Melissa Harris-Perry hosts a show on MSNBC on the weekends. She’s known for having actual people on the show to discuss news stories that impact them – she doesn’t invite six old white men on to discuss whether birth control should be covered under the Affordable Care Act. If she’s talking about an issue, she seeks to invite people on who KNOW about the topic, and who, if possible, are affected by the topic. So it makes sense that she would want to write a […]
The Kid by Dan Savage
I really, really liked this book. If you have ever read an article by Dan Savage, and found yourself shocked or disgusted, then do not read this book. If frank descriptions of sex acts, issues with adopting “damaged goods kids” or the various reasons people procreate (Savage’s main reason – or so he claims – was the excuse to get fat, which I totally understand) offend you, then do not read this book. The man does not pull punches. I personally found his honesty incredibly […]
an Education
I saw the film An Education back when it was nominated for the 2010 Oscars; the book was a very quick, enjoyable read. I didn’t realize when I started reading that the film was based on an article Barber wrote not the memoir. The movie actually only covers the first 40 or 50 pages of the book. So the story anyone who knows the movie is that: Lynn Barber began an affair with a much older (con)man named Simon when she was sixteen. The experience […]
Spirituality is a Complicated Subject
One of the first readings in my new course of study focused on psychotherapy and spirituality, I embark upon a journey of discovering what exactly spirituality is, what it might entail, how it might be different in every individual person, and what exactly my own spirituality might be. The concept is complex, and reducing it down into a short little introductory book like Philip Sheldrake attempts is no easy feat. Does he succeed? Well… Maybe in some ways, but not entirely. My full (but also […]
Confessions of a Teenage Stalker
I don’t follow Pamie.com like I used to, my sister usually forwards me the highlights, but she was one of the first blogs I read way back when. I’ve read all her novels and was pretty excited when her first memoir was announced. Notes to Boys focuses on Pam’s raging hormones while she goes through adolescence in small town Texas. Little Pam (as she affectionately refers to her younger self) is intense. I cannot believe she published some of these letters and poems because they […]
For the Greater Good?
Others have reviewed this for Cannonball Read already, so here are the basics in case you missed it: Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who died at Johns Hopkins, where she had been admitted due to complications from cervical cancer. She had radium treatment at one point, and when she received the treatment, a biopsy of her tumor was taken at the request of a researcher. From there, the cells were cultured and became some of the first that would grow, and keep on growing, […]