Monday’s Memory for October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween Mocha Girls!  I know some of you celebrated Halloween over the weekend so you could get back to work today.  Did you get to eat a ton of candy?  Are you still snacking on it today?  With all the candy and costumes Halloween brings out, I thought today’s Monday’s Memory should be a book about Monsters.  For this book I have even added a video trailer.

Do you know where the historians think Halloween came from?

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while “some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)”, derived from the Old Irish Samuin meaning “summer’s end”.  Samhain was the first and by far the most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Irish and Scottish calendar and, falling on the last day of Autumn, it was a time for stock-taking and preparation for the cold winter months ahead.  There was also a sense that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen.  To ward off these spirits, the Gaels built huge, symbolically regenerative bonfires and invoked the help of the gods through animal and perhaps even human sacrifice (read more)

Give us your review, thoughts and memories on this Monday’s book.  If you have a recommendation for a Monday’s Memory feel free to contact us at mochagirl@email.com

♥Happy Monday!♥

Halloween Scary Quotes

halloween owlHappy Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween and most of us are not going trick or treating like we use to.  It was the best when we (30 something and more crowd) went trick or treating.  All the houses on the block gave candy.  Except for just one or two and there was nothing unsafe about it.  Remember eating your candy as you went from house to house.  I remember the older boys would always carry pillowcases instead of the pumpkin buckets all the other kids had.  Like they really were going to fill the whole thing up.  Today, everyone is at the mall.  Really the mall!  What is scary about the mall?

Well here are a few quotes from our favorite authors that love to scary us to death…

“People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk.” -Stephen King

Ray Bradbury

“For these beings, fall is ever the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth….Such are the autumn people.” ― Ray Bradbury

Clive Barker

“Harvey wasn’t interested in the clothes, it was the masks that mesmerized him. They were like snowflakes: no two alike. Some were made of wood and of plastic; some of straw and cloth and papier-mâché. Some were as bright as parrots, others as pale as parchment. Some were so grotesque he was certain they’d been carved by crazy people; others so perfect they looked like the death masks of angels. There were masks of clowns and foxes, masks like skulls decorated with real teeth, and one with carved flames instead of hair.” ― Clive Barker

 

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”  -Edgar Allan Poe

 

carrie Classic Scary Books

Carrie by Stephen King

The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice

The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter) by Thomas Harris

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

Cujo by Stephen King

Have a Happy Halloween ladies.

Book Club Meeting

This is just a reminder for our book club meeting on Saturday November 5, 2011 (4pm-6pm).  It will be a for The Strawberry Letter and located at Eso Won Bookstore 4331 Degnan Blvd. LA. 90008  (323) 290-1048 (map)  For parking, there is a metered parking lot in behind the bookstore.  It will cost $2.00 for the length of the meeting.

At the meeting the book for November we will be reading will be announced and you will be able to purchase it there too.  10 copies of the book have been pre-ordered and will be there for purchase.  So with our 15% Mocha Girls Read discount it will cost only $14.00.

If you have not sent in your RSVP, please go to our Facebook page, Meetup.com page or just email me at mochagirl@email.com.  You only need to RSVP one time.

First timers, friends and family (kids) are welcomed to join as well.

Mocha Girls Read Tempe

Tempe, AZ is in the house!!!  Hey Mocha Girls in Arizona.  You are now in the mix with your First Book Club Meeting:  Meet and Mingle.  Your  meeting will also be on Saturday November 5, 2011 (2pm-4pm) at Changing Hands Bookstore 6428 S McClintock Dr. Tempe, AZ 85283  PHONE: 480-730-0205 (map).  This meeting will be hosted by Mocha Girl Abagail.

At the Meet and Mingle the book for November we will be reading will be announced and you will be able to purchase it there too.  The store is currently trying to get 10 copies in time for the meeting.  All Mocha Girls Read members will get a 10% discount on all paperback books and 20% discount on all hardcover books.

If you have not sent in your RSVP, please go to our Facebook page, Meetup.com page or just email me at mochagirl@email.com.  You only need to RSVP one time.

I’m so excited to see all of you Saturday and start the chit-chat about books n’ thangs.  If you have any questions feel free to email me at mochagirl@email.com. :)

♥Mocha Girl Alysia

New Numbers

Good morning ladies!  I just wanted to give you an update that is happening with Mocha Girls Read.  It has been 2 months and the numbers are going up and up.  Yes!  From the last post regarding our numbers we have practically doubled.  Feel free to check out the sites and join us there too.  You will always be able to access all sites via the buttons located in the right hand side menu.

