Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Every few weeks, we gather round our kitchen table on a Friday evening, light candles, do a little davening, eat a little challah, and usher in the Sabbath. It doesn’t happen every week, but, when we do it, we are always happier for it. Our Shabbat ritual has settled into a routine, now. We don’t [...]
I was one of the first generations to grow up with rap music. When I was a child (in the good old days of Reaganomics) rap fell into two categories: message rap (Public Enemy) and party rap (Run D.M.C.). Message rap discussed politics and institutional racism and other important things. (Sometimes, but not always, Flavor [...]
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Did you have a baby doll, once?
I had lots of baby dolls. Orange Blossom I received the Christmas my little sister turned one; when you squeezed her stomach she “blew” orange-scented kisses. And Martha Jean (renamed after my grandmother), my first treasured Cabbage Patch Kid.
Eventually, these dolls were lost to history, so to speak. I [...]
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
My favorite photograph of my grandfather depicts a little boy, three or four, dressed in tattered clothes beside a dusty Model T Ford. He looks grim and determined. My grandmother said the first time she saw the picture it made her cry.
There were many reasons my grandfather left Arkansas for San Francisco, and there are [...]
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Upon the release of her private diaries, the (British) world was recently shocked to discover that beloved children’s author Alison Uttley, was, apparently, not very nice:
She created the enduringly charming children’s characters Little Grey Rabbit and Fuzzypeg the Hedgehog but the private diaries of Alison Uttley reveal the author to have been a controlling, difficult [...]
Thursday, September 10, 2009
I think this is less post than rant.
I read an interesting post on Racialicious last week, from the point of view of an MFA student who has realized that writers of color are, largely, not being taught to new practitioners of the craft. Even blockbuster authors like Toni Morrison are relegated to Ethnic Studies curricula:
To [...]
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Fear of loss of control is a common obstacle to love in romance novels. It’s often the alpha male hero, in particular, who can’t imagine himself giving power to his potential beloved because, then, he wouldn’t be entirely in control of his heart.
Dangerous Liaisons — I’ve recently re-read the novel and re-watched the movie [...]
This post is spoilery if you’re like me and are about ten years behind in your reading.
I’ve been pondering otherness in romance novels a lot since the RWAs. I have a project on the backburner that explores racial otherness, among other things, that had its genesis after I attended a reading by Beverly Jenkins. In [...]
This post was inspired by a post by Sarah on Smart Bitches.
The stereotypical romance reader is so easy to conjure that toungue-in-cheek blog posts and magazine articles don’t even bother to describe her.
A woman lies, bathrobe-clad, on a couch in an untidy room with As The World Turns blaring in the background or nestled in [...]
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(heard) Middlemarch
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