July's Book List: Entertainment Books

           If you're currently reading this article, I want to congratulate you for surviving another month in 2020. We have two more day of July left before we enter August. This year has not been easy for a lot of us and if you're like me then we constantly have to escape from our current reality from time to time. One of the ways I like to escape is through reading books for entertainment. In this article, I will be showcasing a list of books you should include into your summer reading list for entertainment.

1. Love Him or Leave Him But Don't Get Struck with the Tab by Loni Love

Loni Love is an American comedian who is also one of the hosts for the talk show, The Real. Since the first year she starred on the talk show, fans of the show swarm to her as the go-to relationship expert and would ask Love questions about their romantic relationships. Love answers a lot of those questions in this book. In this book, you'll find a lot of relatable and comical questions while gaining a good laugh at Loni Love's responses. If you're looking for a good laugh then this is the perfect book for you.

2.  Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

This book is about a Chinese couple who learns how to understand that their love is unbreakable when Nick's mother disapproves of his middle class Chinese American girlfriend named Rachel. His mother wants the couple to separate  in order for him to take over the family business. The story is very heart felt and distracts you from all the worries that's been taking place in 2020. If you enjoy this book then you should check out Kevin Kwan's two other novels.

3. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

If you're looking for a romantic story to read then this book should be on top of your reading list. This story is about a guy whose name is Logan and he's looking to find his next purpose in life after he completed his last tour in the military. While Logan is looking for his new purpose in life, He is on the mission to find the woman who is in the picture he found after a battle attack. He believes that the woman in the picture is the main reason why he made it out the military alive.

4. Fifty Shades of Gray by E. L. James

The book is for mature readers who don't mind getting hot and bothered as they enter the world of Christian Grey. Mr. Grey is a very wealthy man who lives a double life who suddenly gains a soft spot for Anastasia Steele, an average young woman and recent college undergraduate grad from Washington State University during their first meeting on campus. In the text, Ms. Steele experiences a lot of first experiences with Mr. Grey and she becomes addicted. Once you finish this novel, you're going to want to read the rest of the series.

5. Addicted by Zane

If you love exotic books then here is another "must add" book to place on your reading list this Summer. This novel is about a successful business woman whose name is Zoe and dreams of gaining new sexual pleasures from her pure husband. While at work, she meets the man of her dreams and everything was going great. Zoe soon feels as though the guy was too perfect. It doesn't take Zoe too long before she learns about his secret and everything goes down hill. You should check out this book to find out what this so called perfect man's secret is.

I hope I made you interested in checking out one of these books from the list if not all. I promise you, you shouldn't be disappointed. Let me know which book you've choose to read first? If you've read one of these books already, let me know your thoughts.

          

July's Book List: Self- Help Books

          Since the midst of our current pandemic, a lot of people has been displaying their businesses all over social media platforms. It is wonderful to see people I know show different talents that I wasn't aware of and I can now support them in their entrepreneur adventures as many of them has been doing with mine. As an entrepreneur myself, I know how nerve-racking it is to showcase your talent or product for the very first time to the public. It can be scary not knowing how people are going to respond or knowing whether you'll gain support, but eventually it all becomes worth it.

        When I first created the Dear Ms. Aphrodite organization, I had the same worries as the people coming up with their businesses now. I believe the only thing that helped me push through to grow my vision for the organization is when I signed up for a typical triangle scam. As I was attending weekly meetings during the year 2013, the mentor had us download over twenty books that were business and entrepreneur related books. He wanted us to read all the books so we could learn how to run a business. Well eventually I ended up leaving the triangle scam and continued to focus on my educational career. 

          One day in 2016, my boyfriend at the time was telling me how he's been learning a lot from the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and wanted me to read the book. The title sounded so familiar that I ended up looking on my iPad and realized that the book was one of the books my mentor for the scam downloaded for me. After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, I started reading more of the downloaded books to eventually finding business related self-help books on my own at my local libraries. I know how beneficial self-help books are to the lives of entrepreneurs just by looking at my own experience so I know they will benefit others especially for those who are starting a new business. In this article, I will be showcasing a list of books you should include into your summer reading list when it comes to business and entrepreneur related self-help books.

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

This book will make you realize that our current educational system is training you to become a great employee, but tricks you into believing that you're getting trained to one day run a company. By reading this book, you will learn the different ways the rich make their money besides through income; how the rich are able to start their new business with a small amount of money; and the personality and skills you need to have in order to create a successful business and brand. If you like this book, you're going to like his other books and he even has board games where you can intimate the lessons you learned from his books.

2. When The Miracle Drops by Jesseca Dupart

Jesseca Dupart is the creator of Kaleidoscope Hair products. She is from New Orleans, Louisiana and created her brand from the bottom up. She is the prime example that with a dream, being compassionate about turning that dream into a reality, and being consistent in completing the steps toward that dream, you get to see all your hard work pay off and you start earning rewards. In her book, you learn the necessary steps needed in order for your small business to become well known as hers. One thing you will really take away from her book is how you should be presenting yourself on all your social media accounts. In today's marketing, social media plays a huge role into whether or not you remain a small business owner or the next big brand everyone is talking about.

