• Not book-related, but this video of an otter eating a clam may be the cutest thing I've seen all day: http://bit.ly/9RiJa8 #
• Female werewolves in pop culture: http://bit.ly/9cTF0y #
• Terribly constructed headline. RT @blackvoices 'Partner' Ben Maisani and Anderson Cooper to Adopt Haitian Orphan? http://bit.ly/a30Do6 #
• I am looking forward to the time when I can again read more than 10 pages of a book at one time without dozing off. #
• RT @aakulturezone Book Review: Dreams That Won't Let Go by Stacy Hawkins Adams http://ow.ly/16uTZB #

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It’s safe to say that I won’t be seeing the movie Precious. I read Push and found it incredibly draining. Nonetheless, I am, as always, pleased that a book by a black author was made into a movie.

Here’s Sapphire explaining how the book became the Oscar-nominated movie:

America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life
by Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Simon & Shuster
2009

In recent months, my professional life has led me to spend more than a little time contemplating the life choices of one Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods.

Yes, I’m serious. And yes, I really wish I could tell you I was kidding. He lives in Orlando, so any and every little thing related to him is big news here.

Anyway, when Woods was rumored to have skedaddled to a sex-addiction clinic after the embarrassing revelations about his penchant for cocktail-waitress skanketry, I was intrigued. You see, I didn’t think such a thing as sex addiction really existed. I figured “sex addict” was therapist-speak for “unrepentant, cheating jerk.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times today has a review of a book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks that sounds absolutely fascinating.

It’s the true story of a young black woman in the south who had cervical cancer. Doctors took some cells from her body without her knowledge as she was dying circa 1950, and it turns out that those cells, as well as others from her family members, have been used in countless medical studies since then.

Bought and sold and shipped around the world for decades, HeLa cells are famous to science students everywhere. But little has been known, until now, about the unwitting donor of these cells. Mrs. Lacks’s own family did not know that her cells had become famous (and that people had grown wealthy from marketing them) until more than two decades after her death, after scientists had begun to take blood from her surviving family members, without their informed consent, in order to better study HeLa.

I want to read.

Also, does this remind anybody else of Tananarive Due’s Immortals series, about the east Africans with immortal cells/blood?

In the coming days, I’ll be introducing a new category of book reviews here at WriteBlack.

I’m calling it Not A Black Author But That’s OK (NABABTOK).

I feel the need to make this announcement because I started this site as a way to highlight work by black authors — especially underappreciated ones — but since my personal library comprises more than just black authors, I don’t often get a chance to talk about everything I’m reading.

This will continue to be a site highlighting works by black authors, but I want to broaden the scope a bit.

Fair warning.

• If I had $1 for every not-funny "The new Apple product has a name like a feminine hygiene product!1!" joke in my Twitter feed, man… #
• True. RT @koa RT @xirclebox: LOL!! RT @stroughtonsmith: LOL iPad has same accessories Newton had. Hardware keyboard & prop-up case @MrFresh #
• Most expensive $829 #iPad That's still well below what i thought starting price would be. Dang. #
• $499!!!! #iPad #seriously #OMG #Imeanthat #OMG #
• Oh, wait, no contract? Apple can stick with AT&T #iPad #
• I so wish Apple would think beyond AT&T. Just saying. #
• New blog post: First thought on Apple's iPad… http://writeblack.com/?p=827 #
• Sorry, Kindle, but the iBooks app for the iPad looks pretty boss. #
• New blog post: 'Sins of the Mother,' coming soon http://writeblack.com/?p=825 #
• RT @maudnewton Is there a 'typical' New Yorker short story? @mathitak considers: http://bit.ly/71IRU1 (via @electriclit) #
• Finished reading another "grownup" book! 'Twas Beverly Jenkins' latest, & it took me a month. #parenthoodiskickingmy*ss #

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I am so glad I never bought a Kindle.

See this Gizmodo post for more details.

That iBooks store (#SteveJobsruleseverythingaroundme) looks pretty fly.

Are Amazon and Sony quaking in their boots? Probably not, but I’m sure they’re not happy about this.

Set your DVRs, people!

In just a few weeks (Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. ET), the TV movie Sins of the Mother will air on Lifetime. It stars Jill Scott.

Haven’t heard of Sins of the Mother? Well, maybe you remember it as Orange Mint and Honey, by kick-butt novelist (and friend of this blog) Carleen Brice.

• More pics from the movie based on @carleenbrice's 'Orange Mint and Honey': http://bit.ly/4YDuek #
• What's with Bloomsbury whitewashing their book covers, yo? http://bit.ly/8ZXTQT #

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Yes, I know I’ve been gone for a long time.

Motherhood is kicking my tail, as you can imagine.

But today’s earthquake (and the nearly 20 aftershocks) in beautiful Haiti made me want to do something. I’m really just sick about all the destruction in a country that has suffered quite enough already.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot I can do for the people in Haiti from my little house in Florida — except donate a little cash to the people who know what to do to help.

If you can, would you donate too, please?

Some suggested beneficiaries:

AmeriCares

International Committee of the Red Cross

Disaster Relief International

Mission Manna

Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group

Catholic Relief Services

Yele Haiti

Afrobella has some thoughts on the matter, too.