Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 195

June 12, 2020: Happy Dark Matter Day!

It’s hard to believe that 5 years ago today, Dark Matter premiered.  At that time, it had been eight years in the making, born from an idea I had while working on Stargate: Atlantis, its backstory and arcs developed over many, then, finally, green lit and launched for the small screen.  It was a great, all too brief, three season run, cut short before its proper end.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to finish our story, but here’s hoping that someday we’ll get that chance!

***

***

***

***

So, what made you tune in for the first time?

The post June 12, 2020: Happy Dark Matter Day! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

June 11, 2020: The way 2020 is going…

Thai restaurant owners given 723 years in prison for reneging on seafood promotion.https://t.co/OpIdI0C12K pic.twitter.com/GrKnY0aTXu

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 11, 2020

On the other hand, you had this from back in 2003 wherein a “All You Can Eat Crab Legs” promotion proved such a bad idea for Red Lobster that it cost their CEO his job:

https://nypost.com/2003/09/26/endless-crab-pigout-is-end-for-red-lobster-boss/

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note a lot of new investors are experiencing some growing pains in their day-trading careers:

R.Hood investors who heard about something called FANG stocks & instead of buying the 4 tech megacaps… ended up buying worthless Chinese real estate comp FANGDD (ticker DUO), sending its stock price from $10 to $130 in four hours, and pushing its market cap just shy of $4 bln.

— Uresh Perera (UP) (@UreshP) June 11, 2020

Akemi’s balcony garden is coming along nicely.  Yesterday, we enjoyed some ridiculously bitter kale.  Today, we shared a single patty pot squash.  Next week, we may eat a tomato!

Hopefully.  The way 2020 is going…

If 2020 hasn’t been apocalyptic enough, here is my story on eastern equine encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus that kills 40% of infected people… and appears to be spreading. @ozm @mvzelenks https://t.co/CF86AbcoMF

— Oscar Schwartz (@scarschwartz) June 10, 2020

Today’s movie-themed question:

Most shocking death in a movie?
Answer with a pic or gif. pic.twitter.com/PqfHIYM1hl

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 11, 2020

 

The post June 11, 2020: The way 2020 is going… appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

June 10, 2020: Which 3 Episodes of Stargate Are You Saving?

Interesting, no?#Stargate pic.twitter.com/FSbfJD2D7q

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 10, 2020

If you’re in the twitter neighborhood, go give this a tag and retweet:

I suspect that a number of broadcasters will regret missing out on the opportunity to green light a new #Stargate series in the same way many regretted dropping the ball on shows like The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, and Breaking Bad.
Retweet and tag your favorite broadcasters! pic.twitter.com/VZUDD3zXFs

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 9, 2020

And since I’m in a Stargate kind of mood:

Goa'uld Space Station ("Summit") – Concept Art#Stargate #SG1 pic.twitter.com/QM5lfntWLZ

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 10, 2020

#WormholeXTreme! Concept Art #Stargate pic.twitter.com/a8HN6d4OzK

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 10, 2020

Concept Art from #Stargate #SG1's "Small Victories" pic.twitter.com/YIjNVPe1Z8

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 9, 2020

Concept art for the very first script we wrote for #Stargate – "Scorched Earth". Although the pictured (Gadmeer) alien never appeared in the episode, that didn't stop me from doing a running imitation of the adorable little guy for weeks during production. "Grrrklllbrrrpplllggh!" pic.twitter.com/r8dBpqGcoo

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) June 9, 2020

Congratulations!  You have been selected to be a passenger on the space ark that will be leaving a doomed Earth in search of a new, habitable world.  As part of your personal luggage, you are permitted to bring along THREE episodes of the Stargate franchise.  Sadly, the ship’s database cannot accommodate more than three episodes meaning the rest of the franchise will be lost to history along with wrap-around sunglasses, spearmint gum, and Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You”.  Also, the ship’s Captain is a huge Stargate fan, so if you attempt to smuggle in episodes of any other show, he WILL fire them out the airlock.  And you with them.

So, choose wisely.  Which three episodes of the Stargate franchise are you saving?

The post June 10, 2020: Which 3 Episodes of Stargate Are You Saving? appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

June 9, 2020: Go shake your ears, you bacon-fed knaves!

