Category Archives: News

White Walkers Win- Fifth Digest

Posted in News, Self Reflection, TV by

*This post was written before Game of Thrones Season Six Episode Four premiered. It is in response to Episode Three: Oathbreaker.

Don’t mind me. I’m just over here crying for fictional characters. It’s a thing I’m used to, being a book nerd. I am in full mourning for Shaggy Dog. I have been enamored with the Stark direwolves since they very first episode. I mourned the loss of Lady and Grey Wind as well. I knew Jon Snow was gonna be fine because Ghost was fine and now I know poor, innocent baby Rickon is doomed because… well… Ramsey, but beyond that, Shaggy Dog is gone. I just can’t.

It is clear that none of these characters understand:

  1. The long game
  2. The White Walkers are coming! No of this is going to matter if you’re all dead.

 

I have consumed nothing but Game of Thrones related stories. Here are some of my favorites:

Elite Daily- Bran Theory

Arts.Mic- Hodor Theory

Also Nerdette does a fantastic recap podcast with Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me’s Peter Sagal.  I have just been listening to the episodes on repeat. They post generally at about 3:00 p.m. on Mondays. I believe they are going to have a live event at the close of the season. I’m looking forward to attending.

That’s all for me this week!

A Lot of Book Clubs: Fourth Digest

Posted in Books, News, Pop Culture by

Wired Book Club  reading The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison. It is their inaugural book. I’m probably not going to get to it this month, but I will try to get it soon. Maybe even write a review…?

My virtual book club, The Blissful Bookworms, is reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I was addicted after about 20 pages. Look at that cover!

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Black Girls are from the Future is reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston. This is a childhood favorite of mine and I have endless feels, which I will not go into now, about Zora Neale Hurston. For now, know that she was the bomb and did/does not get the credit she deserves.

Veronica Roth’s new book. Make. your. money. honey! Take all my little coins. Also, Ms. Roth will be at BookCon and maybe, hopefully, so will a few ARCs.

I’m still trying to get over Game of Thrones. I just watched episode 3 this morning and I’m just like…
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via GIPHY

So, that’s all for me this week.

Still Drinking #Lemonade-Third Digest

Posted in Books, News, Pop Culture, TV by

I am still sipping on this ice cold, refreshing #Lemonade that Beyonce served us all. Some profound writers and thinkers are drinking it too.

Brittany Luse, a fellow Bison, wrote for Refinery 29

Roxanne Gay via The Guardian

Janet Mock gave me chills with her epic rundown of Lemonade, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the burden of black womanhood.

The New Yorker even had commentary

Also, April 27th, marked 100 days until the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I love the Olympics. The Olympics ads are, to me, just as good as the Superbowl ads. P&G has been winning for several years with their Thank You Mom campaign. The SoChi ad is still available here, but the one for the 2016 Summer Olympics is heavier and brought me to tears at my desk at work. It’s amazing. Not only is P&G sending a powerful message about the strength and importance of mothers, but they do it by showing ALL the moms (read: colorful moms). This is way to make ads people. Follow them.

#IndependentBookstoreDay was April 30th. J and I spent the day on a self-made book crawl. It may have been the best thing to happen to me this year. So many good books! It’ll get a separate post soon.  Here’s J’s post and we were together, so it’s kind of the same.

Hot drinks and new books. That is living your best life


Me going into The Book Cellar. Third Bookstore of the day.


That’s all for me. Have a great week!

P.S.: If you have an iPhone, I set up a Litsy account. Litsy is the child of Goodreads and Instagram. It’s great. You can find me there as Lucky_LaDee.

#Lemonade and Other Things- Second Digest

Posted in News, TV by

Mondays are hard for me. I promise I’m trying.

A steaming cup of coffee with words ,

Image credit: Bookwitty

 

On to the big news, #LEMONADE!

I doubted, but I’ve been converted thoroughly. Beyoncé is everything. Lemonade made me feel like I could take over the world. I’m used to being invisible. The brands, performers, and politicians I love hardly see me, or at least hardly openly admit to seeing me. On national television, for an hour,  Beyoncé said to every black girl and woman in the world, “I see you. I am you. I am proud. You should be too.” I just can’t stop watching and listening to it.

Mashable did a fantastic breakdown of other the other wonderful Black women featured in Lemonade. I needed it.

In other big news, #GameofThrones. Quick recap:

  1. The. Red. Woman! What?!?!
  2. Jon Snow…
  3. Yes Theon! (A phrase I never thought I would say)

Nerdette Podcast, that I love with many loves, does a delightful recap podcast every Monday. They’re recap is much better than mine.

Last, but certainly not least, Prince made is final exit this week. I just can’t. I seriously can not say any more about him. I can not even try to do his life, his work, and his/it’s importance any justice at all.

This New Yorker Magazine cover is the best I can do.


Have a great week!

P.S.: If you have an iPhone, I set up a Litsy account. Litsy is the child of Goodreads and Instagram. It’s great. You can find me there as Lucky_LaDee.

 

I Read Other Things Too – My First News Digest

Posted in News, Pop Culture by

I’m a journalist by trade, technically, and I do spend a lot of time each day reading articles and  newsletters from my favorite outlets. I’ve decided to compile a collection of news I think is interesting, relevant, and/or problematic. I’m basically making a digest each week.

It’s new. Just go with me.

The Washington Post’s, “In 6 graphs, here’s why young women don’t support Hillary Clinton as much as older women do” for obvious reasons.

The Post also did another great story about how long commutes are the worst. I know from personal experience.

HuffPost Black Voices, “Gospel Singer Tasha Cobbs Says Black Church Can Help With Depression. I thought this headline was misleading. It’s a wonderful story, though. This hit home for me because I am hyper aware of the dangers of untreated mental illness, especially in relation to people of faith and people of color.

 

Why This Raccoon Is a Big Deal

*Spoiler* in the full video he figures it out and manages to eat the cotton candy, a.k.a. candy floss internationally (learned something new), on the third try.

I almost cried real tears the first time I watched the original video clip. I couldn’t believe how moved I was by this, but after thinking about it it really boils down to this.

  1. This raccoon was given a good thing – cotton candy.
  2. The treat disappears suddenly; he isn’t even able it enjoy it.
  3. The raccoon has no idea what happened to this great thing he had.

As a young adult who is frequently getting kicked around by life, I. Get. It. That look of total despair as he searched for a treat that we all know has just dissolved into the water. That is real life. That is adulthood. Sometimes, *cough* often, things just go wrong in life and we have no idea why.

But just as often, we figure it out after 1 or 2 more tries and we get to actually eat our treats.

Here’s to figuring it out in 2016!

View post on imgur.com

 

Poverty and Privilege

Yesterday, I read a Washington Post article, A Lonely Road, about a young, black, mother, who lives in poverty and the struggles she — and others in similar situations — face as she searches for employment.

This paragraph stood out to me particularly:

“The others in Scott’s life were largely out of touch. One of Scott’s siblings had just gotten out of prison; another was in the military. Scott’s old boyfriend — Za’Niyah’s father — was who knows where, out of contact for a year and probably for good. Scott, who long ago lost contact with her mother, spent many years in the foster system and several more with her grandmother, sharing the home Immediately after I read this paragraph, I realized that I was something I would have never considered myself — privileged. with 15 others.”

“A Lonely Road,” is a beautifully written long form article that made me hyper-aware of my own privilege as a child of educated, employed, middle class, parents. I have a vast network of employed family and friends, many of whom would be willing and are assisting me in various ways. I realized my situation would be much more similar to this woman’s were it not for that network. I’m very grateful.