Day: September 24, 2018

#UpbeatAuthors: Tolerance & Stereotypes

My children attended an “inner city” high school I don’t think they ever thought of it in that light, though, unless the media made a big deal about school performance. They’re both proud alumni. They were active in band, chorus, drama, National Art Honor Society. Both got into good colleges with no problems. There were advanced placement classes available–maybe not as many as in some of the wealthier suburban districts, but some.

They attended religious education with students from some of those wealthier suburban districts and were stunned when they were asked, “Aren’t you afraid? Don’t your school mates come to school with weapons?”

“Where did they come up with that?” X-Chromo asked.

Stereotype. Inner-city school with minority students = danger.

I was working in local TV at the time and was part of a committee that decided which Public Service Announcements (PSA) would air on our station.  This was not long after Columbine. There had been a few other school shootings. One organization sent us a PSA deploring gun violence. The problem with the spot was that all the “students” with guns were black. The assistant news director–who happened to be a black man–and I both immediately vetoed the spot. For the same reason. The people who put the spot together used stereotypes to scare people, when in fact every school shooting at that point had been done by white kids.   After vetoing the spot, I went on to list a bunch of local situations in schools that had all been perpetrated by white students.

I am glad my children grew up in a multi-cultural environment. Their friends are of many races, colors, religious backgrounds, and sexual orientations. They’ve moved beyond tolerance and even past acceptance, to normal.

 

 

Cast Iron

I hang out on Facebook a lot. I like it there. It’s a great way to stay in touch with people. One of the things I see on a regular basis is a photo of a cast iron frying pan and the question, “Have you ever used one of these?”

My answer: the only thing I don’t use cast iron for is cooking pasta, because it takes too long for the water to come to a boil.

Behold: my pans and pans.

Best Christmas Scene in a Book

Silver Lining by Maggie Osborne. I am on my second copy of this book. The first one disintegrated from overuse. I once lent the book to a friend, who had it for months. She simply couldn’t get into it in the beginning: “That stupid silver spoon,” she kept saying. But she finally succumbed and ended up loving the story.

Silver Lining is not a Christmas book, but I always read it at Christmas time. In my opinion (and since this is my blog, my opinion is the only one that counts) the story contains one of the best Christmas scenes ever written.

The heroine is an orphan who was sent west on an orphan train. She’s never celebrated any holiday. The family of her marriage-of-convenience husband strive to make sure her first ever “real” Christmas is a good one. Oh, there’s tension and conflict in that chapter, but the plucky heroine lets nothing dampen her excitement of being part of a family at Christmas.

Do you have a favorite Christmas scene in a book or a romance you read every year at Christmas?

Book Reading Bingo: Erotica

The other day I was looking for books to fill in squares on my Book Reading Bingo card and came across a book given to me by a friend that claimed to be Erotica, which was an open square on my card.

The Dirty Secret by Kira A. Gold is so much more than erotica. I was completely gobsmacked by this book. I thought it would go into my donation pile when I was finished reading it. Nope. It’s a keeper.

Before I start waxing poetic, let me share what I didn’t like about the book: the transitions were off-kilter, awkward, weird. I often found myself lost. The story didn’t flow in every spot, which was jarring.

There weren’t a lot of twist or turns, and only one was what I considered major. That is not a bad thing. Yes, the book was graphically sexy. But sex wasn’t the only erotic thing going on in the story, and that’s what made the novel so special.

What happens when a young architect hires a just-starting-out set designer to decorate his entry in  a housing development showcase? He wants something feminine. Something that will appeal to women.

And off we go.

The story is filled with color. With textures. With light. All lush. The rich imagery is nothing short of design porn. I read several reviews on Goodreads after I posted my own review. Beige people gave it beige reviews. People who are afraid of color, of light, of texture will not enjoy this book.  Or maybe they won’t understand the tapestry woven by the author to heighten the standard inclusion of the five senses.  Several Goodreads reviewers called the decor “girly.” No, and no, and no. Everything was more mature than “girly.”  Deeper. More sensuous than flighty. Voluptuous, not flirty.

The book exploited this reader on many levels. I can’t wait to read it again.

“I’m Sorry”

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Women tend to say, “I’m sorry.” A lot. I know I say it when I haven’t heard something someone’s said to me. I also tend to preface many statements of opinion with the phrase. Or when I disagree with someone.

I periodically make an attempt to cut those two words from by vocabulary, but have not yet been successful.

There’s a bit of a movement to exchange the word “Thanks” for “Sorry.”

Check out this comic strip.

Or this blog.

Or this article.

Or this one.

Thanks for reading this blog post through to the end.