Fall and Winter TBR

I have met my reading goal for this year already so now I’m taking a little more time with books and will be getting into a little more non-fiction to finish out the year hopefully. Some of the books have yet to be released so they may actually carryover into next year depending on if I’m able to get my hands on them. What are some books you looking forward to diving into during the cool/colder months?

Fiction:

The Talented Ribkins – I saw a review this book last year on YouTube and it has been on my TBR every since. I was browsing my local library and saw they had it so I will be picking that up soon.

My Sister, The Serial Killer -this book isn’t set for release until November but I am excited to read this one. The cover looks amazing and premise is interesting to me. –

Praise Song for Butterflies– after doing some research this a re release for Bernice L. Mcfadden. I’m slowly making my way through her works but I this is one I want to read sooner rather than later.

Whiskey and Ribbons– I have seen wonderful reviews for this book. I started reading it this summer but they kept talking about snow. I decided to put this down until it gets cold so I can fully appreciate the cold weather and coziness I think I’m supposed to feel reading this book.

 

Non-fiction:

Becoming– Michelle Obama’s memoir the cover is beautiful and that is enough for me. It will also be released in November.

The Warmth of Other Suns– my sister told me about this book last year. I ordered it early this year but once I saw the size I knew a book like that it could be overwhelming for me to read. I’m waiting on the audio copy from library but I may just end up purchasing the audio because I don’t want to continue to put this one off.

All the Pieces Matter: Inside Story of the Wire– I have a confession I have never finished the Wire series. However I love reading behind the scenes or how events are put together.  I want to really to read this one because the Wire is a piece of pop culture.

This definitely isn’t a complete list of what I will be picking up but just some books I’m excited to read the latter part of 2018.

shallow focus photography of books on bookshelves
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Coming Up

Summer is winding down I was able to accomplish four items off of my summer bucket list. I can truly say I had a great summer. I took a few vacations got to put my feet in the sand. I also read some great books and watched some wonderful movies. The biggest thing my son started his freshman year of college!

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some seasonal blogs about books and beauty the things I love I hope you are enjoying the content.

leaves hang on rope
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My favorite podcast in color

I started listening to podcast about five years ago. My podcast list has changed over those five years due to podcast no longer uploading or me just tiring of the content. However even one’s that I have tired of the content I will still visit occasionally to see if I want to pick them back up. I listen to few of the major favorites but I wanted to share some of my favorites that aren’t always on the must listen to list.  If you enjoy podcast like I do I hope you  find something new and interesting to listen too.

TV and Movies:

Black on Black Cinema three guys discussing black movies. I enjoy their banter back and forth even when I don’t always agree. You can tell their friendship is genuine and that makes for a good time.

Micheaux Mission one of my newer finds but already a favorite. They also review black films but they also include entertainment news sometimes along with special guest.

Books:

Better Than the Movie I love theses two ladies. They make me laugh and have introduced me to new authors while also taking a trip down memory lane with old favorites.

Black Chick Lit two young ladies who I enjoy listening to that have evolved and found their podcast voice. Great reviews and love how they are willing to step out of their comfort zone and read books in different genres.

Pop culture and Political:

Poplife Podcast they discussions run the gamete from TV to current social issues. They have all worked in some form of the music/entertainment industry so their knowledge and perspective are often welcome discussing those subjects but they are always able to go deeper.

Brown Liquor Report also a new podcast but one I’m really enjoying especially in the current social and political climate. Their break down of political issues is amazing. They make sure to break down the issues to they anyone can understand and that I appreciate.

Etc:

The Art of Bore Podcast one guy shooting the shit about every thing and nothing. His hot takes on food and restaurants are my favorite.

The Chef, the angry and the adam four guys who are friends discussing current Twitter news. I know that during their hour podcast I’m going to get me at least one good belly laugh some time more.

The Nod these two friends shared a podcast before re-branding as The Nod. The stories they dig up and tell are wonderful. I always feel super black when I finish an episode.

If you are looking for a more podcast with people of color for a detail list check out this website podcast in  color.   Feel free to share your favorite podcast of color.

Using Up Beauty Samples

Subscription boxes have been around for almost 10 years now so if you are like me I’m sure that you have tried at least one for a period of time. I  believe beauty boxes are the biggest group of subscription boxes places like Walmart and Target offer beauty to the the beauty store Sephora. I signed up for the Ipsy subscription box again earlier this year and some months I will order the Target beauty box when they are available. I was cleaning up my room and realized I had to many samples that I needed to do something with. First I restocked my travel personal bag because I had taken a few trips this summer and used up some of the skin care items. After restocking my travel bag I still had a lot of samples left. Some I just threw away because I knew that I would never use them. Also took a few more and made beauty bag to give to niece since she will be starting back to school. Her items were mostly things like lip products, lotions, and face mask. Everything else I separated into two categories face and hair. I put the hair care samples with my hair care products and the face products were then split into makeup and skin care. I put the skin care products in an old Bath and Body Works candle jar. I now pull something from that jar once a week or however long it takes me to use up that sample. The makeup is little harder because most of those are full size products but I have just been making effort to use them along with my regular everyday make. So if you need something to do with your beauty samples here are a few suggestions:

  1. Donate: see if there is a women’s shelter or teen girl program that will accept them. If not you can also drop off at you local Goodwill. Please only donate unused items.
  2. Travel: I love getting beauty boxes because that means I never have to worry about taking my favorite skin products out of town.
  3. Gifts: Ipsy comes with a cute make up bag so you can give that special young lady in some beauty products as gift and cute bag to carry in her purse or book bag.

How do you use up your beauty samples? I would love to know because I don’t think I will ever stop getting beauty boxes but want to make sure I’m making good use of my money.

