Reading List #30 (Patreon)

Hey guys!

So I've fallen into the rhythm of doing reading lists once a month. Feel free to drag me right here and now, unless you're cool with this (and also realize the plethora of other content and reading materials made available in other posts). 

1) A Corrected History of The Typo (Adrienne LaFrance) 6/26/14

Quirky history that may make you question your existence as a writer (especially those of you who are perfectionists!) For readers who have checked out Angry Black Girl, you know there are a few typos in the book--  a product of a tight self-publishing budget. This article made me feel better about it. :) 

"But print's long history is riddled with errors and strikethroughs and rewrites— a fact worth celebrating and in some ways emulating, actually. In the earliest days of the book, writers and readers gathered around mistakes as a means of discourse about the work. When books were new, people saw them as fluid, changeable. Mistakes weren't as much lamented as they were expected, and people scrawled corrections over the text itself, in the margins, and on errata lists slipped between pages." 

Read Length: Medium

2. White nationalism, born in the USA, is now a global terror threat (Art Jipson and Paul J. Becker) 3/19/19

This short article provides a lot of good links to check out!

Read Length: Short

3. Sex Work Has a Class Problem (Emily Smith) 1/26/18

This is a topic I can't wait to explore more in LexRated.

"There’s a lot of money to be made in this industry, but making it takes more than lounging around in bed. There are so many decisions that will impact how successful you are, and no training manual. Does showing off a pair of Louboutins lead to more bookings than purchasing premium ad space? Will selfies attract more attention than professional photos, even if the look is amateur? Is it OK if I appear “high-class” and just make a little money, or is it better to appear “low-class” and make a lot of money? I joined the sex industry to pay off my student loans, not take regularly scheduled trips to Saks. So why should I care, so long as I can pay my bills?

I’m obsessed with these dynamics because they speak to a larger issue, which is that sexual taste is interconnected with luxury and (real or imagined) class. Money matters, even in the bedroom, and it has a kind of erotic power." 

Read Length: Long

4. The Weird World of Vegan Youtube Stars is Imploding (Emily Shugerman) 3/23/19

I screamed when I read somebody was eating up to 50 bananas a day. 

"To the uninitiated, the popularity of vegan YouTube might come as a shock. Some channels attract hundreds of thousands of subscribers, even though only about three percent of Americans self-identify as vegan. And these channels aren’t run by vegan celebrities (though there are many of those, including Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé and Ariana Grande,) but by celebrity vegans—people whose entire online persona is based on the lack of animal products in their diets. Their social media feeds are filled with clips of them traveling, exercising, and meticulously documenting every plant-based thing that passes their lips—until now."

5. The Strange Tale of the FBI’s Fictional Black Identity Extremism Movement 3/23/19 (Alice Speri)

America's biggest domestic terrorism threat is white men, but when law enforcement sustains white supremacy and employs white supremacists, is it really a surprise that an imaginary black terrorist threat is pulled out of someone's ass? 

Read Length: Long

Related: Mysterious Deaths Leave Ferguson Activists ‘On Pins and Needles’ (EJ Dickson)

6. Your Ancestors Were Slaves. Who Owns the Photos of Them? (Jennifer Schuessler) 3/22/19

Who owns African-American history: the generally white-dominated institutions that house many of its traces, or the descendants of the enslaved? And who, if anyone, should control — and profit from — it?

Read Length: Medium

7. A Battle For My Life ( Emilia Clarke) 3/21/19

One of my biggest fears is having a brain aneurysm and one of my favorite shows is Game of Thrones so this was a must-read. 

Read Length: Long

8. American School Lunch Is Becoming More Diverse, Like It Was in the 1910s (Reina Gattuso) 3/21/19

A Cute history of school lunch, which was largely influenced by a woman named Mabel Hyde Kitteridge. 

“She adapted her vision of modern nutrition to the flavors of the Lower East Side’s Jewish, Irish, and Italian kitchens. At the time, students were expected to go home for lunch—a difficult proposition for parents whose paltry factory incomes were barely enough to feed the family. Children who didn’t go home often purchased food from unsanitary street carts. As a result, kids in these communities were widely malnourished and often ill. Kittredge’s SLC changed that by offering low-cost and nourishing meals that tasted like home cooking.”

Read Length: Medium

9. The Very Real Search for the Bible’s Mythical Manna (Erica X Eisen) 3/18/19

When I saw the above article, I stumbled upon this one too. 

 In Exodus, it’s referred to as “like coriander seed, white,” with a taste “like wafers made with honey.” Numbers, on the other hand, likens the flavor to “fresh oil” and describes how the Israelites “ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it.”

Read Length: Short