Books, Fiction

Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill

Read Yes
Length 176
Quick Review Nikita Gill transforms traditional fairy tales into beautiful pieces of poetry in Fierce Fairytales extending beyond the stories we are familiar with. Reading this was supremely satisfying.

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Reading Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill

This is one of those tiny books that pack a powerful punch. Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill is an intense 176 pages of poetry. She uses traditional stories to talk about issues affecting today’s world. It is a seriously feminist undertaking, but she advocates for men and women within the pages.

The stories are retellings. Although, I wouldn’t call it a traditional retelling. Some provide background, others new perspective, and some are epilogues. The women in the stories are strong without need of being saved. They are powerful yet underestimated. The women manipulate men the only way they can – the way women did for centuries – by allowing them to believe the women are in need of saving all the while gaining more power and confidence in themselves.  

Gill uses fairytales to discuss abuse of many kinds because abuse is extremely present within them to begin with, but since we grew up with them as normal, we view them as acceptable behavior. Some of the abuse Gill touches on in Fierce Fairytales is gaslighting, rape, domestic violence, abandonment, and more. There is also a lot of focus on racism; how people of color feel they and their struggle has been forgotten by the world and society.

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Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill

The book is a book of poems, but some of the poems are written in prose form. Even her prose has a beautiful cadence to it. Her syntax, language, and rhythm pulls you in deeper as you read. The poems are often paired with illustrations, which pull the reader into the story even more. The combination is stunning. It is reminiscent of Rupi Kaur’s poetry in the sun and her flowers (read my review: here).

One of my favorite things about Fierce Fairytales is the complexity of it. Gill forces the point that nothing is simple, black-and-white, cut-and-dry. Life and abuse are complicated issues. People have reasons and motivating factors behind their actions. Abuse leads to abuse is a running theme through the book. In one story, Gill explains Cinderella. In the following story, Gill takes on the perspective of the evil stepmother. This juxtaposition reveals the complexities of life; showing people are not born evil.

Fierce Fairytales is a piece of literature, which will stick with me for quite a long time.

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Memorable Quotes
“Princes fail all the time.”
“First and foremost, girls are survivors.”
“A clever woman is more lethal | than a freshly crafted wand,”
“anxiety makes more heroes than history would care to repeat.”

Title: Fierce Fairytales; Poems & Stories to Stir Your Soul
Author: Nikita Gill
Publisher: Hachette Books
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780316420747

Books, NonFiction

Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies

Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review A collection of women’s stories and experiences with feminist ranging from hopefully to angry. Curated by Scarlett Curtis and in partnership with Girl Up. You can’t not feel empowered reading it.

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Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies by Scarlett Curtis in Austin, Texas.

I knew I would love Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and other lies, an incredible anthology, as I read the first essay by Evanna Lynch – aka Luna Lovegood – talking about cats and period panties and the fear of bleeding on someone’s couch. Honestly, who hasn’t been there? There is a vivid authenticity coursing through the pages with the strongest potency of passionate women.

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Feminists Don’t Wear Pink by Scarlett Curtis at Grafitti Park in Austin, Texas.

The pink cover is just the beginning of tearing down ill-founded preconceived notions about the hairy, man-hating feminist ogres instilled in our psyches by the patriarchy. Every contributing author has her own feminism just as unique as her. One thing is clear, their feminism is as unboxable as the universe. Some like pink, others like pants, some dream of being mothers, some just want careers. In their own way, they are working towards equality and opportunity for everyone to live their lives to their own drums.

Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and other lies contains a multitude of essays with a variety of lengths, narratives, messages, tones, and more. Each woman tells her own bit. Some women are joyous and other are angry while others find humor in what others some describe sorrow. Feminism has as many emotions as people do with just as much complexity. Contributing authors range from the incredibly famous to advocates to the unknown working behind the scenes. Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Jameela Jamil, Claire Horn, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, and so many other incredible women. Each woman has an incredible voice filled with experience and brilliance. I loved every moment of reading.

With the holidays coming up. I highly suggest stuffing this pink treasure into the stockings of the girls and women you love most, and also the males should read it too. Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and other lies is a really wonderful and inspiring book.

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Memorable Quotes
“Does femininity impede feminism?” Evanna Lynch
“14. My religion mandates sexual satisfaction from my partner. What does yours do?” Amani Al-Khatahtbeh
“We have a lot of work to undo…” Jameela Jamil
“Learning to have sex from porn is like learning how to drive from The Fast and The Furious.” Jameela Jamil
“Women hold up the whole world.” Akilah Hughes

Title: Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and other lies
Author: Scarlett Curtis
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781984819178

Books

My Life on the Road

Read Yes
Length 276
Quick Review Steinem is a feminist icon having dedicated her life to activism, which kept her on the road. She finally put pen to paper to document her journey.