Yesterday, I came across this photo of that old gang of mine.  All four were huge snugglers and were always happiest in each other’s company.  At night, they all slept on the bed of course, in their preferred spots: Lulu by my right side, Bubba at my left, Maximus hunkered down at my ankles, and Jelly propped up regally on my pillow.  Granted, it made sleeping tricky, but I never really complained.

Bacon-fed knaves!  Swaggering rascals!  Check out this Insult Infographic for all of your Shakespeareans cursing needs!  How now, woolsack?

This video was forwarded to me by former Dark Matter and Utopia Falls Props Master Victoria Klein.  It begs the question: Why am I wasting all this time trying to learn Japanese?

The post June 9, 2020: Go shake your ears, you bacon-fed knaves! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

The Public Apology Generator!

Posted something inappropriate online?  Did you get stupid-drunk before that live interview?  Were you filmed threatening a complete stranger at your local park?

Well don’t spend thousands on fancy lawyers or PR firms.  The Public Apology Generator has you covered!  Just click the image below for full-screen viewing.

The post The Public Apology Generator! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

June 7, 2020: Suji Sunday!

Time to break out the summer wardrobe!

She looks like she’s either going to go horseback riding, or solve a crime.

When she knows you have treats and you’re holding out on her.

When you see the tongue, you know she’s relaxed.

And this blast from the past = Suji, back in her wheelchair days.  She’s come a long way!

The post June 7, 2020: Suji Sunday! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

My Top 10 Zombie Movies!

And to answer your inevitable question: “Yes, I have seen it.  But I didn’t like it as much as any of these ten movies.”

10 – Maggie

A father and daughter struggle to come to terms with their dark destiny after she is bitten by a zombie.  Surprisingly heartfelt.

9 – Pontypool

A small town radio host attempts to warn the public about a deadly virus being spread by the English language.  A cerebral zombie movie courtesy of our good friend, director Bruce McDonald.

8 – Cargo

A family attempts to negotiate the Australian outback during a zombie pandemic. The focus is on the characters, but there are scares aplenty.

7 – Night of the Living Dead

The grand daddy of zombie movies delivers a social message that keeps it as relevant today as it was back in 1968.

6 – Army of Darkness

This atypical sequel in the Evil Dead series finds Ash battling the undead.  Shop Smart!  Shop S Mart!

5 – Dawn of the Dead (1978)

A terrific entry in George A. Romero’s series is a simultaneously a zombie movie and a critique of consumerism.

4 – 28 Weeks Later

The sequel to 28 Days Later sends in the troops to battle the out of control zombie horde.

3 – 28 Days Later

Unlike the leisurely, strolling zombies of yore, these zombie move FAST!

2 – REC

A reporter files a live report from the scene of a quarantined building under siege.

1 – Train to Busan

It’s Speed meets Night of the Living Dead as an express train leaves Seoul, bound for Busan, with some unwanted passengers onboard.

The post My Top 10 Zombie Movies! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

More of my favorite works from authors of color

Yesterday, I offered up a list of my favorite books by black authors. Today, I expand my recommended reading list to twenty more authors of color.  General Fiction, Non-Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thrillers, Crime, Humor, and Short Fiction – I’ve got you covered!

Andres Barba – Such Small Hands

It was once a happy city; we were once happy girls. . . . Life changes at the orphanage the day Marina shows up. As she tries to find her place, she creates a game whose rules are dictated by a haunting violence. In hypnotic, lyrical prose, Andrés Barba evokes the pain of loss and the hunger for acceptance—a masterwork from the Spanish writer at the peak of his powers.

Donia Bijan – The Last Days of Cafe Leila

Set against the backdrop of Iran’s rich, turbulent history, this exquisite debut novel is a powerful story of food, family, and a bittersweet homecoming. When we first meet Noor, she is living in San Francisco, missing her beloved father, Zod, in Iran. Now, dragging her stubborn teenage daughter, Lily, with her, she returns to Tehran and to Café Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. Iran may have changed, but Café Leila, still run by Zod, has stayed blessedly the same – it is a refuge of laughter and solace for its makeshift family of staff and regulars. As Noor revisits her Persian childhood, she must rethink who she is: a mother, a daughter, a woman estranged from her marriage and from her life in California. And together, she and Lily get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran.

