A sliver of sunshine lit up the hardwood floor of the cafe as a thirty-something brunette pushed open the door, dragging a laptop stroller behind. She was dressed in business clothes — crisply pleated dark trousers, a collared shirt and a navy blue blazer. She looked out of place in the hippy café with its multicolored chalkboard menu listings, ads plastered over the walls, and local paintings for sale exhibited all over the seating area.…
Of all the books that I read this quarter, the two that I want to shout out about from the rooftops are two detective noir crime novels. Easy Rawlins Reluctant Detective in Devil in The Blue Dress In Devil In The Blue Dress, we meet our Black protagonist, Easy Rawlins hanging out in a bar in Los Angeles. Recently unemployed, chucked from the Boeing factory in El Segundo, Rawlins is contemplating his next steps when he…
In celebration of Women’s History Month, I thought of compiling a list of my favorite feminist or female-centric novels. It’s a collection of works that make it to my repeat reading list because they either give voices to forgotten female lives or provide inspiration to my own. The first two books in the series are both feminist takes on famous classical literature — where the author picks up the hood to find stories of the…
One of the joys of global streaming apps is the sheer exposure to worldwide content. With a click of a button, I can be deep in the world of emotional Korean dramas, on the battlefields of historical Turkish soap operas or spend the afternoon with familiar Bollywood fare. I love that I get to watch some new and some my decade old favorites from back when I was in India.So, if you are looking to…
In a fictional town somewhere in England, Mark, Danny, Pru, and Slade go playing in the woods. Mark’s 5-year-old brother, Jesse, tags along. The friends decide that he is too young to come along and ask the little boy to go home. The cherubic boy implores his brother with tear-stained eyes, but his brother walks on guiltily. Jesse runs away into the woods and never seen again. Twenty years later, a woman is found brutally…
Holidays are time to catch up on the classics, whether it’s re-watching Christmassy movies like Home Alone for the 100th time or finally watching that Oscar-winning film from decades ago. Considering that a remake of The Color Purple is anticipated for 2023, we thought it was a good time to catch up on the original, famous movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. Now before we talk about the movie, a refresher that The Color Purple is an award winning novel which…
It may not be a total exaggeration to claim that the British have cornered the fictional murder mystery market. Some of the most popular British television imports are long running detective series like Midsomer Murders, Father Brown, and countless adaptation of Agatha Christie novels. Even the most popular fictional detectives that live in our modern conscious are British — Holmes, Poirot anyone? What is the obsession of this tiny island nation with crime? And when did it begin Historically,…
Once upon a time there was a girl in Iran and Persepolis is her story. Based on the autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, this quirky animated movie is about the coming of age of young Iranian girl amidst the volatile political climate of the country in 70s and 80s. Plot Summary In 1979, at the start of the Iranian revolution, Marjane was living with her parents in in Tehran. Her grandfather was in prison for being a communist and unsupportive…
