Grayson Studios Blog

I haven’t posted much on books lately.  That doesn’t mean I am not reading!  Over the last several weeks I have read all kind of books on different topics.  Below I have shared what I have recently read AND I list a few of the titles in my stack for summer reading. Nnedi Okorafor I [...]

The last couple of weeks have been great for reading for the African Diasora Reading challenge. I completed two books last week. The first book was Daughters of the Stone by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa. The cover of the book alone made me want to read it.  Then I realized that the maternal ancestor was an artist [...]

This novel is poetry in prose.  I mean the language, THE LANGUAGE is really beautiful.  For me the book reads like a fable.  I hear the voice of the narrator actually reading to me.  This is the first book I have read by Yvonne Vera.  I was not aware of her work but I am [...]

Well, I have finished my first read of 2010 for the African Diaspora reading challenge.  I read Helen Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House. I have to admit I didn’t love this book. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either.  I felt like I never got into the interior lives of the characters in [...]

So reading challenges are new for me but I found this site while surfing the web for books to add to my vacation reading list and I could not resist joining the African Diaspora Reading Challenge.  In the last three days I have caught up with all of my magazine reading (American Craft, FibreArts, Studios [...]

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. Last week was quite a treat for me as several of the books I had on hold at the library came in.  Have I mentioned how much I love my public [...]

So I decided to join in the fun and participate in Library Loot.  Library Loot is the brainchild of Eva and Marg.  Basically their plan is to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out of the library.  What fun! So here is my loot for the week.  I picked up a stack of [...]

I was out picking up ingredients for a little veggie chili tonight. All of the sudden it is FER -REEEZING here in Atlanta. Anyway, the bookstore is right across the way from the grocery story so I knew I had to run in. If I am really honest, I chose that particular grocery store so [...]

Purple Hibiscus is a  beautifully written coming of age story of a 15 year-old girl  Kambili and her experience growing up in a repressive Catholic household in Nigeria. The story focuses on how Kambili and her brother find their voices despite the abuse of their father (who clearly struggles with his own internalized racism and [...]

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James This was a book that I did not want to read but could not put down.  The book was vivid, violent, infuriating and painful.  I sympathized with characters I did not want to like and despised the characters that I should have cared about.  James doesn’t allow [...]