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Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 35
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 08:39 pm: | 
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Hello All,
Dag nab it, I'm going to start me another category for books titled the JBAF book. Mississippi Blues by Carolyn Darden Bell would be the very first book I would put in it. First off, the synopsis of the book on the back cover, ignore it. The book would have been far more interesting if the majority of the book focused on the main character, Beverly (a best selling author who disowned her siblings after their father's funeral, and now she has to go back to Vicksburg, Mississippi (her hometown) after she swore that she would never go back). You all know how I am, I'm licking my lips assuming, falsely, that I was about to get into some real family drama. Well...God bless babies and fools. Instead of a juicy family drama, I get the third incarnation of the second cousin of How Stella Got Her Groove Back! The only difference is that Beverly is far, FAR more interesting to listen to than Stella. The differences stop there. I was subjected to another long drawn out monologue of having to hear every single solitary thing Beverly did before, during and after her trip back home: the clothes she wore, her kids fighting over who gets to sit in the front seat, her non attentive husband, etc. I started skipping pages. I was bored enough to go and watch the wind blow. The best part of the book was the last 75 pages. But by then, Bell was 125 pages too late. The stuff Bell should have spent time on, she skip or glanced over, like the details of Beverly and her older sister Grace getting into a physical fight in Grace's front yard. Hell I would have rather heard about that in detail than the leather chair that Beverly sits in in her office. Reading long enough to get to the good part, wasn't worth my time, and effort it took to unglue my focus so that my depth perception would start working again. |
Akaivyleaf
Newbie Poster
Username: Akaivyleaf
Post Number: 5
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 04:12 pm: |
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Hell, I thought Beverly was a realistically portrayed. There are countless women out here who have lives that mirror Beverly's. The loveless marriage, complete lack of faith in self, a disfunctional family-the one you came from and the one you helped create. Women generally are guilty of overkill in descriptors, and probably because I am a woman, it was tolerable to me.
Something about this book had an air about it that was fresh and different from other reads. Maybe because the main characater was so open. She admitted that she drank to take the pain away-most folk wouldn't admit that. She told how she felt about her family, she didn't sugar coat it like people often do. I thought it was "real".
Now what does JBAF stand for?
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Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 42
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 08:33 pm: |
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Hello All,
Akaivyleaf: I hear what you're saying. And actually, from all of the other reviews I've read and heard, the women readers simply loved the book. You know me, I like being the lone voice. *big smile*
I have to agree with you, women (authors and otherwise) are guilty of overkill in the descriptors department. Not to say that there's anything wrong with that, just that I prefer that if an author is going to go all off to the point of describing furniture to me, that some thought, care, and poetry is thrown in to make it vibrant and somewhat releveant to the story instead of having it sound like stereo equipment instructions or a freaking fashion show: "Yes now we have Monica in this simply flawless creation for evening wear. Isn't it stunning. Notice how it simply lays across her shoulder. Twirl, darling. Isn't it breathtaking as the wind gently raises the chiffon skirt, embrodiered (sp) with tiny pearls by the gnawed up fingers from women that are paid 25 cents a day to do it. (oops, did I say that? *smile*) What a steal...." And on and on and on. I'm sorry Akaivyleaf, I just ain't built for all that. I think in this case is the perfect illustration of the societal difference between how men and women are brought up.
JBAF -- Jesus B A Fence |
Bookgirl
Newbie Poster
Username: Bookgirl
Post Number: 24
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 06:08 pm: |
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LOL at Thumper...JBAF |
Blkmalereading
Newbie Poster
Username: Blkmalereading
Post Number: 20
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 14, 2004 - 09:11 am: |
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Thumper, my man, you are something else!
It's not even a woman thing anymore. I just finished reading one of these hip-hop/street/ghetto novels. GOD! Every single page was an ad for a car or clothing line that was beyond frustrating and nauseating. I kept thinking if the characters would save some of that 'big bank', they could probably get a little house in the country and move out of the ghetto.
We are going down a fast tube if this kind of writing continues to catch on. It's total rubbish! I can see the attraction, because you don't need much of an imagination or thought process to read these type of books. You can actually skip several pages and not miss very much. I'm out done with these gangsta and sex for sex sake (not even good sex) books!
Have you all read some of this sex stuff?
I've seen dogs be more compassionate and romantic towards each other. At least they still make a chase out of it. What messages are these books sending to our young women? How is it liberating to meet a man and ten minutes later you're bent over in some gymnastic pose, getting the brutal banging that you've always wanted? What? When did 'rape' become erotic? Okay, role playing the marauding pirate can be fun at times, but who in the world wants to have that type of mindless sex all the time? Do you know how sore that makes your groin area? LOL! Okay, got carried away.
