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Bliss
By Danyel Smith
Reviews
Bliss
(Crown Publishers, 19 July
2005) is a sensual tale drenched with love and music, in which
author Danyel Smith (a prose stylist who "writes with music
in her language" say Quincy Jones) dives into an intriguing
set of characters facing life-changing choices in the swirl of
the music industry at its decadent peak.
At a 1998 gathering on the Bahamas's Paradise Island, record
executive Eva Glenn--soulful, powerful, and maybe pregnant--is
throwing a comeback showcase for her singing sensation Sunny
Anderson. At the event's peak, Eva begins to sink beneath the
waves of a confusing triangle, a career at a crossroads, fading
self-confidence, and decisions to be made about her possible
pregnancy.
Uncovering hip-hop's personalities in a way one rarely can
journalistically, Smith casts a cold eye on the machinations of
the industry, and infuses
Bliss
with an unashamed
passion for the power of pop. her language echoes everything
from blues shouts and hip-hop to the transcendent joy of a
perfect R&B love song. This novel is about the rhythm and
blues of life, and why we hold tight to the sex, music, and love
that offers us a fleeting glimpse of bliss, even when the price
is steep. The attached character sheet reveals the personalities
of
Bliss
.
Smith led coverage of hip hop's takeover of American culture,
distinguishing herself in a male-dominated industry. She is the
former editor-inchief of Vibe, had a stint as a prestigious
editor-at-large at Time Inc., and has contributed to the new
york Times, rolling Stone, the New Yorker, Spin, Essence, Elle,
Cosmopolitan, USA Weekend, the village Voice, and Billboard. A
regular commentator for VH-1, Smith is the author of the San
Francisco Chronicle-bestselling novel, More Like Wrestling
(Crown, 2003) and she wrote the introduction for the New York
Times-bestseller Tupac Shakur.
Fascinated by the idiosyncratic sacrifices made by
businesswomen, as well as by the interconnectedness of pop
music, Smith can address the following issues in an interview:
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Scandals entrenches in
the music
Why music still matters
How hip-hop effects
listeners and the choices they make about their bodies
The histories of hip
hop and soul music
The short wild history
of hip hop journalism
Interracial
relationships
Sex and the single
woman
The writing life, and
the transition from journalism to fiction
The blogging phenomenon / revolution |
To learn more about
Bliss
and
More
like Wrestling, visit Smith's blog at http://nakedcartwheels.blogspot.com
—Crown Publishing
Searingly honest and
breathtakingly lush, Smith's masterful prose moves the reader
past the music industry's seductive bling and liberates
characters that are deliciously complicated and compellingly
flawed. Bliss is the literary love song for the new millennium.—Joan Morgan, author of When
Chickenheads Come Home to Roost
Smith writes with generous passion
and propulsive energy about the life choices women make, about
the illusion of control, and about getting to know ourselves. I
love this book.—Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and
other Impossible Pursuits
For the last decade, Danyel has
had a front row seat for all the craziness of the record
business. She knows how fly it all was, and she knows where the
bodies are buried. You'll love
Bliss
.—Touré, author of Soul City
The color and candor of hip hop is
rarely transferred onto paper, and Danyel Smith's voice is the
rare, vital instrument strong enough to carry that tune.—Sacha Jenkins, coauthor of ego trip's Big
Book of Racism!
A dynamic novel with authenticity
and surprises at every turn.—Katherine Weber, author of The Little
Women
With the remarkable Bliss,
Danyel Smith uses her palpable love and vast knowledge of
music--hip hop, and soul -- to conjure a glorious, compelling
story.—Alan Light, author of The Skills to
Pay the Bills
posted 20
July 2005
Danyel Smith, author, editor, and critic, is an MFA candidate. She lives in Manhattan, but was
born and brought up in California. Smith is the author of the San
Francisco Chronicle- best-selling novel,
More
like Wrestling, and she wrote the introduction for
the New York Times-bestseller Tupac Shakur. Danyel
is also a former ed-at-large for Time Inc. and a former editor-in-chief
of Vibe.
She writes around for Elle,
Cosmo, O, Essence, wrote once (!) for the New
Yorker, still will show up in Rolling Stone sometimes,
still reps in spirit for the San Francisco Bay Guardian,
and wrote concert reviews for the New York Times back in
the day.
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.—WashingtonPost |
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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