3. The Art of Selling Yourself by Adam Riccoboni and Daniel Callaghan

In this text, the authors gives advice to small business owners on how they should present themselves when it comes to advertising and representing for your brand. This book also helps with people who are at the very first steps of starting their businesses and are still trying to find their audience/ customers and what their brand stands for. If you're still trying to figure out what your brand stands for, who you're main audience is, and how to successfully present yourself and your business then this book is a perfect read for you.

4. The Insider's Guide to book Publishing Success by Eric Kampmann and Margot Atwell

This book is perfect for anybody who wants to publish a book in the future. These authors give future authors the legal steps that are needed when you are working on a book that will soon become published to the public for compensation. Not only do you learn about the copyright side of publishing, you learn about the things you need to consider when deciding whether you want to self-publish or get published through a publisher. 

I hope I made you interested in checking out at least one of these books from the list if not all of them. I promise you, you shouldn't be disappointed. Let me know which book you've choose to read first? If you've read one of these books already, let me know your thoughts on them. Also suggest to me the books you're currently reading.

July's Book List: The Black Community

The face you make when you have 

something serious on your mind

          As we enter another month in the year 2020, every month so far has been surprising and unexpected. I figure that July will come with more surprises as well. With that being said, June has been the most eye opening. While riots and protests has been taking place since May, a lot of us (Americans) are realizing that we haven't learned the complete history on African Americans through the United States educational system. We are noticing a lot of gaps and missing links to the history we did learn. For example, a lot of Americans may have learned about Deborah Sampson Gannett and other white women who disguised themselves as men to fight at American wars, but how many of you heard about Cathay Williams? I know I sure didn't until last week. I always believed that the American educational system needed to be fix, but now I see more problems with the educational system to add to my already long list. This is why in this article, I will be showcasing a list of books you should include into your summer reading list when it comes to the history of the Black community in America.

1.  African American Women's Rhetoric: The Search for Dignity, Personhood, and Honor by Deborah F. Atwater

I recommend reading this book to gain a complete understanding on the connection of slavery and the damage it has caused on Black women and girls' self-esteem. This book can also give people insight on why a lot of Black girls feel as though they have to represent themselves a certain type of way until they see other representations of Black women and girls that act, think, and look like themselves. If you like this text, you're going to enjoy Atwater's other book, "The Rhetoric of Black Mayors." The second book just might give us insight on why our non-white mayors are having a hard-time standing up for what is right when it comes to Trump and the Republican party's negative views on the treatment of Colored/ Black people.

2. Shadow Bodies: Black women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics by Julia Sheron and Jordan- Zachery

This book has the same goals as Deborah F. Atwater but these authors goes in depth by providing  deep history on the beauty standards placed on Black women and girls from the very moment they became slaves to Europeans. The authors then extends their awareness to the current failed system we see with women of color in the medical field as patients and when they get selected for roles in politics. 

3.  Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King

You may have read and followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work and probably memorized lines from his speeches, but have you thought about learning the steps it took in order for us (Black/ African Americans) to gain the amount of freedom we are able to experience today that Dr. King himself and our ancestors wasn't able to experience. After reading this book, I encourage you to find more books discussing the Segregation, Slavery, and Civil War experiences by authors representing as a Black (Negro) American, slave, free person, a mixed race, a first generation American, an immigrant, white people on both the Confederate and Union sides, and maybe other races to gain a full picture on what it must have been like to live during those time periods. I feel as though, you can't really learn the whole story until you learn about it from all sides.

4. "A Friend to All Mankind" : Mrs.  Annie Turnbo Malone and Poro College by. John H. Whitfield

I have mentioned Annie Malone's name before in one of my February articles this year, but many people still believes that Madam C. J. Walker was the first female to become a Millionaire in the United States. If you think this is true then you are wrong and it shows another example on the missing history we didn't receive while in school. In fact, it was Annie Turnbo Malone who was the first female Millionaire; who changed the Black hair industry in the United States, and trained other beauticians at her hair school. The only fact that has remained correct is that Madam C. J. Walker  was the first female to be documented as a Millionaire in the United States. I don't want to ruin the story for you before you learn the story yourself so I will stop here.

After learning the whole story of Mrs. Malone and the relationship of Madam C. J, Walker and Annie Turnbo Malone, you may want to question other inventors stories your teachers told you about in history classes and during every Black History Month presentation because there is a lot of pieces of history we need to learn in order to know the whole story. 

5. How Not to Get Shot: And Other Advice From White People by D. L. Hughley and Doug Moe

For my last recommendation, I recommend this book for my non-Black counterparts who believes there are ways around for Blacks to not get harm by police officers, while at the same time tries to understand the lives of people in the Black community. I'm going to let them find out for themselves if their advice is any good or helpful. I'll just say that I recently recommended this book to a white female counterpart on Facebook under a comment on the Fox 5 news channel after she tagged me in a comment about this very topic first.

I hope I made you interested in checking out at least one of these books from the list if not all of them. I promise you, you shouldn't be disappointed. Let me know which book you've choose to read first? If you've read one of these books already, let me know your thoughts on them. Also suggest to me the books you're currently reading.