It's May. The trees are in full leaf and the pines stretch forth new shoots like fingernails painted in tennis-ball green. Wildflowers spring up everywhere—daisies, wild iris, lupine. There are more sunny days than grey days and many of those days have been truly warm. So why do I feel so exhausted, so languid, so … Continue reading Notions, the Pick Your Metaphor Edition
African American literature
2020 Reading List – The Final
In one of the two holiday movies I watch without fail, It's a Wonderful Life, lead character George Bailey is a man who has always resented his meagre, small town life until he gets a chance to see what said town would have been like if he'd never been born. George discovers that he actually … Continue reading 2020 Reading List – The Final
Quickly, and With the Lights On: ‘Heads of the Colored People.’
There are the books that you savor, make yourself go slow, take them in, bite by bite. There are books that you scarf, like a glutton at a feast, gulping mouthfuls and barely stopping to taste. And then there are books that you read in a rush, but with eyes wide open, because they contain … Continue reading Quickly, and With the Lights On: ‘Heads of the Colored People.’
The Wheelhouse Project: Significant Jumps in Time—Brit Bennett’s ‘The Vanishing Half’
*Light spoilers for The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett* When done well, I love a novel that jumps forward significantly in time with each chapter, often giving us a different characters' perspective as it goes along. This technique functions as a way to look at the novel's facets from different angles, turning the characters and … Continue reading The Wheelhouse Project: Significant Jumps in Time—Brit Bennett’s ‘The Vanishing Half’
Shape Change: For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery
"I don't think things are getting worse, I think they are getting uncovered." —adrienne maree brown, Pleasure Activism "None of us knows enough, but we can't let that stop us." —Ruth King, Mindful of Race I pick up a book called The Crying Book because reviewers praised it and I tend to appreciate prose written … Continue reading Shape Change: For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery
Memory, Family, Trauma: The Deep and The Yellow House
On the podcast Still Processing hosts Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham discuss pop culture and life in America circa now. On a recent episode while discussing Wortham's tour of Thomas Jefferson's plantation Monticello, alongside Bong Joon Ho's film Parasite and the HBO series Watchmen, Morris says, "[Black people,] as a people, we are allergic to … Continue reading Memory, Family, Trauma: The Deep and The Yellow House
Notions, January 2020 edition (Formerly “Bits and Bobs”)
I am in a hell of my own making. (A delightful hell! The best kind of hell!) I have too many books to read. I have books for work and I have books for fun, books that flirted with me from the library shelves (their come-hither covers obscuring their three-week checkout times!) and books gifted … Continue reading Notions, January 2020 edition (Formerly “Bits and Bobs”)
Rest, Toni Morrison
Attempting to gather thoughts on Toni Morrison and her legacy I mentally cautioned myself to avoid being hyperbolic. But then I realized it's not hyperbole when someone was a genius, a luminary, and a sage. I first read Morrison as an undergraduate English major at a small state school in very white Utah. I knew … Continue reading Rest, Toni Morrison
Dogs, Coffee, & Books 