It is no secret that I love to read. I was looking back at my Goodreads list and reflecting on what I read this year. I decided to share some of the favorite books I read this year. Some were released in 2025, and some were not. There is no ranking on this list, and they are in a random order:
Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher. I decided to get the audiobook because Cher recorded it with additional help from Stephanie J. Block. And as I listened to this, it made me appreciate Cher’s perseverance even more, because there were many people who took advantage of her career, yet she still fought hard and, in the end, won.
Careless People: A Story of where I used to work by Sarah-Wynn Williams. Sarah Wynn-Williams used to work at Facebook as the Director of Public Policy, and she shares her firsthand experience working there. And still proves that your job isn’t your whole life and being.
I Leave It Up to You by JinWoo Chong. The plot centers on a man named Jack who wakes from a coma and realizes his old life has vanished, and now he has to rely on his family and reconnect with them to find himself and get a new start.
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr. This book dives into the life of Candy Darling and her desire to emulate silver-screen stars, such as Kim Novak. However, she became an icon in her own right.
It’s that time of year again. When Vinegar Syndrome starts, there is a pre-sale for one of their biggest events of the year. There is a Black Friday Sale!
This pre-sale option started on November 1st and ends today, November 4! If you are unsure where to start, here are five recommendations of what to pre-order to beat the rush:
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)- This movie has been a long fascination of mine. So much so that I bought the soundtrack on vinyl a decade ago, and it has been a prized possession ever since. Some viewers who had watched or seen clips of the movie defined it as gross, but I believe that it is not the case!
At Close Range — this is a blind buy for me. I am a huge fan of Christopher Walken, and to be honest, I haven’t heard of this movie, but the cover art for it looked pretty intense.
The Chain Reaction- Australian cinema is one of my favorites. This movie has a lot going on: Car chase scenes, weird radiation stuff, and the government trying to hide its tracks!
Krazee Kidz Video Party — I am also a devoted fan of AGFA media, and this unique, crazy-sounding title just made me curious, so it was an automatic purchase! And if this trailer doesn’t convince you of the uniqueness, then I don’t know what will!
Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point- During this pre-sale, I always tried to get something that is either a winter or a Christmas theme. This time I decided on this movie.
Lily Dale, New York, is a small town that is on the eastern section of Upper Cassadaga Lake. Lily Dale has an interesting community that is closely tied to the Spiritualist movement.
Image Credit: Lily Dale Assembly
Lily Dale started its beginnings as early as 1879 by the Cassadaga Lake Free Association. The association began to hold its social gatherings for its Freethinkers and Spiritualists every summer. From there, they bought twenty acres of land near the lake. In 1903, the piece of land was named The City of Light; however, by 1906, the name was changed to Lily Dale Assembly, with the understanding that it was a place for encouraging advancements in any aspect of Spiritualism.
Credit: The Washington Post
The name Lily Dale originated from the numerous water lilies that once covered the area, and it was also the name of a road leading to the area, known as Dale Drive. This area started with about 250 residents, with the belief and understanding that the soul of a person lives on after they die.
Credit: Waze
The group then began constructing cabins, cottages, a hotel, and various outdoor venues, including picnic areas, outdoor stages, and other spaces designed to encourage involvement in the Spiritualist movement.
Credit: Keen
Even Susan B. Anthony was known to visit the area numerous times to discuss the women’s suffrage movement as well as the rights of women.
This area still exists today, serving the same purpose as mediums and spiritualists; however, it is encountering some legal issues. In 2022, Lily Dale decided not to include Reuthers, who own a bed and breakfast in Lily Dale, from their community because they had not paid their fees since 2019. Lily Dale Assembly has claimed that Reuthers has violated the contract between them and has been trying to evict them from the area. Therefore, Lily Dale had no other alternative but to remove Reuthers from their official listings. However, the Reuthers have counterclaimed that Lily Dale does not have a legal complaint since they are not “authorized under state law, and state constitution.” (Whittaker, 2024). In addition to claiming that there was no agreement made on Lily Dale’s conditions. An agreement was reached that Lily Dale must have its Board of Trustees revise its standards for businesses operating in the area, as well as update its application process for businesses seeking approval to operate in the area.
Credit The New York Times
Additionally, a lawsuit was filed against the Lily Dale Assembly by three women who claimed they were denied registration as mediums in the area because they failed the required test.
Lily Dale remains an area rich in nature and spiritualism, known for being the largest community of Spiritualists and mediums. The area still hosts events such as the National Spiritualist Association of Churches.