Melissa del Bosque – Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasy

Drugs, money, cartels: this is what FBI rookie Scott Lawson expected when he was sent to the border town of Laredo, but instead he’s deskbound writing intelligence reports about the drug war. Then, one day, Lawson is asked to check out an anonymous tip: a horse was sold at an Oklahoma auction house for a record-topping price, and the buyer was Miguel Treviño, one of the leaders of the Zetas, Mexico’s most brutal drug cartel. The source suggested that Treviño was laundering money through American quarter horse racing. If this was true, it offered a rookie like Lawson the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the cartel. Lawson teams up with a more experienced agent, Alma Perez, and, taking on impossible odds, sets out to take down one of the world’s most fearsome drug lords.

Kristin Chen – Bury What We Cannot Take

The day nine-year-old San San and her twelve-year-old brother, Ah Liam, discover their grandmother taking a hammer to a framed portrait of Chairman Mao is the day that forever changes their lives. To prove his loyalty to the Party, Ah Liam reports his grandmother to the authorities. But his belief in doing the right thing sets in motion a terrible chain of events.

Now they must flee their home on Drum Wave Islet, which sits just a few hundred meters across the channel from mainland China. But when their mother goes to procure visas for safe passage to Hong Kong, the government will only issue them on the condition that she leave behind one of her children as proof of the family’s intention to return.

Ted Chiang – Exhalation: Stories / Stories of Your Life and Others

Exhalation: Stories: his much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. And in “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. Also included are two brand-new stories: “Omphalos” and “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom.”

***

Stories of Your Life and Others: What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and broke through to Heaven’s other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life . . . and others.

Ge Fei – The Invisibility Cloak

The hero of The Invisibility Cloak lives in contemporary Beijing—where everyone is doing their best to hustle up the ladder of success while shouldering an ever-growing burden of consumer goods—and he’s a loser. Well into his forties, he’s divorced (and still doting on his ex), childless, and living with his sister (her husband wants him out) in an apartment at the edge of town with a crack in the wall the wind from the north blows through while he gets by, just, by making customized old-fashioned amplifiers for the occasional rich audio-obsessive. He has contempt for his clients and contempt for himself. The only things he really likes are Beethoven and vintage speakers. Then an old friend tips him off about a special job—a little risky but just don’t ask too many questions—and can it really be that this hopeless loser wins?

Manuel Gonzales – The Regional Office is Under Attack

In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization—the Regional Office—and its coterie of super-powered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation. At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now, the Regional Office is under attack.

Recruited by a defector from within, Rose is a young assassin leading the attack, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah—who may or may not have a mechanical arm—fiercely devoted to the organization that took her in as a young woman in the wake of her mother’s sudden disappearance. On the day that the Regional Office is attacked, Rose’s and Sarah’s stories will overlap, their lives will collide, and the world as they know it just might end.

Joe Ide – IQ series

A resident of one of LA’s toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores.

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood’s high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can’t or won’t touch.

They call him IQ. He’s a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he’s forced to take on clients that can pay.

This time, it’s a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes.

More Of My Favorite Works From Authors Of Color

Masaji Ishikawa – A River in Darkness

The harrowing true story of one man’s life in—and subsequent escape from—North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.

In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life. A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity—and indomitable nature—of the human spirit.

Stephen Graham Jones – Mongrels

He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his Aunt Libby and Uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixedblood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.

For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and close calls—always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they’ve been running from for so long are catching up fast, now. Everything is about to change.

Rachel Khong – Goodbye, Vitamin

Goodbye, Vitamin is the wry, beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads, as Ruth and her friends attempt to shore up her father’s career; she and her mother obsess over the ambiguous health benefits – in the absence of a cure – of dried jellyfish supplements and vitamin pills; and they all try to forge a new relationship with the brilliant, childlike, irascible man her father has become.

Lisa Ko – The Leavers

One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her.

With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.” But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude

The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as “magical realism.”

Celeste Ng – Everything I Never Told You

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.

So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.

