GIVEAWAY ENDEDQUEEN PIN
A MEMOIR
BY JEMEKER THOMPSON-HAIRSTON
AND DAVID RITZ AND GEOFF MARTIN
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Jemeker Thompson-Hairston paid a heavy price for her involvement in the drug game. Learning from her sources of a federal investigation, Jemeker went on the run. It was love for her young son that brought her back to Los Angeles, even though she knew she would be arrested. A subsequent 12-year sentence would cost her not only her legitimate business and the fortune she'd amassed through the drug trade, but the most precious thing of all: time with her child. But not all was lost. Fortunately, while Thompson-Hairston was serving out her sentence, one pivotal moment helped her turn her life around, setting her on a path to help and inspire others like her. 
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Jemeker Thompson-Hairston started the Second Chance Evangelist Ministries (SCEM) in South Central, Los Angeles, to inspire others like her. Her mission is to show children of God that there is always a second chance in life and He will forgive.
Jemeker currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
David Ritz's most recent bestseller is Tavis Smiley's What I Know For Sure. He has also collaborated with Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Laila Ali and B.B. King on their life stories. He has won a Grammy, a Deems Taylor ASCAP award, four Rolling Stone/Ralph J. Gleason book awards and is the co-composer of "Sexual Healing." He lives in Los Angeles.
MY REVIEW:
Memoirs seem to be more prevalent and more popular than ever. With exceptional writing that delivers like a fascinating novel to draw readers in, a good memoir can expose readers to different people and the way they live their lives. Jemeker Thompson-Hairston’s QUEEN PIN is the true story about the author’s past, and how she turned her life around by turning to God. She writes, "As I tell you this story. I'm not the person I was. The woman I'm about to describe no longer exists. She is a character from a different time, and a different place. But there's no way around it: she is me, and the story is mine.”
QUEEN PIN tells how Jemeker went from being a homeless child to being in charge of one of the largest drug cartels between the 1980s and 1990s. The story begins with her trying to avoid being taken into custody by the Feds. However, Jemeker fails because her maternal instinct and intense desire to see her son graduate from 6th grade draws her in at which point she is arrested. Then flashback to her childhood and what led Jemeker to becoming known as the “Queen Pin”. This one woman’s journey from living in a motel and running drugs is a quick read and filled with brutal realism and painful emotion. But with her arrest and the jail time that she had to serve, also came a new found freedom- freedom from the drugs and freedom to follow a new way of life.
This new life came as Jemeker became an evangelist. Her story can be motivation for people who think their past will always haunt them and keep them from moving forward. Although she spent 12 years daily coming face-to-face with the sacrifices that were a result of her own wrong doing, she refused to let her poor decisions keep her from moving forward. She stood strong, giving herself to her God and beliefs, while moving onward to a life filled with God’s forgiveness and love. That is her strongest message to pass on to others. I think she has done that in this interesting memoir.
GIVEAWAYJemeker Thompson-Hairston paid a heavy price for her involvement in the drug game. Learning from her sources of a federal investigation, Jemeker went on the run. It was love for her young son that brought her back to Los Angeles, even though she knew she would be arrested. A subsequent 12-year sentence would cost her not only her legitimate business and the fortune she'd amassed through the drug trade, but the most precious thing of all: time with her child. But not all was lost. Fortunately, while Thompson-Hairston was serving out her sentence, one pivotal moment helped her turn her life around, setting her on a path to help and inspire others like her.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Jemeker Thompson-Hairston started the Second Chance Evangelist Ministries (SCEM) in South Central, Los Angeles, to inspire others like her. Her mission is to show children of God that there is always a second chance in life and He will forgive. Jemeker currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
David Ritz's most recent bestseller is Tavis Smiley's What I Know For Sure. He has also collaborated with Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Laila Ali and B.B. King on their life stories. He has won a Grammy, a Deems Taylor ASCAP award, four Rolling Stone/Ralph J. Gleason book awards and is the co-composer of "Sexual Healing." He lives in Los Angeles.
MY REVIEW:
Memoirs seem to be more prevalent and more popular than ever. With exceptional writing that delivers like a fascinating novel to draw readers in, a good memoir can expose readers to different people and the way they live their lives. Jemeker Thompson-Hairston’s QUEEN PIN is the true story about the author’s past, and how she turned her life around by turning to God. She writes, "As I tell you this story. I'm not the person I was. The woman I'm about to describe no longer exists. She is a character from a different time, and a different place. But there's no way around it: she is me, and the story is mine.”
QUEEN PIN tells how Jemeker went from being a homeless child to being in charge of one of the largest drug cartels between the 1980s and 1990s. The story begins with her trying to avoid being taken into custody by the Feds. However, Jemeker fails because her maternal instinct and intense desire to see her son graduate from 6th grade draws her in at which point she is arrested. Then flashback to her childhood and what led Jemeker to becoming known as the “Queen Pin”. This one woman’s journey from living in a motel and running drugs is a quick read and filled with brutal realism and painful emotion. But with her arrest and the jail time that she had to serve, also came a new found freedom- freedom from the drugs and freedom to follow a new way of life.
This new life came as Jemeker became an evangelist. Her story can be motivation for people who think their past will always haunt them and keep them from moving forward. Although she spent 12 years daily coming face-to-face with the sacrifices that were a result of her own wrong doing, she refused to let her poor decisions keep her from moving forward. She stood strong, giving herself to her God and beliefs, while moving onward to a life filled with God’s forgiveness and love. That is her strongest message to pass on to others. I think she has done that in this interesting memoir.
THANKS TO ANNA AND THE GOOD FOLKS
AT THE HACHETTE BOOK GROUP,
I HAVE 3 COPIES OF THIS INTERESTING
MEMOIR TO GIVE AWAY!
THE RULES:
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--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
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SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY
HOW TO ENTER:
+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT QUEEN PIN AND MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY THAT YOU FOLLOW THIS BLOG.
6 PM, EST, AUGUST 20!
GOOD LUCK!