This year, Banned Book Week is from September 22 to 28, 2024. Banned Books highlights books that have been challenged or banned for one reason or many and encourages the reader’s freedom to read those books in libraries, schools, and bookstores. Here are ten books that have been challenged or banned and why:
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson. The reason why it was banned is sexual content.
The Earth, My Butt, and other big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. It was banned/ challenged because of foul language, which was inappropriate for the age group it was written for.
Looking for Alaska by John Green. The reason it was banned/challenged: Foul Language, sexual content, and inappropriate for the age group it was written for.
There are tons and tons of books on this list, so these are just a few books. What books are on your to-read list or considered your favorite books? Are they on the list? Comment below!
Today is the last day of the B&N criterion collection sale. Here are my five recommendations if you still haven’t decided to get:
Risky Business, directed by Paul Brickman. Starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. Spine Number 1227.
Risky Business is one of my favorite Tom Cruise movies. In it, Cruise plays a high school student who seems bored with his everyday Suburban life. He meets Lana, who is involved in some interesting ordeals.
Sid and Nancy is directed by Alex Cox and starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. This movie is based on the rocky relationship between Sid Vicious and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Claudine was directed by John Berry and starring James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll. Claudine is a hard-working single mother with six kids in New York City and trying very hard to make life work. While trying to hold everything together, she meets a man in the least likely place.
This week’s post is by my friend @bigfunbeth, who is the co-owner of one of my favorite stores: @GreenwichLetterpress
“My So-Called Life, 30 Years”
“My So-Called Life debuted on April 25, 1994. It was the summer before I started high school and I was fourteen years old.
On that Thursday night in 1994, a small group of my friends convened at Jessica’s house. We all crammed onto her couch to watch the pilot debut. “An honest look at growing up in the 90’s said the ad that ran in TV Guide. Wait, we were growing up in the 90’s and who were all of these people that kind of look like people who could know? Plus, the show already had its own scandal- the main girl wants to stab her mother in the first episode, we heard? “Wait, is she really going to say that?”
After the pilot ended I remember immediately thinking, “I don’t know if I’m the same person I was an hour ago.” I looked around me. None of my other friends had liked the show very much.This felt like something that had separated me from them irreparably. We never got together to watch it again, and my hair was dyed orange by the end of 8th grade. I was Angela Chase, and at the time, it felt like I was the only one.
For the next handful of months, I was obsessed, and then, as suddenly as it had exploded into my life. It was over. There were rumors. Poor ratings. The lead actress wanted to pursue movies instead. I remember asking my mother about it like she wrote for Premiere magazine or something and had the inside scoop. There was no social media to turn to, there was no 24 hour news cycle. What had just happened to the thing that felt like my actual life just spread across nineteen episodes of TV? There was an online petition to bring it back, which at the time was groundbreaking. Then, just nothing…until MTV.
When MTV got the right to syndicate the show, I got to see my old friends again. They would cut the promos in fun and clever ways. There were all-day marathons, and one was hosted by Claire Danes and Jared Leto. I can remember the very 90’s dELIA’s looking shirt Claire wore. Her hair, OMG, it’s kind of strawberry blond now and shorter, and OMG, Jared’s hair is short now, too. I was so thirsty for content. I was starved for it, or whatever.
When the “Self-Esteem” episode come on it was like, everyone please stop talking and leave the room. He’s about to grab her hand in the hallway. For me, this was the epitome of love on screen, and I yearned for that love to happen to me in real life. As did every single person I have discussed that scene within the past thirty years. In fact, we all screwed up countless relationships holding out for that exact moment.
MTV gave the show a new audience and anyone who had missed out the first time had a chance to watch it. I remember meeting new kids in high school who now loved it and watching repeats with my sophomore-year boyfriend. There was a community growing around this show and it was like, cool. It was actually just cool. People were connecting with something that felt honest, inspired, and real. Only if it now only existed in reruns.
I recently showed the series to my husband for the first time, who was in his 20s, when it premiered. He was so taken with how dark the show was. Not the mood, he said, but the literal lack of actual light, which he thinks impacted how it was received for the first time around. I’m like, yeah, babe, that is the light that you bask in as a teenage girl filled with angst, lust, emotion, and uncertainty.
Since I own a shop, I have to comment on the merch. MSCL had virtually nothing to offer its obsessed fans. There was an early VHS set and soundtracks on cassette and CD. My sister and I of course had the soundtrack on both mediums and were horrified to discover that “Late At Night” by Buffalo Tom was missing. Nooooo. In 2002, there was a DVD set (no bonus content) and then a deluxe version that came in a lunchbox. By 2007 there was yet another DVD set, but this time there were extras. Finally, something else we could grab onto. Creator Winnie Holzman and Claire Danes sat down together and discussed what might have happened in season two. When I first watched this conversation, I felt like crying and then passing out. It was 1995 all over again. A love triangle between Angela, Jordon, and Brian!? Sharon pregnant?!? Graham leaves Patty?!? The agony was unbearable. It honestly still is.
