5 Fictional Black Women I Want in my Girl Squad

When some of the coolest women in my life live in the pages of a book, these are the ones I would want to have in my ultimate girl group. (Originally apperaed on the site Book Riot.)

CultureAntoinette ScullyMarch 12, 2018Fiction, Black Girls, Black Women Characters, Women Authors, Book ListComment

Reading Year of Yes: Shonda Rhimes Turns Her Sights on Making You the Best You Can Be (Book Review)

Would you be willing to say "Yes" for a whole year?

Back to School with "The Skin I'm In" by Sharon Flake (Book Review)

Sumer is gone and Skin is In

ReadingAntoinette ScullyAugust 24, 2016AAVE, Colorism, Middle School, Women Authors, Fiction, YA, Nikki Grimes, The Skin I'm In, Children's Book, Book ReviewComment

3 Completely Unreasonable Reasons I Don't Reread Books

Why is it so hard to pick up a book again?

Antoinette ScullyAugust 4, 2016Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Foster Wallace, Kristen Randle, Reread, Sharon Creech, Women AuthorsComment

Recommendsday at Black and Bookish

It's #recommendsday. Need new reads for your shelf?

Top Ten for the Weekend (07/15/16)

I am feeling overwhelmed with a mix of thoughts and emotions, but also some numbness has fallen over me. I have been having trouble expressing myself in various ways and my writing has suffered since July 9th.

Antoinette ScullyJuly 15, 2016Activism, Andre Lorde, BlackLivesMatter, Self-Care, Women AuthorsComment

A Look Back: My Day At The 2016 Los Angeles Time's Festival of Books (Event Review)

*Note: I wrote almost all of this shortly after the Bookfest event in April, but never got around to posting it. Please enjoy my look back at #Bookfest.*

#SipandRead: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enuf

ReadingAntoinette ScullyJune 29, 2016#SipandRead, Instagram, Ntozake Shange, Photography, Poetry, Women Authors Comments

Friday Reads (06/24/2016)

Antoinette ScullyJune 24, 2016Blavity-com, Dawn, Diversity, IndieWire, Joe Ponder, Kings of Earth, Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Publishing, Questlove, Shonda Rhimes, Social Justice, Women Authors, Year of YesComment

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (Book Review)

For at least a year, Parable of the Sower sat on my (borrowed) shelf and I went on with my life. I was unfamiliar with the life and work of Octavia Butler and so, I did not know how important this book would be.

ReadingAntoinette ScullyJune 23, 2016Octavia Butler, Women Authors, Fiction, Science Fiction, Parable of the Sower, Book ReviewComment

Death By Comb by Camari Carter (Book Review)

ReadingAntoinette ScullyMay 26, 2016Camari Carter, Los Angeles, Poetry, Women Authors, Women's Studies, Self-Published Spotlight, Nonfiction, Book Review, Death by Comb Comment

Death by Comb Book Signing at The World Stage in Leimert Park Village (Event Review)

CultureAntoinette ScullyMay 23, 2016Anansi Writer's Workshop, Book Signing, Camari Carter, Leimert Park Village, Poetry, The World Stage, Women Authors, World Stage Press, Events Comment

"What Does Blackness Mean?" at the Getty (Event Review)

CultureAntoinette ScullyMay 3, 2016Blackness, History, John Harvel, Katrin Trautwein, Panel Talks, Sarah Lewis, The Getty Center, The Story of Black, Women Authors, Zocalo Public Square, EventsComment

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire (Book Review)

It's really a trick, how short this book appears to be. You assume you'll read it in 10 or 15 minutes, and then go wash the dishes or otherwise return to your life right were you left off. 20 poems. Words with space to breathe.

#SipandRead: She's Just Not That Into You

CultureAntoinette ScullyApril 18, 2016Aryka Randall, Instagram, Photography, Women Authors, #SipandRead Comment

Weekly Wrap-Up 04/15/2016 (Bookfest Edition)

Antoinette ScullyApril 15, 2016Bookfest, Jonnie F- Kirvin, Kate Beaton, Kwame Alexander, Lynette R- Goode, Noel Jones, non-black authors, Rachel Garlinghouse, SLLadd, Women AuthorsComment

She's Just Not That Into You by Aryka Randall (Book Review)

ReadingAntoinette ScullyApril 6, 2016Aryka Randall, guidebook, Queer Relationships, Women Authors, Women's Studies, Nonfiction, Book Review, She's Just Not That Into You, Cultural Connections Comment

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (Book Review)

A book of essays was a new frontier for me. I can't remember the last time I read a collection of essays outside of a homework assignment. One aspect of Black & Bookish is to get out of my comfort zone, and Bad Feminist did that in a great way.

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Book Review)

We Should All Be Feminists is an unapologetic declaration of feminist power. It is a collection of short essays adapted from a 20 minute, 2012 TedxEuston talk. In her book, she recounts childhood stories of discrimination and "othering." She uses her personal stories as examples in ways to enact social change. Although it's only 52 pages short, when you stop seeing this book as small, you realize it has so much to unpack.

How To Be Bookish