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This book was an adventure in and of itself because my dog took a bite out of the middle. After the ingestion of ten pages, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gloria Steinem’s My Life on the Road.

As a woman who spends a great deal of time traveling, I enjoyed Steinem’s stories immensely because I identify with her narrative on so many levels. A lone woman on the road, wariness is a familiar companion. Steinem repeatedly found herself in uneasy scenarios only to be pleasantly surprised by the kindness and complexity of humanity. This has become one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Steinem’s nomadic life began with her father’s wandering ways. As a child without four walls to call her own, she lusted after a normal life only to realize the road was her normal. After college, she decided to go to India for two years where her love of traveling and being apart of the people began shaping her future. She talks about her stories with people, shared experiences, feeling of isolation, and how people would recross her path in the most unusual ways.

Steinem is known for her fierce activism for women’s rights, and one of the most powerful moments in the book is when she stated simply: “When humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses.” Her entire life on the road was for the purpose of leveling the playing field for all people regardless of gender, orientation, or ethnicity. As a traveler, she often dealt with feelings of isolation, which parallels the isolation many feminists deal with, “those of us, women and men, who identify with feminism are still made to feel isolated, wrong, out of step.” One of the most enlightening parts of My Life on the Road is when she discusses the Houston Women’s Convention in 1977. I never knew it existed, and she was there a leader and part of the movement.

A constant traveler herself, Steinem often found comrades in those who traveled for a living. She learned about the community cross-country truckers have, and the dangers and obstacles female drivers face. She learned of the struggle and marginalization of “stewardesses” in airlines as they fought for rights and equality to be known as flight attendants. Steinem could connect with people because she was always with people.

Steinem isn’t only serious, she’s incredibly funny with gems like: “It was like riding in a placenta with Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, or Chaka Khan.” She is funny, smart, and in touch. I can’t recommend it enough.

Memorable Quotes
“Perhaps our need to escape into media is a misplaced desire for the journey.”
“Also I’d, never thought about the racist reasons for controlling women’s bodies.”
“We might have known sooner that the most reliable predictor of whether a country is violent within itself – or will use military violence against another country – is not poverty, natural resources, religion, or even degree of democracy; it’s violence against females. It normalizes all other violence.”
“Altogether, I can’t imagine technology replacing bookstores completely…”
“If you travel long enough, every story becomes a novel.”
“… the presence of any woman devalued the masculine domain.”
“the power to make people laugh is also a power, so women have been kept out of comedy.”

Title: My Life on the Road
Author: Gloria Steinem
Publisher: Random House (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9780679456209

 

Lifestyle

Invest in Books and Friends

Happy Feminist Friday!

I think two of the most important things women can invest in are books and friendship. These two things have a lot in common. They’re both time consuming. They cost. Books cost money; friends can cost money (going out, gas, etc.). They are absolutely priceless!!!

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Books
Well, I obviously think these are one of the most important things anyone can invest in. Not like I’m a book blogger or anything…

Books for a really, really, really long time were inaccessible. They were expensive to make. Then the Gutenberg Press happened. Woohoo! Technology helped make the production of books simpler, faster, cheaper, which allowed more books into the world creating more authors and more readers. Before the Gutenberg Press, you had to be super rich or clergy to have books. The other big reason books were inaccessible for so long: literacy. The only way you learned to read was if you were – again – super rich or clergy. Rates of literacy began to rise after books became more accessible………..

I forgot to mention one teensy little thing. Previous paragraph is pretty much just about men. Women reading, yeah that, it’s a new thing. Women didn’t read. They weren’t taught. Education was a thing for men. Educated women? They existed… Very few and far between. That history is loooong.

Anyways, books are important. It’s still a fairly new phenomenon. There are still many places in this world where reading is rare, but I’m lucky to live in a place and a time where reading is easy and inexpensive!

Women should read because knowledge is power. Enough said.

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Friends
Friends are super important. Books are not my only friends. I wouldn’t say I have tons and tons of friends. I have several really close friends. I am beyond blessed to have each and every one of them.

Funny enough, books have lead me to several of my friendships.

My best friend and I met in the library at college. We both worked there. I was a senior; she was a freshman. It was her first day of college, and it was my last first day of college. I trained her. One thing lead to another, and she has never gotten rid of me since.

My blogger bestie, Maria, and I solidified our friendship over books and reading and the general accumulation and discussion of knowledge. We lived on the same dorm floor our freshman year in college – a handful of years ago, now. We met and hit it off pretty much immediately. I would love to say books were the catalyst, but it was a combination of books and fashion. We LOVE both. Fast forward a handful of years. We had fallen out of touch because life. We kept tabs, but hadn’t talked or seen each other in YEARS. Living on opposite sides of the country, we each entered the blogosphere within months of each other, literally two. She is a fashion/lifestyle blogger: Millennial Fashionista. I am a literary/lifestyle blogger. We support one another. We chat often. We share blogging woes and highs. Books brought us together many years ago, and books helped rekindle our friendship. Click here to see us in action on her page!

