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‘Queen Sugar’ Actress Tina Lifford Reveals New Lifestyle Book

Off the heels of Queen Sugar‘s fifth season renewal, one of its stars has announced her book tour.

Tina Lifford, who plays Violet aka Aunt Vi in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama, is on a mission to push mental and spiritual fitness through her new book, The Little Book of Big Lies. She recently discussed the book on an episode of Sister Circle on TV One and emphasized its title comes from overcoming life’s obstacles.

“There’s a self inside of you,” she told talk show co-hosts, Quad Webb, Syleena Johnson, Rashan Ali and Trina Braxton. “You need to prioritize it, take care of it, and more importantly any event that has taken place in your life that has left you feeling less than, not good enough, incapable, or limited is a lie. You gotta figure out how to let go of that lie and take your power back from it.”

Tina, also recognizable from roles on South Central and Parenthood, says she’s an “inner fitness strategist,” as she labels the book as a master class set in 14 personal stories.

“People make the mistake thinking that with success comes automatic happiness,” she said. “Two different things. Two different skill sets, and you’ve gotta learn both of those skill sets. If you’re not paying attention for the skill set for happiness, you’re gonna wake up with lots of money and power and you’re gonna wonder, ‘Why do I feel so bad?'”

Tina held an event in Atlanta last Saturday for her “Inner Fitness, Outer Beauty” tour with celebrity stylist J. Bolin.

“You gotta learn how to dress your spirit. You gotta know who you are on the inside,” she said. “You gotta not only know who you are on the inside, know who you want to become. And learn to say, ‘Up until now life has been this way, but this point forward it can be this way.'”

Her book is on pre-order and comes out in November.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Marriage Vacation’ by Pauline Turner Brooks

Marriage Vacation

Marriage Vacation by Pauline Turner Brooks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Marriage Vacation” by the fictional Pauline Turner Brooks is from “Younger” on TV Land, one of my favorite shows surrounding the literary industry, but this book was not what I expected from the Millennial imprint as in it’s not up to par.

Background on the show is it’s about Liza, a 40something woman who’s masquerading as a millennial at a publisher because she had trouble reentering the workforce after raising her daughter and going through a divorce. She works with Kelsey, an actual millennial, on the Millennial imprint that produces books targeted for millennials, but they took a chance on “Marriage Vacation” conveniently by their boss’ ex-wife, Pauline Turner Brooks. And now the novel is a best-seller — on the show.The book is about a woman similar to Pauline who abandoned her Upper East Side life along with her two daughters and publisher husband to save her sanity and found herself in the jungles of Thailand at a retreat. She spends her days helping a local doctor from Australia with her Doctors Without Borders clinic. She becomes besties with the doctor and the doctor’s younger brother as well as bonds with a refugee mother with two girls who’s looking for her husband in the city. So Pauline goes into the city to find the woman’s husband with the doctor’s brother. One thing leads to another as Pauline still tries to deal with her broken marriage.

The story itself is rather boring with the writing maybe a step up from mediocre but not exactly what I would call good though Pauline is a writer with an MFA from Columbia, which is something she struggles with because she abandoned her writing career for housewifery and motherhood. The premise sounded interesting via the TV, and with how the show promoted it, I expected a better constructed story. I liked the emphasis of a mother becoming overwhelmed with sacrificing her dreams for her family. The book does give insight of the Myanmar refugee crisis in Thailand and other useful information, but I had hoped Pauline experienced a more entertaining adventure.

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