A lovely package arrived on my doorstep last Tuesday and I wanted to tear it open right away. However, as a community college professor halfway through finals week with a pile of portfolios and final projects to respond to and with a bad case of “Is it break yet?” procrastination looming, I decided to use the gift from Yesknopemaybe as motivation. Get your Comp 1 grades in, and you can open the box! It worked! I got the grades in and was delighted to discover […]
Well, Go On Now, Speak
This morning on CBS Sunday Morning, the cover story was a piece about gay conversion therapy. Though the introduction by Jane Pauley made it sound like this issue was something with two clear sides, the story mainly focused on the pain this practice has caused. The pain felt by those forced to undergo it, the pain felt by parents who thought they were saving their children’s souls by sending their sons and daughters to these programs, and the pain felt by certain religious figures who […]
I was in love with the night even before I was in love with the girl
It starts in a bar. One of ours, in the heart of Khayelitsha. Nothing special on the outside but inside, tonight, two hundred people cram together beneath the corrugated roof and wait, turned out in their Friday Bests, because everyone knows you have to look good for the radio (1). Thanks to the great curating at my local public library, I stumbled onto this book totally by accident—intrigued by its cover and by the description on the inside flap. I had just seen the […]
Damm, now I’m caught up!
There’s something wonderful about discovering a new series and having the books you haven’t read yet beckoning to you from a future snow day or vacation, creating a nice bit of anticipation that you’re hesitant to lose. You may have finished with the first adventure but the story goes on. Much like binge watching a good TV show on Netflix or Amazon (Travelers and Jack Ryan, I’m talking about you!), you both want to consume faster and slow down. This is how I felt as […]
Buying Dave Robicheaux Another Round
I read Nick Petrie’s debut novel about Peter Ash, The Drifter, a few months ago and really liked it. It was a well-plotted noir novel set in Milwaukee and though many critics have compared Peter Ash, an Iraq War vet who also has a penchant for wandering, to Jack Reacher, I thought the similarity was superficial at best. ReadingThe Drifter and getting sucked into Ash’s struggles with PTSD and the guilt he feels over a fellow soldier’s suicide made me realize what was missing from Lee […]
You’ll Never Think about Eggplant the Same Way Again
Reading this just after finishing Honour caused a bit of whiplash. Balli Kaur Jaswal deals with similar themes of immigration, religious and cultural traditions, and gender roles, but the feel of this story is earthier and more empowering. It’s hard not to love a novel that explores the smoldering sexuality lurking inside every woman—no matter their age or life situation. As the daughter of immigrants, Nikki feels even more cross-cultural pressure between her British and Indian identities when she drops out of university, where she […]
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