Weekly Wrap-Up

 Reading This Week (and Last)

• Last week, I finished The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus. My husband bought me it for my birthday since it was on my summer TBR and I'm glad he did! Audre, a girl from Trinidad, is sent to live with her father in Michigan after her mother catches her en flagrante with another girl from their church. Mabel, from Minneapolis, where Audre lands, becomes her lifeline in her new American world. The story is told from the viewpoint of both girls. Audre speaks in Trinidadian English Creole and Mabel in Black English. Honestly, it's the first book I've ever read written entirely in these dialects, and I love it. As a "standard American English" speaker (realizing that the standard part of that is a myth; it's just another dialect), it was easy to understand for the most part, but I did have fun looking up some words I either didn't know or that were used in an unfamiliar way. It was altogether a captivating, thoughtful story, and I wish I had this kind of cultural and LGBTQIA content growing up. I realized while reading that when I was growing up, I didn't read or hear of a single book with a teen LGBTQIA protagonist. Definitely not in a positive way. It actually made me cry, because I and so many other people could have used this book growing up. I hope and believe books like these are more available to today's generation.
• This week, I finished The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. This book has been on my TBR for a while, and I actually have a copy because the library copy in my possession became unexpectedly waterlogged last March (still no idea how that happened) and I had to pay for it. However, despite the noticeable water stain, it's completely legible. I couldn't get into it at the time and left it on my shelf, a treat for a later moment. Well, I opened it last week, and suddenly, it flew by! I suspect that last March, I was not in the mood for a light romp, but it definitely fits the bill these days. An alternate history set in the late 19th century, but in a fantasy world where some people have the ability to Forge, essentially create or animate magical objects, according to particular affinities for, say, metal or plants. Some people also have "mind affinities," which is less fleshed out. Our protagonists are a five-person team led by Severin, outcast by the Houses of France, basically an elite cabal that hoards magical objects and guards the mysterious Babel Fragment (there are several) of Europe. The mostly lighthearted story about Severin's team's capers and heists of the order's objects takes several swings at colonialism; Severin and all his friends are colonial descendants; half Algerian-half French; half Filipino-half-Spanish, Southeast Asian etc. Recommended for a fun time, and looks like a sequel is coming soon!

Watched This Week (and Last)

• I watched the entire second season of The Umbrella Academy in two days! My husband was like, don't even try to fool me, I know that came out yesterday! What can I say, I love this incredibly weird, magically powered family. Especially Klaus and Five. If you were a huge X-Men fan as a kid, or you like weird found family stories, this is your jam. Plus, so glad Vanya gets a better storyline this time around. 
• After watching ALL of Charmed's nine seasons during quarantine, I started in on Netflix's new reboot with two Hispanic sisters and their African-American half-sister who shows up after their mother's death and all three discover they have powers. Honestly, I think the reboot is even better! It plays with themes and tropes from the original show, but it's totally its own thing that you could watch without ever having seen the original. The new show is of this time (well, pre-pandemic) just like the original shows was of the '90s-early '00s. 
• I watched Married at First Sight on Netflix, and I was actually surprised how committed and mature most of the people on the show were. I was actively rooting for most of them, except the one guy who clearly was not committed and the poor woman they had paired him off with. It was definitely a few episodes longer than it needed to be, but definitely an interesting social experiment.
• I just started watching The West Wing for the first time, and wow! I can't believe how good this show is right off the bat. It's like balm for my soul. 

Other Things

• I did about five hours of meetings and trainings on Friday to get ready for the school year to start up. It's definitely going to be interesting. I'm actually excited and feel prepared to teach online, as opposed to last spring.