It troubles me that what is being pushed off as erotic seems very similar to abuse and rape that I've read in slave narratives. The same wording, the same brutality. Somehow instead of tragic and sad, this is suppose to be exciting and what every woman wants. I hear some folks say how they get all hot and bother by these type of books. I would suggest they go straight to a hustler magazine that is far more to the point and well written smut! Why mask it? Doesn't cause a 'rise' just a sadness.
I feel like screaming everytime I meet some young lady or young man, who tells me their an 'avid' book reader. Only to be told the titles that they are reading. Okay, I've been a deep avid reader since I was 12, hiding in the basement reader the newest issue of some neighbor dad's playboy. Now THAT was good writing about sex! I wanted to tell them to stop fronting and go and buy yourself a smut mag, it's more honest and better writing.
This is sending such a bad message to our young folks and the world. We are still considered these oversexed primatives.
Any other group of people (Latin, African, European or white American) writing, publishing and buying these type of books? If so, please provide me with the names of the author or titles so I could give them a read.
Someone needs to tell these folks that the first and biggest sex organ is your brain! Every man loves a free for all bang fest (I suppose). But could you feed me a good meal, discuss an interesting world event before I twist you up like a water hose and try to break the world record of thrust per minute?
I still don't get JBAF...that's going over my head. |
Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 46
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 12:06 pm: |
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Hello All,
Blkmalereading: I hear you man! I read some of the so-called erotic stuff, only to be wholly unimpressed and singing that old Peggy Lee song, Is That All There Is? Boring, boring stuff. Ain't nothing like reading about boring sex. Maybe there in lies our problem, we have read the Playboys and Hustler (my personal favorite)for years (I started with Hustler when I was 12). Now, I ain't sayin that my mother knew about it, because she didn't. *big smile*
I was discussing the hip hop books with my older brother this weekend. And he broke down the definition of hip hop to me. He's beyond being a fan. And most of these "hip hop" books ain't doing it. Now, my main problem with thse "hip hop" books are that most have the same damn storyline. Now, yawl correct me when I go wrong here:
1.) The book begins with our hero ALWAYS in jail, who just got out or about to get it--with the customery flashback explaining how he got there in the first place.
2.) On the other side of the country, city, county or world is a fine sistergirl, who was either a stripper, good time girl, or a girl from the foo foo class who has a thing for thugs, looking for her a thug squeeze. Naturally, she got a best friend too.
3.) Immediately after our hero gets out of the pen, he goes to get his hidden stash. The hero always has a hidden stash of money, how else can he buy the cars, jewels, and designer clothes...with his good looks? *eyebrow raised* I think not.
4.) And then he meets up with his ladylove, his "shorty"--they are all "shorties". By this time our hero has a sidekick in tow, and sistagirlfriend's best friend is in tow too.
5.) And then comes the passionate, violent, frenzy sex scene *yawn* because our hero hasn't had sex or anything that could be mistaken for it when he was in jail, because he's a man's man, so he didn't do any of the jail sissies, he didn't even masturbate--thereby gaining the respect from all of the prison elders, muslims, and all of that stuff.
6.) our hero and his newly formed but extremely tight gang has to make more money, while at the same time, extract revenge on the person(s)
7.) skipping over the various details, there's some blood shed, but in the end, our hero and his lady love, and in some cases, the couple's friends, all live happily ever after, vowing not to get caught up in the game again.
Did I forget any steps? *eyebrow raised*
JBAF is a line from a gospel song, "Jesus be a fence all around me". It's asking for protection. |
Blkmalereading
Newbie Poster
Username: Blkmalereading
Post Number: 24
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 02:58 am: |
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LOL! Thumper...
I haven't read that many to know if you're correct, but I fear your steps will be seen by someone and they think it a GREAT outline for a story and....
MAN! What have you done???!!
Thanks for the breakdown of JBAF, no wonder I didn't get it (smile). So now I can LOL and say JBAF.
If you want to read about some street stuff, I say just go straight to Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim. |
Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 50
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 06:46 am: |
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Hello All,
Blkmalereading: I have read and loved Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim and few others who aren't as popular as Slim and Goines. So to me, many of these so-called "hip hop" books are poor imitations of the fiction that Goines and other wrote back in the late 60s-early 70s.
The outline, I can't take credit for that. I got it from the actual books. That's how they roll. I'm still waiting for that original thought to come surface or one that is written with a creative and beautiful prose. |
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