trudiannracquel

Category: entertainment

  • $500 Book Haul!

    Hello! Hi!

    https://youtu.be/EZ2ImWfS-6U

    The Soul Study Self Love Journal

    They Both Die at the End 

    You Truly Assumed

    Blood Scion

    One of The Good Ones

    The Lost Dreamer

    The Cost of Knowing

    Witches Steeped in Gold

    People We Meet on Vacation

    Where the Crawdads Sing

    Yinka, where is your Huzband?

    Black Cake

    Blood Like Magic

    Ace of Spades

    It Ends With Us

    Malibu Rising

    We Are Not Like Them

    Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From

    Black Girls Must Be Magic

     

  • 16 Small (ish) Black Youtubers to Follow

    Hello! Hi!

    I hope you’re having a better day today than you were yesterday.

    In trying to expand my interests and add some colour to my YouTube algorithm, I have been intentionally seeking out Black content creators. On YouTube and Instagram, I’ve made it a point to subscribe to primarily Black women or people of colour (POC).

    While not everyone I come across is interesting, by actively only subscribing to Black creators, more pop up each day. And it’s comforting to see that here’s a list of the few that I’ve gotten to know over the past few weeks and a few that I’ve known for a few years:

    1. Tajah Ferjuste
    2. From Head to Curve
    3. Brooke Kennedy
    4. Mena Adubea
    5. Peyton Maree Charles 
    6. Chi Udeaja
    7. Alexis Barber
    8. Dimmah Umeh
    9. JstDej
    10. Lexi J Poole
    11. Leandra Yomo
    12. Octavia B
    13. Hannah Olivia
    14. Geranika Mycia
    15. A little taeste
    16. Jasmine Airdelle

     

  • My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite// Book Review

    My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite// Book Review

    “Korede’s [younger] sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic.” If that’s not an intro to an amazing premise for a story, I don’t know what is.

    My Sister, The Serial Killer follows two Nigerian sisters, the younger of which is technically termed a serial killer because, so far, she’s stabbed and killed 3 of her ex-boyfriends. Korede, bending to Ayoola’s will because of an inherent need to protect her, is the one who cleans up every time.

    As in most sibling relationships, it’s been drilled into Korede to keep baby sister safe, no matter what. Adding to the fact that she isn’t seen as a ‘typical’ beauty (dark skin, big lips, above average height), Korede is tethered to her little sister in a way that is really fascinating.

    See, big sister knows that everything about all the situations is wrong: killing somebody, helping to clean up, her sister’s stories of why she does it. But that doesn’t stop her from helping anyways. Call it a desperate need to feel wanted by somebody socially important, or weakness, unfailing loyalty, or a desire to keep up a facade, Korede continues to help her sister whenever she kills someone. She brings the bleach, the body bags and general common sense to the situation. However, she finds herself being tested when Ayoola’s next boyfriend is someone she’s in love with.

    Now, you’ll have to read the second half of the book to find out what happens in that weird love triangle, but let’s just say (a) there’s more to the younger sister than meets the eye – she’s actually kind of insightful and a pretty savvy business woman and (b) not everyone gets what’s coming to them.

    I read this book in about a day: in between breaks at work, while travelling on the bus and spending a few extra hours at home at the end of the day. I consumed it. There were definitely times when I laughed out loud in public. There were definitely times when I wanted to slap a few characters in the book. It’s marketed as a thriller, but I don’t know if I would call it that. There’s moments where I’m left wondering what’s about to happen, but thriller seems more along the lines of darkness, which doesn’t really describe this book.

    It’ll make you laugh out loud, re-examine your loyalties and leave you with more questions than on a multiple choice test.

    My rating: 4/5

     

  • Reading Rush 2020 // July TBR

    The past few months, I’ve been getting into reading again! Hallelujah, because I was starting to get worried about my habits and hobbies. So to kick start my reading this season, I’ve decided to participate in the Reading Rush.

    A little background if you will: I don’t know what the reading rush really is, I don’t know the people who started it, I just saw it on a Youtuber’s channel and decided, “hey, I can read 7 books in a month! Let’s try it!” I do know…that the creators are Canadian…if that makes even an inkling of a difference. (It does not).

    I decided to put a little spin on it though. All the books on my TBR are by Black authors, which was surprisingly easy for to accomplish given my small stack of books that I haven’t read yet. And I work full-time, usually 50 hours per week, so completing these books in one week was laughable. I’m just reading them throughout the month of July.

    Here are the prompts and here are my book choices!

    1. Read a book with a cover that matches the color of your birthstone

    November Baby here. My birthstone is citrine and unfortunately I don’t have something that completely matches that. I’ve also seen that my birthstone is topaz? So I chose Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert. Not that much yellow on it, but her chain is bright yellow, and the background is blue so that counts right? Right.

    1. Read a book that starts with the word “The”.

    For this I chose The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus. I’ve had this in my bag to read for about a week now, and I ended up taking it out after reading the first page. It started off with broken English and as a Jamaican (born and raised), I wasn’t expecting that. Lol. It just threw me off, but I really still want to read it. Black girls, Caribbean heritage, immigration, queerness?! Gold.

    1. Read a book that inspired a movie you’ve already seen

    Did you know that Hidden Figures was a book??? I did not. I had to Google for this prompt because I couldn’t even think of Black-voiced movies, much less Black books that inspired Black movies. So for this prompt, I’m reading Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shatterly.

    1. Read the First book you touch

    Okay, I don’t know how this is supposed to work. So I just closed my eyes (after I took the books I already read), ran my fingers across my books and stopped. I landed on My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan BraithWaite. Somebody’s sister is a serial killer. What? I don’t even grasp that concept; it’s so wild to me. My sister is a pastor’s wife and blogger, so if she was a serial killer my mind would be blown.

    1. Read a book completely outside your house

    So, after extensive research (i.e. that one video I watched on that Youtuber’s channel), I discovered that for this challenge, it would be ideal to read a short book. This is genius for two reasons: 1. It’s summer and I’m not trying to be outside and get dehydrated. 2. I’ll feel accomplished when I finish a book, even if it is shorter. For this, I’ll be reading The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. She writes this book in really short sentences, with incredibly large margins and if it’s anything like her other books, I will love it.

    1. Read a book in a genre you’ve always wanted to read more of

    I’ve discovered that I enjoy a good dystopian novel, with actual character development and a plot that comes to a logical conclusion. Since summer for me creates feelings of lightness and I instinctively want to read something ‘cute’, I chose a science fiction book set in Los Angeles in the hopes that it would give me summer, but dystopia. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler is definitely NOT ‘cute’, but ever since discovering that science fiction is really just futuristic predictions, I wanted to read more of that genre. And what better way to think about the future that to see it through the lens of a Black girl?

    1. Read a book that takes place on a different continent from where you live

    I live in Canada, so almost every book in my collection was off limits for this prompt because we live in a world that tends to idolize North American culture. But, in my recent book Black buying binge, I picked up A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Rosanne A Brown. All I’ve heard about this is ‘West African, people trying to kill to get back the people they love, magic’ so hopefully, it really does take place in Africa, otherwise, I would’ve just added this book for no reason.

    Is anybody else taking part in the Reading Rush challenge? I’ll be vlogging my experience on my Youtube channel which I’ll link here once it’s up. Let me know which books are on your TBR for this month!