Colton Whitehead’s Complex and Charismatic characters tiptoeing on the fringes of Crime
The novel is set in 1960s Harlem and follows Ray Carney, a man that leads a double life. He is a family man, a furniture salesman living in a tiny apartment with his wife Elizabeth and are expecting their second child.
Not many people are aware that Ray comes from a line of uptown crooks. He occasions gets drop-ins from his cousin Freddie who will occasionally drop off a hot ring or necklace to Ray to see for him to appraise.
As he struggles to make ends meet and the bills continuing to build up, he finds himself stumbling fast into the crime world, navigating gangsters, heists and shakedowns.
“Harlem Shuffle” is from Pulitzer Prize Award winning author Colson Whitehead that brought readers “The Nickel Boys” and “The Underground Railroad”.
Equal parts thriller yet hilarious, it’s a “family saga masquerading as a crime novel”, speaking also to the social makeup of race and power, and ultimately a love letter to New York City and especially Harlem.
The book is available for pre-order now and will be published September 14, 2021. Available at Bookshop and Amazon.
As the sun begins to peak out and early summer finally shines among us, June, as it has been for years, is the perfect month to be designated for Pride Month. Although large public celebrations like parades may still be stalled for most parts of the world because of the still looming pandemic, there are nevertheless plenty of opportunities to celebrate and proudly wave that beautiful rainbow flag (literally and metaphorically).
Pride can and never will be be canceled!
There are many ways to show your support/allegiance and to champion the LGBTQ+ community, particularly during Pride Month, (although Pride should really be a constant). One such way is through the classic form of words and images on pages, as reading and learning should never be considered less than desirable and always be savored.
There are hundreds of LGBTQ+ books out there and although it can be extremely hard to choose which ones to spotlight, we’ve chosen a few with accompanying book descriptions to kick off June 2021 Pride.
Jack Guinness wanted to have a tangible way for us to see and praise the long and “glorious” history of the LGBTQ+ community and created the website QueerBible.com in 2016, the online community solely devoted to celebrating queer heroes both from the past and the present.
The new 2021 book pays homage to queer heroes that paved the path, both unsung heroes and queer icons, which readers will get learn and see them in a fresh light.
The illustrated collection of essays include contributions fro the likes of Elton Jonhn, Tan France, Gus Kenworthy, Paris Lees, Russell Tovey, Munroe Bergdorf. As well as honoring timeless queer icons such as Susan Sontag, David Bowie, Sylvester, RuPaul, and George Michael.
Readers can learn the beginning queen activism in late 19th century Europe to the pivotal Stonewall Riots of 1969 to the current.
The text features more than 300 pictures from more than 70 photographers and 20 archives. Looking at family life, protests, marches, celebrations, mourning and Pride – you can to literally SEE queer history.
“We are Everywhere” shows readers how they can and must honor LGBTQ+ post history in order to shape a more liberated future.
Sarach McBride would become the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention and later became the first openly transgender Delaware state senator and national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
Yet before all that she struggled with the decision to come out.
“Tomorrow Will Be Different” is chronicles her journey.
Her book, a powerful memoir, that is informative, heartbreaking and also extremely powerful as she writes about her identity and the battle for equal rights and what it means to be trans.
In her book “One Life” she shares for the first time ore intimate information about her life on and off the soccer field and begs the ultimate question, if we all have just one life – what are we going to do?
After the 2011 World Cup, Rapinoe felt discouraged by how very few athletes were open about their sexuality. As a result, she decided to disclose publicly she was gay and from then on used her platform to help advocate for marriage equality.
Her story follows some of the most important moments in her life and career including her realization she was gay in college, her experience with soccer coaches and the backlash / disputes she received when she took a knee during the national athem in 2016 in solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick, how she met her fiancé Sue Bird and her process during the US Soccer Federation over gender discrimination and equal pay.
We don’t celebrate 49 year anniversaries. But is 50 just a number? The echos of the past are haunting us, with politics drifting into conflicts that would meet or even surpass the standards of that tumultuous year, 1969.
And as we count down the hours and days to the 50th anniversary of the first man to walk on the lunar surface, and watch as Woodstock 50 preparations begin, and see the climate boil for one more summer of record temps, we can only look skyward to that orb of earthly dreams, and notice it’s full eclipse.
Lunar eclipses always coincide with a full moon. Tonight, the alignment of all the necessary heavenly orbs, the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun, will all collaborate to create the conditions that will yield a lunar eclipse.
Visible in Europe, Australia, Africa, and most of Asia, the Earth’s shadow will darken the moon, with a visible penumbra outer ring as well as the deep dark umbra, almost fully obscuring the moon in the area that it covers. Since it will happen during US daylight hours (starting around 3pm Eastern Daylight Time), this spectacular event will only be seen from our shores via photographic evidence, received from the countries above.
This particular eclipse will not be total, but will produce an eerie, red shade wherever the shadow, after passing through the Earth’s atmosphere, hits its target.
In the USA, however, the so-called Buck Moon will begin, post eclipse at approximately 5:38pm Eastern Time. The moonrise will commence shortly after and, should be something special to view, assuming no cloud cover. Called “Buck”, according to the Farmer’s Almanac, due to the fact that a buck’s antlers are in full growth season at the time of this, first of the summer, full moon.
If your area is clear tonight this will be a dramatic sight.
Reuters
Heat, Passion, Conflict and, Hopefully Beauty to Behold
Sure it was HOT in 1969, but was it the summer with the highest temperatures in recorded climate history in France?
As the year moves on, it is certain that events of 2019 will echo, in some strange ways, those of 1969, and we may also use this 50 year span to measure how much has changed, how far we have come, and yet, how much remains the same.
We can use the Apollo Mission’s anniversary to reflect on what is new, private space missions, mars on our minds, looming climate crises and, oh yes, computers in our pockets. What’s the same? Sadly, racists and political division and mind bending change on all sides.
