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Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (Little Brown) By the way, this is the best abstract illustration of a vulva on a book? Right? The cover was designed and illustrated by Lauren Harms and I’m obsessed.
Since the Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked at the beginning of May, showing the court is posed to overrule Roe v. Wade any day now, I can’t stop thinking about a book I originally read when it was published in 2018.
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Sometimes it seems like every late night show is the same these days: a bland white guy tells jokes, celebrities Zoom in from their magnificent houses but only show a boring white wall, and then it’s all over. Sure, occasionally a show will feature a not-white, not-man, but that still seems to be the exception more than the rule. If you love comedy and are looking for a show to break you out of your funk, then look no further than The Amber Ruffin Show (streaming weekly on Peacock!).
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Mary: Dear Martin is the 2017 debut of Nic Stone, who has since had a pretty successful career in YA lit. Stone is about to release the sequel to Dear Martin, Dear Justyce, and I’m personally really hyped about it.
Dear Martin follows Justyce McAllister as he’s mistakenly arrested––violently––then left with a lot of confusion and emotion over the arrest. Justyce undertakes a personal growth project by writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (the titular Martin). Through his letters, he investigates racial prejudice in his Georgia prep school, as well as the country at large.
I don’t want to say what I most want to say just yet because, well, it’s a pretty big spoiler. The book takes a turn partway through and becomes kind of intense. So consider this a ~spoiler warning.~
I wanted to write something Easter-themed for today’s blog post, but after typing “easter,” “bunny,” and “rabbit” into all of my streaming apps and finding nothing even remotely appealing to watch, I decided to search “Jesus.” That was when I came across 2006’s Jesus Camp, which despite its acclaim, I’d never seen.
Just a couple of weeks ago, President Donald Trump said he wanted to have our country “reopened” by Easter, saying, “So, I think Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time.” Watching Jesus Camp for the first time in 2020, I was surprised by how much the film resonates with the current moment, especially when it comes to the role Christianity plays in politics.
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On its face, Superstore is a show about the rights of retail workers, laborers people sometimes overlook or abuse. A disgruntled cast of employees struggle with daily events in a Walmart-style box store named Cloud9, with plenty of interstitial weird scenes from customers (think, a melting carton of ice cream in an aisle of kitchen appliances, which the show revisits throughout the episode as it slowly melts).
Created by Justin Spitzer, whose pedigree includes Scrubs and The Office, Superstore has a comedy pedigree to be proud of. The writing walks a line between heartfelt and funny, mean and realistic. The cast is stacked, with America Ferrera both starring and producing, and Ben Feldman (who you might remember as the guy who cut his nipple off on Mad Men) acting alongside her as co-star. Other notable cast members are Lauren Ash (playing the weird, gruff Dina), Colton Dunn (Garret), Nico Santos (Mateo), Nicole Bloom (Cheyenne), and Mark Mckinney (as the overtly religious Glenn). Mark Mckinney, a true comedy treasure, is a particular gem among the cast, as he balances the role of store-father and boss well. With this ensemble, the show is bound to be funny, but it’s also full of such heart that it deserves a more critical eye.
(Spoilers for seasons 1-4 of Superstore to follow)
It was a simpler time back then. The neo-noir teen detective show Veronica Mars first aired in September of 2004 and ran for for seasons, ending in 2007. This was before the #MeToo movement by about a decade, but the show still took a progressive look at rape culture. In addition to defending rape victims throughout the series, Veronica Mars was also a victim of sexual assault. The fact that Veronica Mars represented and stood up for victims meant something to a lot of people. During its original pre-Donald Trump run, the series also never shied away from dealing with issues of classism, sexism, or racism.
But although the show was canceled in 2007, no one, not even creator Rob Thomas nor Kristen Bell, was ready to let this show go. The show came back for a crowd-funded (hello, I was one of the crowd-funders) movie in 2014. And now in 2019, 15 years after the show originally aired, Veronica Mars and most of the original cast of characters are back.
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Happy 5th of July. It's the day after Independence Day, and you might have a bit of a fireworks and freedom hangover today. If you are an angry liberal like me, you might also be wondering whether America is worth celebrating right now. You might be thinking back to happier Julys when our president wasn't a racist and when children weren't being held in literal cages and when Roe v. Wade didn't seem like it was getting overturned any time soon. You know, happy days when all Joe Biden wanted was an ice cream and our presidential memes were about friendship. You know the ones.
Read moremade with love by emily, kelli, mary, and susan. <3 thanks to Katelyn Elaine Photography for our group photos.