Many Voices, Many Rooms: Week 2

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Image result for octavia butler parable of the sower "creative commons"


Highlight of the Week

My number one highlight this week is, without a doubt, "The Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler. An African American Sci-Fi writer, Butler wrote this freakishly prescient book (The New Yorker describes it as, "Octavia Butler’s Prescient Vision of a Zealot Elected to 'Make AmericaGreat Again'") in 1993, but reading it feels like looking into our near future a few years before it happens. If you are a secondary ELA teacher, this is the perfect book to replace "1984", "The Handmaid's Tale," or any dystopian novel you normally teach. Featuring a young African American female hero you can't help but fall in love with and root for, this is one of the best books I have read in years.


Other Highlights

Always Be My Maybe - A heart-warming romcom starring Ali Wong and Randall Park, this movie earned a solid 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and was the perfect way to spend a vacation evening with my sister having a girly movie night. James Saito, who plays Randall Park's dad, is one of my favorite actors (he was great as the tell-it-like-it-is acupuncturist in "Eli Stone"), and is utterly charming as always. To read a first-hand account about why movies like this are so important, click here.  

NANCY podcast episode from December 31, 2018, "A Gaggle Resolution" - Self-described as "Stories and conversations about the queer experience today," Nancy is a charming and informative podcast hosted by best friends Kathy Tu and Tobin Low. My favorite episode chronicles Kathy and Tobin's "friend-tervention" with a guy named Joe who has long dreamed of having a "gaggle" of queer friends, but has had a hard time finding a group of friends to call his own. Kathy and Tobin are personable and vulnerable on the show and their read of the credits at the end is the most entertaining of any podcast I have listened to. (Snap Judgement's are a close second.)


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