Book Title: A Reason for Living
Author: Julian Jingles
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 372 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction, Jamaica
Publisher: URLink Print & Media
Release date: November, 2019 (372 Pages, Paperback)
Tour dates: Mar 9, 2020 to Mar 20, 2020
Content Rating: R: There are explicit sex scenes, violence, bad language.
It is the mid-1960s in Kingston, Jamaica, and the country is steeped in social, political, and economic inequities. Howard Baxter, the heir to a real estate empire, has no interest in seeking or managing wealth. Painting and deflowering Jamaican maidens are his passions. As he combs the streets looking for greater meaning in his pathetic life, it soon becomes apparent that Howard’s journey will not be easy. Bernaldo Lloyd, a member of the Baxter clan, is a medical student who is sensitive to the hopelessness of the Jamaican masses. Inspired by his close friend and Howard’s cousin, Ras Robin Pone, and their ties with the Rastafari movement that calls for social and economic equity, Bernaldo is determined to overthrow the corrupt government. As Howard, Bernaldo and Robin become influenced by The American Black Power and Civil Rights movements demanding equal rights for African Americans, the women in their lives both love and criticize them. But when revolution breaks out, Howard finally discovers a purpose for his twisted life that leads him in a direction he never anticipated. In this tale of love, passion, and self-discovery, three Jamaican men become caught up in a 1960s revolution that reveals injustices, oppression, and a purpose for one of them.
Discliamer: I received this book free though
IReadBookTours and for an honest review. My opinions on this book are my own.
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A Reason for Living is an okay book to me. I like the history of Jamaica part of this book. Though the other part was not my kind of thing. The writing in this book was done well. Though It seems the plot was about really one person though it says, three men. A reason for Living seems only like it is centered on one man named Howard. Though it shows this in three parts rather than three books.
If the author is trying to show it through three different views of people then I may get it a bit more. Though to me reading it seems like it was one story and centered on one person's emotions. What does this person want? Howard seems stuck. Everyone seems to want him, He seems stuck in the past. Does he know how to cope with what he loses? It seems that no one helps him understand this or what his plan for life. Except maybe towards the end of the book.
This book is set on sexuality throughout the book. I would not allow anyone under the age of eighteen to read this book. It has a lot of sexuality and talks about raping though out the book. This I did pick up on when reading the book. It always shows the time in Jamaica's history in this book and throughout.
Prize: Win 1 print (USA only) or 1 ebook (epub) of A REASON FOR LIVING, or a $15 Amazon Gift Card (INTERNATIIONAL) (3 winners) - (ends Mar 27)
Raymond Arthur Julian Reynolds aka Julian Jingles, is a writer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur and operates in New York, USA, and Jamaica, W.I. He began his writing career in 1966 at 16 years old, writing A Reason For Living about a family caught up in a revolution in Jamaica in the mid-1960s. It was written in three drafts and completed in 1968.
He pursued a career in journalism at the Gleaner Company in Kingston, Jamaica writing extensively on the Jamaican music industry, cultural, and social issues. At age 22 he was a columnist writing Merry Go Round, and In the Saddle for the Gleaner, and Record Shop for the Star. He has published several articles, short stories, and essays in Swing, and Cooyah, magazines, the Abeng, and Public Opinion newspapers, in Jamaica.
He immigrated to the United States in 1972 to write two screenplays, “Half Breed,” and “One Way Out.” In New York he has written for the New York Amsterdam News, the Jamaica Weekly Gleaner (NA), Everybody’s magazine, JET, the Daily Challenge, the New York Daily News, the Carib News, and as a foreign correspondent for the Gleaner in Jamaica. He developed an interest in film and television production, and received training in script writing, film, theater, and television directing and production, with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and wrote and produced three documentary films, “Jamaican Gun Court” (1974), “It All Started With The Drums” (1987), and “Jammin' In Jamaica--With The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari” (1996), and directed the latter two. He has also worked as production manager on several music videos with performers such as Kool & the Gang, the Manhattans, and Steel Pulse.
Between 1998 to 2018 he contributed frequently to the In Focus section of the Jamaica Sunday Gleaner, writing on socio-economic and cultural issues. He has been an entrepreneur as he pursues his literary career, involved in business consultancy with the National Minority Business Council in New York, and the importing, exporting and distribution of agro-products between Jamaica and the United States, and have produced several music concerts, and stage plays in New York, and Kingston.
He was married in 1972 to Charmaine Jasmine, who is deceased. He has three children, 11 grandchildren, and one great grand, and continues living in New York, and Jamaica.
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Tour Schedule:
Mar 9 –
Working Mommy Journal – book review / giveaway
Mar 10 –
Over Coffee Conversations – book review / guest post / giveaway
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Olio by Marilyn – book spotlight / giveaway
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Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / guest post / giveaway
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Leels Loves Books - book review / giveaway
Mar 16 –
A Mama's Corner Of the World – book review / giveaway
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She Just Loves Books – book review / giveaway
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My Reading Journeys – book review / giveaway
Mar 20 –
Svetlana's reads and views – book review / giveaway
Mar 20 -
Adventurous Jessy – book review / giveaway
Mar 20 -
Nighttime Reading Center - book review / giveaway
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