Favorite Hair Brands 2018

I’m loyal to a fault sometimes even when it comes to my natural hair care products. I like to use the whole line if available when I do my hair on wash day. I hate when I try a line of products and something just doesn’t work well with my hair or the products don’t work well together. I have loved a shampoo and conditioner but hated the stylers or vice versa that I can usually will deal with and may still purchase those products if they are on sale but in my mind I have written that brand off and probably won’t be excited new lines that they put out. Now it the products don’t even play well together that is whole another story I will never repurchase that brand again especially if see other people had similar issues. The brands I’m going to share I haven’t had a bad product from them yet and get excited when they put out new products or lines.

My number one bad bitch boo is The Mane Choice. I haven’t had a bad experience with their products yet. My favorite product from them hands down is the 24 carat twisting gel. The gel can be used for twist out or wash and go. When they introduced the leave-in companion that was all she wrote for me. I plan on giving them all my coins this downloadupcoming holiday season too because I have already fallen in love with the new type 4 leaf clover line also. Another positive is this brand is sold at Sally Beauty and Naturallycurly.com so you can get the products at a discount when they have sales or coupons.

My next favorite brand I also enjoy is Oyin Handmade . Once again every product from the cleanser to the stylers in this brand work amazing in my hair. My favorite Oyin product is the Hair Dew it is a wonderful leave-in that makes my hair feel amazing. When my hair is feeling dry and parched even after I have washed and deep conditioned I will reach for this and know my hair is going to be alright. As much as love TMC if I could only purchase from one line the rest of my life it would be from Oyin. download (1)Oyin has the same the line up of products for over five plus years that I know of and take their time with introducing new products to their brand. They also have amazing body products.

I can’t leave off Kinky Curly, they are also OG’s in the natural hair care game and their products are still pretty popular among naturals. Their stand out for me is the Knot Today leave-in. download (2)Other brands have tried to duplicate it but none can touch it. I can always tell when brands are trying to make their leave-in comparable to Knot Today. It will have that super white look but very light and almost feel like a thick serum. Also the Curling Custard will leave you with a perfect wash and go every time.

I do have a favorite drug store brand if you are on a budget. The Pantene Gold Series is amazing also. All of the products have wonderful slip and best of they are affordable and available just about every where. If you wanted to try a product from this line I would go with the Hydrating Butter Creme.  download (3)The creme can be used for wash and go’s or twist outs.

 

 

 

Honorable Mentions:

As I Am- a few misses but over all good lines

Devacurl- just too expensive

 

Summer Reading Round Up

Summer is coming to a close but there are few more weeks left at least down south where I live to for summer like weather. So if you want a good read before the morning chill comes check out a few of the books I read this summer. I recommend them all!

Physical copies:

A Princess in Theory -great summer romance novel. Glad to see the female lead being described as some one that I can identify with. The book moved quickly and secondary plot was also interesting even though slightly predictable.

The Untelling– this is my second Tayari Jones novel and why I like her books I don’t love them. This story was an easy read and I loved the mother daughter conflict issue in the book, but this story just didn’t move me.

Kindred Graphic Novel– I loved Kindred so I wanted to read the graphic novel also. The story is the same you just have the graphic drawing to compliment the story. If you prefer grapic novels to books give this a try to get into the story of Kindred.

Crazy Rich Asian: I wanted to read this ahead of the movie coming out. I enjoyed this book but I wasn’t wowed about it. I never felt a strong connection to the main characters. I actually enjoyed Astrid’s storyvline more. Not sure if I will continue with the series.

An American Marriage: this novel was all the buzz earlier this year. I decided to wait to read it because I saw so many mixed reviews. As I said with the Untelling I like Ms. Jones books but they always seem to fall short somewhere for me. An American was definitely a good, easy read but there was still something missing. Celestial’s voice was incomplete and I didn’t get to know her as well as I would have liked. The ending was wrapped up so that you have closure with these characters. The best part of the book were the letters between Roy and Celestial. The book is worth a read

Audio:

Upstate -this story has been on my mind since I finished the book. I chose the audio version because I heard that Chadwick Bozeman was a narrator and he did an awesome job. The female narrator also did a wonderful job. The last few chapters of this book had me in tears. This a 5 star book for me.

Around the Way Girl -I wanted to love this memoir but Taraji sounded like she had a cold so the narration was distracting at time. Her stories were good the best ones were in relation to her father. Some of the later stories just weren’t as compelling but still an enjoyable listen overall.

Parable of Sower – another wonderful Octavia Butler novel. The story is told from the journals Lauren Olamina. It is dystopian tale that takes place in California. That is all I will say except read it!

 

Final Social Media Break Update

It’s the end of July so technically my social media break is officially over. I logged into my secondary Twitter account the previous weekend to possibly participate in the #24in48 readathon (fail), but other than I have been social media free since July 8. My Facebook is deactivated and I think I will leave it that way for now.

I’m not going to pretend that my life is so much better or productive without social media because while it was great there is always something that can be time robber. I did read more so much more that I go burnt out on that lol. I did get a great deal of decluttering done but other than that nothing extraordinary happened in my home. I think if you have problems with procrastination no matter if you use social media or not you will find something to distract you from task you should be or need to be doing. I struggle with procrastination so I still had to force my self to stop reading or watching Youtube to do other task that I had on my to do list. This is one of the reasons I’m not sure if I’m ready to return to social because I want to get better not procrastinating.

Also, I did notice the two days when I logged back into Twitter I didn’t like it. There were so many negative stories and people trying to engage people in negative ways it was just too much. Not sure if I will go back to social media just yet because I just don’t if it is necessary for me based off where I’m at and where I want to go in my life.