Some Books I Loved

 **A retelling of one of Lovecraft's stories, honoring Lovecraft while also showing how much better he could have been** This post is going to be about the fantastic novella "The Ballad of Black Tom" by Victor LaValle, but I actually want to start out with a passage taken from Matt Ruff's also excellent novel, "Lovecraft Country".  Specifically, this is actually from the Author's Afterword, where Ruff addresses H. P. Lovecraft's complicated legacy: The story that best sums up Lovecraft for me is “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” It’s about a New England coastal town whose inhabitants have made an unholy alliance with aliens who live in the sea. A tourist comes to Innsmouth for the day, sees too much, and ends up running for his life.  All of Lovecraft’s worst traits are on display in the story: Besides the standard racist worldview, “Shadow” offers a thinly veiled allegory about the evils of miscegenation (the aliens are mating with the townspeople). But ...

 **An exhaustive look at how slavery influenced Black American cooking, and how Black American cooking influenced American cooking in general.  Spoiler:  Black culture is nearly as significant in American cooking as it is in American music, which is to say that it's absolutely foundational** The first great American chef was a man named James Hemmings.  I doubt many people know that name, it's certainly not featured very prominently in most American history textbooks.  But in 1784, James Hemmings went to France, where he studied in the great kitchens of the continent and brought this cuisine back to America.  He's credited with the introduction of dishes like crème brûlée and meringue to North America.  And notably, we have very clear documentation of him being the first in America to serve a version of "macaroni pie", a French dish of pasta in a cheese sauce--which obviously evolved into the iconic American dish of macaroni and cheese So why don't lea...

 **A discussion of America's prison-industrialism complex and our near-fetishization of carceral solution to our society's problems, wrapped up in a blood-soaked adrenaline rush of a book** The Rightful Choice Act, commonly referred to as Bobby’s Bloodsport Bridge, or BBB, B3, or B Three (passed under President Robert Bircher), states that under their own will and power, convicted wards of the state may elect to forgo a state-administered execution or a sentence totaling at least twenty-five (25) years’ imprisonment, to instead participate in the (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment) CAPE program. After three (3) years of successful participation in said CAPE program, said ward may be granted clemency, commutation of sentence, or a full pardon. And that's the setup for this novel.  Convicted felons, the worst of the worst, can elect instead to participate in gladiatorial fights to the death.  One a week for three years, and you earn your freedom The obvious point of this ...

**1920s-era sword and sorcery, in which a trio of Black American heroines fight against white, pointy-headed "Ku Klux" demons.  Yeah, exactly, it's great** On a dark night 1915, a top Stone Mountain in the heart of Georgia, the dark sorcerers Thomas Dixon Jr. and D. W. Griffith used their film "The Birth of a Nation" to cast a terrible ritual, drawing forth demons from the pit.  These eldritch horrors, with pale white skin and pointed heads, fed off the hatred in the hearts of these proud survivors of the Confederacy.  By pledging themselves to these "Ku Klux" demons (and naming their society after them), they gained the power to punish their enemies Fast-forward ten years, and a trio of Black American heroines fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Macon, Georgia.  Our main character, Maryse Boudreaux, wields a sword empowered by ancient African gods, and leads her compatriots in battle against this foe . . . Tell me you don't already want to read this...