summer school radio with Lovie – disco, jazz, house www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbRB...

summer school radio with Lovie – disco, jazz, house

YouTube video by Lovie

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I don't understand people who find AI-slop appealing to look at. It's so grotesque to me.

'90s and Early 00s Korean Indie Rock【 THE NTS GUIDE TO… 】 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifho...

'90s and Early 00s Korean Indie Rock【 THE NTS GUIDE TO… 】

YouTube video by NTS

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Internet piracy is at an all time high and MySpace is coming back. Welcome back 2006.

James Baldwin also taught me the importance of never letting a motherfucker play in your face. I’ll be reading “The Fire Next Time” this month.

James Baldwin was born 102 years ago on August 2, 1924 in Harlem. He is my artistic titan and one of my favorite writers of all time. “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”

I’m going to attempt to watch a movie each day this month. I’m already behind so I need to watch two movies today. 😂

I've been #influenced to reread "The Pisces" by Melissa Broder thanks to Olivia Cooke and several other BookTubers I enjoy. I rated it one star the first time I read it. I also love Broder's other books, "Death Valley" and "Milk Fed."

“Under the glitter of their opportunities she saw the poverty of their achievements.” — Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

It's about that time for ballet and dance season, and the money I'm spending on some of these tickets is making me cry.

I really like Colson Whitehead and I watch his interviews and talks but I'm not a fan of his books like that.

#America250 On the admin holiday of the Fourth of July, I read Jesmyn Ward's essay collection, "On Witness and Respair" and wrote a review of it on my blog. This highlights her background of growing up poor and Black in rural Mississippi. #BrianaReads

On Witness and Respair: Essays by Jesmyn Ward

I want to start by saying that it is July 3, 2026. It is the administrative holiday of the Fourth of July, and the United States is turning 250 years old. I found it important to read about the Ame…

reviewsbybriana.wordpress.com

"What Am I, A Deer?" by Polly Barton. This is the first of @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social incredible "author collections". Available exclusively through independent bookshops, these SIGNED & numbered editions also have Klein blue sprayed edges Order here. biggreenbookshop.com/signed-copie...

'[A]n updated take on the distance between reality and illusion results in a resonant existentialist text grounded in modern anxieties.' Colm McKenna reviews WHAT AM I, A DEER? by Polly Barton for @irishtimes.com: www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

What Am I, a Deer? by Polly Barton: A resonant take on the distance between reality and illusion

Barton’s debut novel is a surprisingly hopeful existentialist text grounded in modern anxieties

irishtimes.com

Congratulations to the 2026 Women's Prize for Non-fiction winner, "The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan" by Lyse Doucet, and the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction winner, "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans. #WomensPrize

I just finished reading the highly buzzed-about book "Kin" by Tayari Jones and wrote a review on my blog. I love books about Southern-born Black women. #BrianaReads

Kin by Tayari Jones

I love when a book that is being hyped up ends up living up to its reputation. All of the bookish Black girlies I respect have put Kin by Tayari Jones high on their reading lists. While I…

reviewsbybriana.wordpress.com

I'm reading "Plum Bun" by Jessie Redmon Fauset and it's like Nella Larsen's "Passing" but... kind of better. It's more in-depth.

I love finding cheap books.

#BrianaReads I read "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker for the first time over the past couple of days. It's immediately going on my list of favorite books of all time. I wrote a review of it on my blog.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

When I think of canonical books that detail the Black American women’s experience, I think of three: Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Beloved by Toni Morrison, an…

reviewsbybriana.wordpress.com

I'm reading "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker for the very first time. The 1985 film is my mother's favorite movie of all time so I am looking forward to it. I've avoided all adaptations because I wanted to read this first.

This week in literary history, James Joyce and Marcel Proust meet once (and never again).

This Week in Literary History: James Joyce and Marcel Proust Meet for the First (and Only) Time

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Literary History newsletter—sign up here. On May 18, 1922, the wealthy British art patrons Sydney and Violet Schiff hosted a dinner at the fashionable Hotel Majesti…

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My June 2026 TBR has some heat 🔥 I can’t believe that I’ve never read The Color Purple, Native Son, or Invisible Man. #BrianaReads

Reading all 651 pages of “Fox” by Joyce Carol Oates felt like wading through muck and tar because of the subject matter being about a pedophile. Now I feel like I can read anything. That was such a deeply uncomfortable reading experience. #BrianaReads

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates

Content Warning: This novel contains graphic depictions of pedophilia, child abuse, violence, self-harm, and suicide. This review will go into detail about those topics as well. Please heed th…

reviewsbybriana.wordpress.com

Do you all consider Hip-Hop (made by Black people specifically) to be Black Literature? I'm talking about all of it, not just certain rappers who are literary.

I’m reading “Fox” by Joyce Carol Oates… Deeply disturbing!

A couple of years ago, I read all eleven of Toni Morrison's novels, and today, I finished reading "On Morrison" by Namwali Serpell. This is an exploration of Toni Morrison's genius work, which I highly recommend. #BrianaReads

On Morrison by Namwali Serpell

A couple of years ago, I read all of Toni Morrison’s novels in published order back-to-back. In retrospect, I don’t recommend this at all. Not because of the difficulty of her work, but…

reviewsbybriana.wordpress.com

I remember a time when you could buy $5 paperback classics from Barnes & Noble. The concept of paying so much money for a paperback version of a book that has been out for over a century is insane to me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7rN...

tgiFHI | How Sex, Race, and Labor Shaped the Early French Empire with Mélanie Lamotte

YouTube video by John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke U.

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French Colonial Historical Society@frenchcolonial.bsky.social · 7mo ago

New Publication/Parution! "By Flesh and Toil: How Sex, Race and Labor shaped the Early French Empire" by Mélanie Lamotte Coming 27 Jan 2026/ Announcé 26 Jan 2026 (Be sure to send any book announcements/promotional material to media@frenchcolonial.org for distribution on social media)

Next on my May TBR: “On Morrison” by Namwali Serpell and “Toni at Random” by Dana A. Williams. I have read all of Toni Morrison’s books, so I am looking forward to getting into these. #BrianaReads

I posted about this before but it's so funny to me how The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is a book from 1846 and I cannot check it out from my library because it's checked out everywhere all because it's a trending book right now. I love that.