Veit Thanh Nguyen – The Sympathizer

It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Tommy Orange – There There

Tommy Orange’s wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American–grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.

Ed Park – Personal Days

In an unnamed New York-based company, the employees are getting restless as everything around them unravels. There’s Pru, the former grad student turned spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety stalks him in his tooth-grinding dreams; and Jack II, who distributes unwanted backrubs–aka “jackrubs”–to his co-workers.

On a Sunday, one of them is called at home. And the Firings begin.

Rich with Orwellian doublespeak, filled with sabotage and romance, this astonishing literary debut is at once a comic delight and a narrative tour de force. It’s a novel for anyone who has ever worked in an office and wondered: “Where does the time go? Where does the life go? And whose banana is in the fridge?”

Leila Slimani – The Perfect Nanny

When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family’s chic apartment in Paris’s upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau

Nicola Yoon – Everything, Everything

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black t-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that he is funny and fierce. I learn that his eyes are Atlantic Ocean-blue and that his vice is stealing silverware. I learn that when I talk to him, my whole world opens up, and I feel myself starting to change—starting to want things. To want out of my bubble. To want everything, everything the world has to offer.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon  – Marina

In May 1980, fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona. For seven days and nights no one knows his whereabouts. . . .

His story begins in the heart of old Barcelona, when he meets Marina and her father Germán Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Oscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the fourth Sunday of each month. At 10 a.m. precisely a coach pulled by black horses appears. From it descends a woman dressed in black, her face shrouded, wearing gloves, holding a single rose. She walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.

When Oscar and Marina decide to follow her they begin a journey that will take them to the heights of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona, a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons; and a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.

 

The post More of my favorite works from authors of color appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

Some of my favorite books by black authors

Covering everything from General Fiction to Non-Fiction – sci-fi, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and short fiction.  Previously featured on this blog, these are some of my favorite books by black authors.

Oyinkan Braithwaite – My Sister, the Serial Killer

When Korede’s dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what’s expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This’ll be the third boyfriend Ayoola’s dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede’s long been in love with him, and isn’t prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other…

Octavia E. Butler – Parable of the Talents/Sower

Parable of the Sower: In the aftermath of worldwide ecological and economic apocalypse, minister’s daughter Lauren Oya Olamina escapes the slaughter that claims the lives of her family and nearly every other member of their gated California community. Heading north with two young companions through an American wasteland, the courageous young woman faces dangers at every turn while spreading the word of a remarkable new religion that embraces survival and change.

***

Parable of the Talents: Called to the new, hard truth of Earthseed, the small community of the dispossessed that now surrounds Lauren Olamina looks to her—their leader—for guidance. But when the evil that has grown out of the ashes of human society destroys all she has built, the prophet is forced to choose between preserving her faith or her family.

David Anthony Durham – The Acacia series

Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. And then a deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while they unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to their separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge their father’s death and restore the Acacian empire — this time on the basis of universal freedom.

 

Tayari Jones – An American Marriage

Newlyweds, Celestial and Roy, are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is artist on the brink of an exciting career. They are settling into the routine of their life together, when they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.

Victor Lavalle – The Ballad of Black Tom

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

Attica Locke – Bluebird, Bluebird

When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules–a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.

When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders–a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman–have stirred up a hornet’s nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes–and save himself in the process–before Lark’s long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.

Bryan Stevenson – Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Nafissa Thompson-Spires – Heads of the Colored People

A stunning new talent in literary fiction, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class in these compelling, boundary-pushing vignettes.

Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. Some are darkly humorous—from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide—while others are devastatingly poignant—a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture.

Tade Thompson – The Wormwood Trilogy

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn’t care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Colson Whitehead – The Nickel Boys/The Underground Railroad
The Nickel Boys: As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is a high school senior about to start classes at a local college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.”

In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors. Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King’s ringing assertion “Throw us in jail and we will still love you.” His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.

The tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision with repercussions that will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.

***
The Underground Railroad: Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

The post Some of my favorite books by black authors appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

My Top 10 Movies I Never Tire Of Rewatching!

My Top 10….

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

The post My Top 10 Movies I Never Tire Of Rewatching! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.