hello!! currently trying out substack as a new place to yap every week, as this blog is on indefinite pause!
Marketing & Bookstagram: The Self Concept
Now, let’s get one thing straight: bookstagram is a labor of love. To have the dedication to post regularly towards this passion speaks of commitment to literature, and the bookish community is centered on authentic experiences with one another. We cultivate our pages to showcase how much we love reading — what else could be more pure? So when I talk about marketing in relation to bookstagram, I do not mean to undermine this appreciation as something easily quantifiable…
What I Learned from One Week on Bookstagram
Within that murky fog that delineates author from audience, I think a similar one exists between readers, as though by sharing our reading experiences, we engage in a dance of sorts. Page by page, hand in hand, we turn. What sort of intimacy is deeper than that of your own relationship with a book? As such, we feel closer to one another by seeing these understandings echoed.
Review of “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4/5 Stars. I finished reading Americanah on a rainy morning, just before dawn. The world outside was still blue and shadowed, and the shape of buildings slowly emerged from the dark, brick by brick, pane by pane, as the sky lightened. The sound of toads and birds rose up from the twilight silence, their throats defrosted and open with warbling calls upon waking…
Review of “If We Were Villains” by M.L. Rio
To be honest, as I was reading this book, I was prepared to give it, at most, 3.5-4 stars. I wasn't too familiar with the intricacies of the Shakespearean references, and I was slightly put off by how the characters talked - sometimes with the true crudeness of college students, other times pretentious and caricatural. At the same time, the Shakespeare references were perfect, doing exactly what Rio intended: imbuing the actors and readers with the words and feelings of his work in parallel to the novel's events…
Review of “Memory Police” by Yoko Ogawa
As someone who has never been a fan of Orwellian-like tales, this one really wowed me. The translation is very clean; the language is beautiful in its quiet simplicity, lending the novel a sort of empty melancholy in its tone. Overall, I loved what this book represented, and it was the only oasis in this dry spell of books I've been reading…
What I Learned from “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
There is power in media, storytelling, and giving voice to the tangled feelings inside us. I am not an expert, and I cannot speak to the trauma and experiences of the Black community. But I can amplify Black media and speak on the lessons I’ve learned by reading and watching more diverse stories. We start off with Between the World and Me.