Remember that New York Times profile of Shonda Rhimes that called her an angry black woman? Vulture is wonderfully furious about it. Melissa Harris-Perry contemplates a world in which we talked about angry white men in this same way. Y’all, it is legit confusing to me that white men aren’t the ones with the “angry” stereotype. It seems like they are the angriest. Netflix’s new Spoiler Roulette is excellent. I like how you can’t predict at all what the next thing is that’s going to get spoiled for you. Primal Fear? Orange Is the New Black? Could be anything. Here…
10 CommentsAuthor: Jenny Hamilton
We go insane in this podcast and have a discussion topic for each essay in Michelle Orange’s This Is Running for Your Life. This time, we recorded without Randon on the line, and he reports that this episode had more “Sorry Randons!” per minute than any previous episode. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 29 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).…
Leave a CommentImportant update: Based on the two samples of this genre that I have read so far (this and The Thief, both by widely acclaimed Japanese authors), I have concluded that Japanese thriller mystery type books are not for me. I am not sure why I ever thought they were, given that I struggle with books in translation and I do not like thriller mystery type books above half. Natsuo Kirino has been on several of the lists for A More Diverse Universe, with specific praise for her ability to write about the disaffection of teenagers in the modern world. (Red…
4 CommentsHere comes my second read for the A More Diverse Universe blogging event, hosted by the wonderful Aarti! Visit the event’s links page to find out what other folks are reading, and keep an eye on the hashtag #diversiverse. With the caveat that I stupid-loved my first read for A More Diverse Universe, I have to say that this, my second, was a bit of a disappointment. In a way it’s my own fault: Everything I Never Told You is about a family struggling to deal with the unexpected and mysterious death of the eldest daughter, a teenager called Lydia;…
7 CommentsIt’s the Friday after podcast day, which means another links round-up! Don’t forget that A More Diverse Universe is going on now! Head over to Aarti’s blog to see all the amazing POC authors people are discovering and rediscovering this month! More awesome discoveries by science: Scientists have found the most complete dinosaur skeleton yet, and they have named it THE DREADNOUGHT. I hope it’s not too late to incorporate it into Jurassic World. The tail alone is thirty feet long. This is awesome. Science is the best. The wonderful and brilliant Jenny Diski has inoperable cancer. Stupid universe. In…
18 CommentsIn a podcast first, Whiskey Jenny and Randon and I were all in the same room on a recording day! It was a very exciting time, and I think our deranged joy comes through pretty clearly in the podcast. We talk about gateway books for ushering people into the joys of new genres; we review Nick Harkaway’s Tigerman (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository); and we play a tricky game invented by Whiskey Jenny about pangrams. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode…
15 CommentsThe universe is more diverse! If you aren’t already participating in Aarti’s wonderful September event A More Diverse Universe, you definitely should. Check out her amazing recommendations here and here and here, visit her blog to check out what other people are reading, and follow the hashtag #Diversiverse on Twitter. My first read for this event is Dayo Olopade’s The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa, a book I’ve long had my eye on because of its brilliantly colored, eye-catching jacket design. It’s also a terrific book, an antidote to what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has called “the…
22 CommentsPersonal life update: I cut my hair this past summer! I cut it all off, shorter than it has ever been. My hair resembles (less now than when first cut, but still!) the hair of the girl on the cover of The Girls at the Kingfisher Club. This is the first time I have ever walked into a hair salon and asked them to cut off this much hair. Usually I am begging them to cut off less. Anyway, now I have a super cute flapper haircut, and when I put on my cloche hat I look hella jaunty. The…
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