All of these years later, despite just that single season of TV and lack of physical ephemera, this show doesn’t just quietly linger on (cue the Cranberries) – it has a foot firmly planted in the hearts of everyone who fell in love with it thirty years ago. In fact, it’s a barometer. I use for when I meet new people. The second someone can have the MSCL conversation, I think, “This is my person, and I am their person.” Countless times I’ve acknowledged with friends and fans about how this show made us realize we were transitioning into adulthood. How, with every rewatch, you start to connect more with Patty and Grahan and drift a little farther away from lockers and boiler rooms. When I was a teenager, I thought it was gross how much sex her parents had on the show, and now I think it’s hysterical. What 40 years with kids and careers has the energy for that much sex? Plus, now, I am four years older than Patty Chase was on the show, Hold on, I’m calling my therapist…
“Patty, we’re forty!”- Camille Cherski
As for someone who lives and breathes nostalgia and often wonders if it’s a mistake, I never feel like rewatching MSCL is a waste of my time. The things that made me laugh or cry all those years ago still do, and I feel like I learn something new about human nature every time I revisit. There is so much that has already been said about this show and, what its place was in the 90’s and how it might resonate to young people today. This is not that. This is just my little ode to a time and place that was for me, My absolute So Called Life.
Stray Thoughts
Was the Chase’s cat name Lady Di?
Tino is the JAWS of the 90’s, much more powerful to never see him
Shit ok, Brian IS cute!
It’s insane that Graham tells Neal about his affair in the kitchen while Patty is within earshot.
Andy Cherski is probably a babe.
I love that Graham is shocked Patty can make curtains and she’s shocked he can hang wallpaper.
“Brain Krahow?” “I like Buffalo Tom, I do!” “Stephan Dieter guy. Still funny.
I want to be friends with Vic Racine and Mr. Katimski and share coffee with them in the teacher’s break room. I also desperately want to be invited into a teacher’s break room, anywhere.
Weekend, Life of Brian, The Substitute and Self Esteem are my favorite episodes.
If you can find a friend to tell off Jordan like Rayanne does, you’ve arrived.
It was 1997 when I first came across Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel The Virgin Suicides. I was in my public library browsing through the many sacks when the book’s title made me stop walking. I took it out of the row and was intrigued. I did not want to read the back of the book. Instead, I decided to check it out and take it home. I went to my favorite reading spot at home and opened the first page. I was totally engulfed by the words because I felt like it was a Southern Gothic novel set for teenage girls. I read the whole book in one sitting because it felt like those words on the pages were similar to what I thought I was going through as a pre-teen. Middle school was rough for me because I felt like a loner.
My best friend was books because with books, I could escape and live many lives through someone else’s pages. Jeffery Eugenides captured all of my pre-teen emotions fully in this book. I read the book thrice that year until I finally convinced myself to buy my copy.
It was not until the year 2000 that I was walking by a store and saw the movie post for the movie:
I was surprised that there was a movie made from it. I wonder if the film would capture all of my teenage emotions. Did the movie capture all of the gothic spookiness I felt between the words from the book?
I was able to track down the movie on cable a couple of years later on the Sundance channel. I absolutely loved this movie. It captured many emotions I felt the first time I read the book.
But what stayed with me for a very long time was the soundtrack:
The Air (the score version) and the movie soundtrack stuck with me for the longest time. For most of my teenage years, I had to rebuy both versions of the soundtrack because I played it so much that I made a clear hole out of the CDs. The movie soundtrack introduced me to such artists as Todd Rundgren and 10cc.
And yes, this scene made me fall in adoration for Trip Fontaine:
Even to this day, this movie’s soundtrack and score play in constant rotation in my playlist. Because it captures the eternal feelings of all of my teenage emotions and has a good set of songs!
What movie soundtrack(s) was the soundtrack to your teenage years?
Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate! Here are some book and movie recommendations to celebrate some fantastic mom characters!
Terms of Endearment (1983):
Starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, and Jack Nicholson. Directed by James L. Brook, Shirley MacLaine is magical in this as Aurora, and Debra Winger as Emma. They play two personalities that clash constantly but come together as mother-daughter when times become difficult.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel—I read this book two years ago. It touches on topics such as poverty, violence, and abuse. Betty is one of eight siblings living in a dilapidated farmhouse the town claims is haunted and cursed. Therefore, anyone who lives in it shares those same characteristics as the farmhouse.