Friendship is such an important aspect in our lives as people and women. It’s important to have a support system. Friends provide a place to be our weird selves.

Books and Friends. My two favorite things!

 

Lifestyle

This Feminist Wears Heels

Happy Feminist Friday! I’ll write on this topic every so often because it’s important, and I read a lot of books with strong female characters and feminist undercurrents.

My feminism is intersectional and inclusive and all about equality. No one is better than anyone else. We all deserve the same rights and opportunities. I don’t care if you’re female, male, trans, gay, straight, bi, liberal, conservative, religious, non-religious, have similar beliefs, think I’m full of crap or everything in between. You all matter. You all deserve respect. You are all part of my rainbow, and you’re all beautiful. I have said it before. I will say it again. I will repeat it until I die. And I hope it’s something people remember about me.

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This feminist is a hard core feminist. I believe we should all live our lives however we want to live our lives. I will never push my beliefs on you, and I hope you give me the same. I will never judge a woman or man on how they lead their lives.

This feminist LOVES heels. I love dresses. I love… well I like makeup. I love clothes. I love looking nice. I love having long hair. I love having shaved legs. I love bows and pearls and lace. I love cooking. I love baking. I hate cleaning. I love taking care of those close to me. I love to sew and knit. Actually, I’ll probably take care of anyone crossing my path who needs it. I love kids. I love men. I love ballet. I love music. I love art.

I live a life that screams conservative to those who don’t know me well because I am attracted to very stereotypical female activities. I’m very liberal, but I feel comfortable in the choices I make. They make me happy. The thing is: I have the choice to enjoy the things I enjoy. I wasn’t forced into them. I’m not pressured into them. When I don’t want to cook, I order in. When I don’t want to bake, I don’t bake. When I don’t want to wear heels or makeup or a dress or whatever, I wear sweats and flip flops.

I have the privilege and ability and education to live my life the way I want to live it. Sure, I experience pressures to be a certain way, but I have the confidence to live my life my way. My way wears heels.

 

Books, NonFiction

Year of Yes

Read: Yes
Length: 
Quick Review: Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night and lives in Shondaland. But she wasn’t happy, so she embarked on a year of saying yes.

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Shonda Rhimes grew up in Chicago, graduated from Dartmouth then USC School of Cinematic Arts, and went on to write movies in Hollywood. In 2005, she launched her first show: Grey’s Anatomy. She went on to create several more shows. Today, every show on ABC on Thursday nights she has brought to life.

Rhimes begins her memoir with a disclaimer, which states she is old and a liar. She loves lying. She’s a professional liar. Because… it’s her job! She’s a writer. Playing make believe is her job. No matter how much she loves lying, she’s keeping it real in her memoir. She then has a prologue about the events leading her to her year of yes. Then her book begins.

Rhimes is a successful woman of color in Hollywood, which is still rare. She was unhappy even though she seemed to have everything: a job, money, TV shows, success, power, family, friends, and three beautiful daughters. She decided to spend a year saying yes to the opportunities that came her way. As the year progressed, she began to notice her quality of life changing.

I can personally identify with her childhood as a bookworm and potential, future writer. As a child, she used to shove books down the back of her pants, so she could sneak off and read. When I was little, I couldn’t wait to own a purse. At 10, I bought my first purse; it was big enough to hold a book, and that’s all I ever carried in it. I now carry huge purses because I still bring a book everywhere.

The thing I loved most about Year of Yes, is how real Rhimes kept it. I want to be her friend, quite honestly. She cut the crap. She let people in showing her fragility. She’s a single mom. How does she do it? With help. She is incredibly shy and has stage fright. How did she get over it? She said yes to Jimmy Kimmel.

Year of Yes is her memoir, but I found it so empowering. I don’t want to mom, but her words on motherhood were beyond touching. I wish I could memorize her pseudo-rant because it was perfect. She’s inspiring as a F.O.D. First. Only. Different.

Shonda Rhimes is a remarkable woman with so much ahead of her. An entire generation grew up with her TV shows. I still remember the very first night Grey’s Anatomy aired. She has impacted a shift in television and the way we see the world. She is an inspiration even before reading her book. It’s important for our role models to be something other than perfect. Rhimes tears down the walls of her perfection revealing a woman with faults and imperfections. She’s allowing a whole generation of young women, who look up to her, to be human with bumps in their personalities realize they too can be an F.O.D.

Memorable Quotes
“Sometimes the toilet paper does not win.”
“I am never more sure of myself about a topic than when I have absolutely no experience with it.”
“We’ve all been taught to shame and be shamed.”

Title: Year of Yes; How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person
Author: Shonda Rhimes
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9781476777122