Sunny 101 (BOOK REVIEW)

Sunny 101

The 10 Commandments of a Boss Chick

by Sunshine Smith-Williams

Voices International Publications

Paperback, $14.95

178 pages,

ISBN: 978-0-9911041-6-1

Book Review by Kam Williams

“[This book] was written on top of my bunk bed in a room I shared with five other roommates at Danbury Federal Prison Camp... In September 2014, instead of starting fall classes to obtain my master's degree in business, I had to withdraw from college to prepare myself mentally, emotionally, and financially to go back to prison to serve my sentence for Conspiracy to Negotiate Counterfeit Money...

I thought imprisonment would be the worst experience in my life, but God has turned my journey around and used it for my good. I always wanted to write a book, but with my busy schedule I never had the time. 
 

My stay behind bars has given me a well-needed period to focus, reanalyze my life, and acknowledge my shortcomings, which I openly share with you. I'm writing this book to encourage all women, no matter how old or young you are, to push ahead! 

Don't focus on how big your problems may seem. Instead, focus on how big your God is! He has personally proven Himself to me!” 
 

-- Excerpted from the Afterword (pages 153-154)

Piper Kerman did a year at the Federal Correctional Facility in Danbury, Connecticut after getting convicted for money laundering. However, she made the most of that temporary setback by writing ”Orange Is the New Black,” a cautionary tale about her experience behind bars. The memoir was subsequently adapted into an Emmy-winning television series which is now in its third season. 
 

So, the similarities between that book and “Sunny 101: The 10 Commandments of a Boss Chick” were not lost on this reviewer. I couldn't help but notice that Sunshine Smith-Williams, aka Sunny Money Queens, wrote her how-to tome while also incarcerated at Danbury for a money-related felony. Perhaps she's hoping that lightning strikes twice and that her opus ends up on TV, too.

Despite her recent fall from grace, Sunny Money is apparently “a successful author, manager, film producer, real estate broker, legal consultant and co-owner of a thriving chain of shoe stores” who has “run several other profitable business ventures.” More importantly, this very together wife and mother is a “Boss Chick,” a term she defines as”a woman who can acknowledge her mistakes and use them as a platform for greater success.” And, as a Born Again believer, she's decided to share her secrets in the form of a revised 10 Commandments. 
 

Besides being a little skeptical about Ms. Smith-Williams claims, I was disappointed by her tendency to talk in platitudes and by the profusion of typographical errors on the book's pages. Did it have an editor? Nevertheless, if you're willing to forgive those weaknesses, the author does have a number of worthwhile messages to share with her target audience of at-risk females. 
 

Her First Commandment is “Thou shall love yourself,” since “the first step to becoming a Boss Chick is to love and protect yourself at all cost!” Given the high out-of-wedlock birth-rate in the black community, impressionable young sisters would do well to heed the Fifth Commandment's dictate that “Thou shall not allow lust to make you a mother before love makes you a wife.” Furthermore, to avoid becoming ensnared in the Prison-Industrial Complex, the Tenth Commandment suggests “Thou shall be leery of the company you keep.” 
 

A 21^st Century variation of the God-ordained principles brought down on stone tablets from Mount Sinai by Moses, now updated by a Boss Chick with the practical concerns of today's African-American females uppermost in mind.

To order a copy of Sunny 101, visit: