What’s the best way to get over the ex who dumped you for being overweight? Hook up with a hot physical trainer, of course! Except, N.R. Walker’s The Weight of It All (2016) isn’t a romance about revenge but about self love and acceptance. Henry Beckett is 35 and has just been dumped by his live-in, boyfriend of eight years for being “old” and overweight. He’s accused of being old, apparently, because he lived a life that did not include going to clubs, running in the park, […]
Population Control 101: China
What would China’s population be today if the government had not stepped in to control the population growth? In 1979, China faced a problem: With one billion people, the country made up 25% of world’s population. In 1980, to combat this problem, China instituted its population-control program: the one child per family policy, an unprecedented, radical take on population control. Mei Fong’s One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment (2016) details the unintended consequences of that policy. Read the full review.
Not Really About Loving Cleve
Sixteen-year old Zander Osborne is spending her summer at Camp Padua, a camp for at-risk teens who seem to suffer from some form of a social-emotional-psychological issue. There’s Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic; Alex Trebek, better-known as Bek, a pathological liar; and the titular Grover Cleveland who anticipates becoming a schizophrenic. These four teens are at the center of this coming-of-age story of teens searching to feel grounded in who they are. Read the full review.
Humanized & Immortalized
There was a heaviness to my chest after I finished Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010). I was in the midst of what felt like a social, emotional, philosophical, and moral gyre that highlighted the uglies of science, race, poverty, and many —isms. I couldn’t put into words what I was feeling because there was just too much. Read the full review.