From 15 to 29 Web Site Subscribers

From 48 to 91 Facebook “Likes”

From 133 to 221 Twitter “Followers”

From 0 to 68 Meetup members

From 21 to 44 Good Reads Members

From 0 to 26 Book Blog Friends

From 1,794 to 3,804 Hits to Date

You go Mocha Girls!  I have to say, I’m still completely thrilled and shocked everyday when I see the response Mocha Girls Read has received.  And I am constantly encouraged to continue to get through the Mocha Girls Read ever growing To Do List.  Thanks again for the love and support.  This is amazing!  Psst!!! There are more cool things in the works too!

Keep the pages turning ladies! Mocha Girl Alysia

November Book of the Month: Be Careful What You Pray For

“Kimberla Lawson Roby is a true writer, a storyteller at the top of her game.”—Eric Jerome Dickey
After 52 books being nominated and 96 votes cast…Mocha Girls Read November book selection winner is Be Careful What You Pray For by Kimberla Lawson Roby. Take a minute to see what this book and the author are all about.

November Poll Results

Synopsis

November Book of the Month

Her first marriage didn’t work out, but that isn’t going to stop Alicia Black, the privileged daughter of the charismatic Reverend Curtis Black, from getting what she wants. One month after her wedding to her second husband, she can’t believe her good fortune. God has heeded her prayers, blessing her with Pastor JT Valentine, a handsome, dynamic man of the cloth with his own large congregation, just like her father.

Unfortunately, Alicia doesn’t understand just how much like Curtis her new husband truly is. She doesn’t know JT has been sneaking around town with other women–or that he only married her to get close to her famous father’s money and fame. But while Alicia is blinded by love, her dad certainly isn’t. He warned his little girl that JT “simply can’t be trusted.” After all, it takes one to know one, and who better to see into the darkness of a sinner’s heart than Curtis?

It will take a miracle to save the day. But God acts in mysterious ways, and soon a host of lies, long-time secrets, and acts of betrayal come to light, and Alicia must face some very crucial and life-changing decisions. This time, though, she’s got to be careful what she prays for. . . .

Biography

Author Pic

Kimberla Lawson Roby

New York Times Bestselling Author Kimberla Lawson Roby has published 15 novels which include LOVE, HONOR, and BETRAY, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR, A DEEP DARK SECRET, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, ONE IN A MILLION, SIN NO MORE, LOVE & LIES, CHANGING FACES, THE BEST-KEPT SECRET, TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING, A TASTE OF REALITY, IT’S A THIN LINE, CASTING THE FIRST STONE, HERE AND NOW, and her debut title, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, and which was originally self-published through her own company, Lenox Press. Her novels have frequented numerous bestseller lists, including The New York Times and those in USA Today, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Essence Magazine, Upscale Magazine, Emerge Magazine, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, The Dallas Morning News, and The Austin Chronicle to name a few and both BEHIND CLOSED DOORS and CASTING THE FIRST STONE were #1 Blackboard bestsellers for four consecutive months in both 1997 and 2000. BEHIND CLOSED DOORS was the #1 Blackboard Best-selling book for paperback fiction in 1997.

In addition, Kimberla’s first novel was nominated for Blackboard’s 1998 and 1999 Fiction Book of the Year Award, and she received the Blackboard Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2001 for CASTING THE FIRST STONE. She is also the 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010 recipient of the Author of the Year – Female award presented by the African-American Literary Award Show in New York, the recipient of the 1998 First-Time Author Award from Chicago’s Black History Month Book Fair and Conference, and her fifth novel, A TASTE OF REALITY, was a 2004 finalist for the Atlanta Choice Awards sponsored by the Atlanta Daily World. Additionally, TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING received a 2004 Patron Choice Award from the Central Mississippi Regional Library System, and in 2001, Kimberla was inducted into the Rock Valley College (Rockford, IL) Alumni Hall of Fame. (read more)

Congratulations to Mocha Girl Kimberla for becoming Mocha Girls Read book for the month of November 2011.

Feel free to leave comments and thoughts here as you are reading the book. I’m looking forward to this one and hearing what everyone thinks of it.

Keep the pages turning!

♥Mocha Girl Alysia♥

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