Check Out Feb and March Picks!




Finally! RLT Reads Book Club is back up and running. I've missed those lively discussios so it's about time that we do it again. My online book club was orginally formed in 2011 and we had our discussions via Twitter and my blog.

 But Goodreads has created a wonderful space for book clubs so I've moved us to Goodreads. If you are not a member please JOIN. It's also connected to your Facebook page so give Goodreads permission, it's all good. Make sure that you Friend ME on Goodreads and Join the RLT READS Book Club




Let me tell you a tad more about the book club

The genres we will read are mostly for, by and about women, both fiction and non-fiction . We will unpack "a woman's story" each month as a way to understand the paradigms that are both real and those forced upon women. We will tackle, sex, dating, love, race, gender, self worth and misogyny. While we are dealing with important topics some of the books chosen will be fun.


I am an avid reader and want to share my love for books and expose you to many different authors. I will moderate and choose the books each month. But overtime I will seek others to moderate as well as, conduct open polls on the monthly selection. 

All of our discussions will be via goodreads and they will start at the beginning of each month and remain open for the late comers thru the following month after the read close date.

RLT Reads Book Club is open to anyone who would like to join me in the monthly book discussions. 

My perspective is always provocative and I want to push the envelope with every read. I've chosen the first two books. In February we will tackle Toni Morrison's a mercy. I know some of you have a hard time getting through Morrison's book, me included. I thought that we can push each other. I chose a mercy because it's black history month and slavery is always a good issue to tackle.



For the month of March the book is CoRregidora by  Gayl Jones. I learned about this book from reading an article on Toni Morrsion in the New York Times Magazine. While Morrsion was an editor at Random House she discovered Jones manuscript. After reading Corregidora for the first time she said, "that no novel about black women could ever be the same after this." With that siad,, I believe Corregidora is the perfect pick for Women's history month.

Back to back, we will tackle Toni Morrison, her own writing and what she believes is great writing from another author by and about black women. I'm excited! Please recommit to the book club. At one time we had 111 members. We WELCOME new readers too. The discussion will run the entire month but will remain open thru the following month for those who require more time for reading. 

This is where you join RLTReads. But you also have to be a member of goodreads, join HERE And again my page is on Goodreads is Rae Lewis-Thornton. See ya on Goodreads in February! Namaste

blog comments powered by Disqus
 
Clicky Web Analytics