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So there are a few things I wanted to write about but dumped them because they weren’t (aren’t?) interesting enough for their own entire post. But I really want to write about them because they are entertaining me. So here they are:
What I’m Watching
I know I say I don’t watch TV (my apartment even comes with a TV and a cable account that I have never used), but I do watch some programs. They are definitely better discovering them later so you can binge, but Rise is worth streaming from NBC.com with the ads and desktop-only option. And the waiting a week for the next episode. It’s the true story of Truman High School in Levittown, PA, and their drama program. It’s a working-class town, and one teacher has big dreams. Lou Volpe (the teacher who volunteers to take the drama program) pulls off his dreams, and his school becomes the testing ground for Broadway. It’s what Glee could have been if it was set in a real school. It’s Auli’i Cravalho’s first live-action role after making us fall in love with her voice in Moana. It’s raw and real, and I end up in tears in nearly every episode. It’s also said to be based on the book Drama High, but that’s more a rather dull biography of Lou Volpe; I struggled to get 30 pages in.
What I’m Reading Online
There’s a brilliant new trend of righting wrongs. News organizations are looking over their history and looking at the messages their stories sent. Racial stereotypes that we know are false are being apologized for and corrected. And stories of amazing women and people of color are now finally being told. As the New York Times puts it, “Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. Now, we’re adding the stories of remarkable women.”
Their Overlooked series is excellent. These people took chances and did amazing things, but their stories were hidden because they weren’t the socially acceptable heroes of the day. I’m glad we now know better.
Ida B Wells is my favorite. She’s mainly remembered for fighting for civil rights in American’s south, but she’s so much more. She dropped out of school at 16 to teach and care for her siblings. In 1892 she wrote an investigative journalism piece showing the truth behind the lynchings she was seeing. She developed techniques still used by journalists today.
I’d love to say all these women died generations ago, but Marsha P Johnson died in 1992.
What Books I’m Reading
I just finished reading How I Resist, a collection of essays, songs, and even a list edited by Maureen Johnson. Its release date is May 15, and the review is coming soon. While aimed at teenagers, it’s an inspiration to all.
Next is The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan for the British Books reading challenge. A friend dropped the second book in the series over as a reminder to include the fluffy mystery as a possible ThriftBooks blog post. I’ve borrowed the first from the library.
My next upcoming releases are The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green and The Boy from Tomorrow by Camille DeAngelis.
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