Americanah centers on a love story between Ifemelu, beautiful and outspoken, and Obinze, self-assured and thoughtful. They fall head over heals for each other as teenagers in troubled Nigeria, still under military dictatorship. Constant strikes put strain on the educational system so Ifemelu heads to college in the United States while Obinze stays in Africa. In the States, Ifemelu deals with culture shock, isolation, and depression. Eventually she starts a successful blog where she writes about race from the perspective of a non-American black person. […]
Now this is what I call Sci-Fi
I am so far behind on reviewing that I’ve started to forget what I’ve read, although I recall a three day Courtney Milan marathon so Malin and Mrs Julien will be happy when I get round to reviewing them. First though, the best SF novel I’ve read since Anathem. Mark Watney is one sixth of the third manned mission to Mars, and it turns out that third time is not, in fact, the charm: during evacuation six days into the mission, he is left […]
The Birth of the Bimbo
… kissing your hand may make you feel very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was one of the most popular books of its day. First serialized in Harper’s Bazaar in 1924 (published as a book in 1925), it was an immediate hit among the general public and was widely acclaimed among writers such as George Santayana, H.L. Mencken, William Faulkner, and Edith Wharton. Gentlemen seems to have been the inspiration for the “dumb blonde” trope, immortalized by Marilyn […]
The tech millionaire and the secretary this is not
Katie Clark went with her boyfriend when he wanted to move to Alaska and worked to save up for her own college education while putting him through college. Knowing that her family weren’t huge fans, she didn’t tell them that she actually got married while they were there. By the time it was Katie’s turn to go to college, it was too late. Her husband had emptied their joint savings account, leaving her a note saying he was off to find himself, hiking in Nepal. […]