Tag Archives: other works

Book Club: Hunger by Roxane Gay Pt. 2

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Part 2 for each book is typically where we dive into other works by the author of our current read. So, let’s get to it!

Roxane Gay is currently a visiting professor at Yale University as well as a writer and editor. If you enjoyed Hunger, you should absolutely pick up some of her other work…

An Untamed State

A novel about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay and her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath.

 

Bad Feminist

A collection of essays  spanning politics, criticism, and feminism. Through this collection, Gay reveals herself as one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.

 

World of Wakanda

Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey were the first black women to be lead writers for Marvel in this spin-off from the company’s Black Panther title. In it, Gay spins a Wakandan love story.

 

Difficult Women

A collection of fictional short stories that follow different women as they journey through a traumatic experience or something that sets them apart from the societal norm.

 

More on SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter
More to READ: The Year I Learned Everything, We Do Not Speak of Graceful Things, On the Death of Sandra Bland and Our Vulnerable Bodies, and MORE.
More to WATCH: On writing tips, The Nickel Boys, and Pretty Woman.

Pictured above – Roxane Gay presenting “Confessions of a Bad Feminist” which you can watch HERE. 

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Got any thoughts? Leave ’em below! 

Part 3, coming soon!

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Book Club: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight Pt. 2

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Let’s learn a bit more about the author of our current book club book, shall we? Margaret Cho is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She is best known for her stand-up routines in which she critiques current political and social problems.

For a complete run-down of her career highlights, I recommend checking out this IMDb bio HERE. There are just too many for me to cover in detail.

Her groundbreaking ABC sitcom, All-American Girl (1994), while short lived, was the first sitcom to feature an all Asian-American cast. The show was based on her own life and stand-up comedy act.

Later, her 1999 off Broadway one-woman show, I’m the One That I Want, toured nationally to great critical acclaim and was even turned into a book and feature film.

I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight is her second book and was released in 2005 alongside an audio reading, a DVD of a live taping of her Assassin tour, and a national book tour.

While she continues to earn accolades in both TV and comedy, her activism is also highly celebrated. She has been honored by GLAAD, American Women in Radio and Television, Lamda Legal Defense, NGLTF, PFLAG, and many more for her work in promoting equal rights for all. She has received the First Amendment Award from the ACLU and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at LA Pride in 2011.

“If you say you’re not a feminist, you’re almost denying your own existence.
To be a feminist is to be alive.”

More from Margaret Cho —

Read:
I’m the One That I Want
Listen:
The Margaret Cho podcast
Watch:
Margaret Cho: Beautiful (FREE w/ Amazon Prime)

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Got any thoughts? Leave ’em below! 

Part 3, coming soon!

Book Club: The True Memoirs of Little K Pt. 2

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Let’s learn a bit more about the author of our current book club book, shall we? Adrienne Sharp is a critically acclaimed author and national bestseller.

Her work often immerses readers in the world of ballet. She knows it well. She began her ballet career at the age of seven. Sharp trained at the prestigious Harkness Ballet in New York.

But in the midst of her grueling and rigorous training, Sharp began to question her life’s path.

“One day, while doing grands battements at the barre, I had a traitorous thought, which was simply: I’m sick of doing this. So I left ballet and began the task of assembling a regular life – a difficult task when you don’t have the glamorous discipline of tooling the body. I began to write to help me get through it. And when I started to write about ballet, the two halves of my life came together.” 

She received her M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and was awarded a Henry Hoyns Fellowship at the University of Virginia.

Her other books include The Magnificent Esme Wells, First Love, The Sleeping Beauty, and White Swan, Black Swan. 

The True Memoirs of Little K was a finalist for the California Book Award, an Oprah Book Club selection, and has been translated into six languages.

More from Adrienne Sharp —
Read:
On The Magnificent Esme Wells
On historical ballet
Listen:
On Old Hollywood
Watch:
On Mathilde Kschessinska – Pt. 1 and Pt. 2

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Got any thoughts? Leave ’em below! 

Part 3, coming soon! 

Book Club: The Truths We Hold Pt. 2

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Let’s learn a bit more about the author of our current book club book, shall we? Kamala Harris is an attorney and politician who has served as the junior U.S. senator from California since 2017. She launched her presidential campaign on January 27, 2019.

As a senator, she has supported lowering taxes for middle and working class folk, DREAMers, sanctuary cities, marijuana legalization, and single-payer healthcare. Harris doesn’t back down from a battle and has taken on the criminal justice system, Wall Street Banks, and opponents of marriage equality.

She was born in Oakland, California and graduated from Howard University and UC, Hastings College of Law. She’s worked in the San Francisco D.A.’s office and the City Attorney of San Francisco’s office. She was elected the District Attorney of San Francisco in 2004.

In 2010, she became California’s Attorney General, and was reelected in 2014. Next, she became U.S. senator–the first of Jamaican or Indian ancestry.

Harris is married to Douglas Emhoff, through which she has two stepchildren–they call her their Momala.

“My mother had a saying: ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things,
but make sure you’re not the last.’“

More with Kamala Harris

Interviews —

KAMALA An interview on Call Your Girlfriend
In Pitch For President An interview on NPR’s Morning Edition
Seeking the Presidency to Preserve “The Truths We Hold” An interview on The Daily Show

Articles & Other Books —

To Shrink Jails, Let’s Reform Bail Op-ed in The New York Times
Senate Passage of SESTA Press release
Smart on Crime A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer
Superheroes Are Everywhere A children’s book

Videos —

Launches 2020 Campaign Oakland rally
On Giving Every Teacher in America a Raise An interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers
On Truancy Rates View from the Bay in 2009

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Got any thoughts? Leave ’em below! 

Book Club: Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower Pt. 2

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Let’s learn a bit more about the author of our first book club book, shall we? Tom Krattenmaker is a columnist for USA Today and the Director of Communications at Yale Divinity School.

His work primarily explores the discord, problems, and potential that arises from the intersection of religion and culture. Tom considers himself a secular progressive, and Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower stemmed from his idea that crucial moral guidance and insight can be gleaned from the Jesus found on the pages of the New Testament.

Previous books include Onward Christian Athletes (2009), a critique of Christianity in sports, and The Evangelicals You Don’t Know (2013), about the “new evangelicals” in our post-Christian America.

Not only an author and journalist, Krattenmaker is also a speaker — at the American Humanist Association conference on multiple occasions, as well as countless other events and many universities. He’s won awards from organizations like the American Academy of Religion, Religion Newswriters Association, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and the Muslim Educational Trust.

He currently calls New Haven, Connecticut home and you can follow him on Twitter HERE.

“On the mountains I’ve climbed, figuratively speaking, I’ve discovered, and then rediscovered again and again, the anchor that means the most to me, the anchor I find most worthy of my trust. It’s the ethic and the inspiration and, indeed, the way of an ancient figure with whom we are acquainted, but whose relevance to our lives and society might not be so readily apparent, and whose availability to us, if we are secular might come as a complete surprise.”

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More with Tom Krattenmaker

Posts and articles —

Real men get help when it’s needed–as it so often is Recent blog post
Christmas is a Time to Celebrate Jesus’s Moral Insights USA Today column
White progressives shouldn’t be smug about racism … USA Today column
Don’t Domesticate MLK Commentary in Religion News Service

Interviews —

Can You Be Secular and Still Love Jesus? An interview in Psychology Today
Reading is FUNdamental An interview on The Brain Candy Podcast
Do Religion and Pro Sports Mix? Faith Matters series on NPR

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Got any thoughts? Leave ’em below! Part 3, coming soon!