Carrie (1976):
Starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie and Amy Irving. Carrie is not like your average teenager. She doesn’t make friends easily and has an extremely strict household.
Mommie Dearest:
Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford. I read this book every couple of years. I remember when I first read it, I was taken aback by Christina’s shocking claims. However, reflecting back on what I read and the recent claims that have come out about the book, I still wonder which parts were the truth and which were not.
Baby Boom (1987):
Starring Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard. A few years ago, I was in a bad mood and wanted to slip away and watch a funny movie. I turned on Turner Classic Movies and saw this movie was on. It was such a cute and funny movie about J.C. Watt, who is very career-minded; however, everything stops when she learns she has inherited a baby.
The Exorcist:
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty: Regan and her mother live in Washington, D.C. Her mom is a famous actress currently filming a movie in the area. Everything seems pleasant and wonderful until Regan starts to act weird.
What movies or books do you usually watch during this time?
With the new spring season, I am always interested in what books come with it. Here are five books I am looking forward to reading this spring season:
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal. Professor Kathleen DuVal teaches early American and American Indian history at North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is her second book, and this new book discusses how Indigenous Americans made multiple cities way before North America was founded.
Bugsey and Other Stories by Rafael Frumkin. This collection of five stories brings funny and creative tales that break away from your regular reading material.
The Swans of Harlem by Katen Valby concerns five ballerinas from the Dance Theatre of Harlem during the Civil Rights movement. This absorbing book finally tells the stories of endurance, dance, and friendship.
Husbands by Holly Gramazio. Lauren goes to her house one night and sees a lovely, fully decorated home. She is greeted by her fantastic husband. The only problem is that she is not married!
Joyce Carol Vincent was born on October 19, 1965, in the London part of Hammersmith. Her parents were from Grenada and moved to London shortly before Joyce’s birth. Joyce’s mother died when Joyce was only eleven years old. And her four older sisters took it upon themselves to care for Joyce while she was growing up. Joyce did not have the best relationship with her father because he was unemotional and distant from her.
She went to school at Melcombe Primary School. And Fulham Gilliatt School for Girls, but she dropped out by the time she was sixteen years old without graduating. She was well-liked and had a lot of well-known friends in the music business.
In 1985, she worked as a secretary at OCL in London and later at Ernst and Young. She spent four years in their treasury department. She worked there until 2001 when she quit for reasons that were not known. Throughout that period, she spent some time at a domestic abuse shelter in Haringey while working as a cleaner in a budget hotel.
It was during this time. She stopped talking to her family even though there was no fighting or any disputes between her and her sisters. She just simply decided to stop talking to them. Her family was aware of the relationship that Joyce was in had a history of domestic violence. There was some theorizing that perhaps Joyce had shame that she was a victim of domestic violence or that she did not want the person who abused her out where she lived.
In February 2003, Joyce moved to a bedsit flat above the Wood Green Shopping Center. In November of the same year, she noticed that she was vomiting blood and went to the North Middlesex Hospital for a couple of days and was diagnosed with a peptic ulcer.
Joyce was at her apartment when she died. Some speculate that she passed away in December 2003 due to having asthma and a peptic ulcer. Some theorized that she had an asthma attack or had some prolonged issues surrounding her peptic ulcer that led to her death. However, there was no determined definition of how she passed away.
The weirdest thing about this was that Joyce’s body was not found until three years after her death. Her surrounding neighbors thought that her apartment had no one in there. They also believed that the odor of decomposing was the smell of trash because the trash cans were so close to their residence on the bottom floor. In addition, no one ever questioned the noise of the television being on all the time, and it was just a noisy neighborhood. The neighbors never assumed that they had a deceased neighbor in the bedsit for three years.
Regarding her rent and utilities being paid, she had set up an automatic payment from her bank account for the utilities. And half of her rent was produced by the Metropolitan Housing Trust for about a year. It was not until two years after that it was noticed. The back rent of 2,400 pounds was when the officials in charge of housing went to Joyce’s apartment to repossess the property.
When they entered the property in January 2006, they were shocked to find Joyce deceased. They located her in the living area on the couch while the tv was on. The pathologist at the scene noticed that the refrigerator had expired food as far back as 2003. Joyce was found on her back with a shopping bag next to her and Christmas presents that looked like she had wrapped them but had no labels for who they were. Joyce’s body was severely decomposed. And could no longer have a post-mortem conducted. She was only IDed by her dental records and a photo of her.
It was also speculated that she had a boyfriend at the time of her death, but no one was able to locate or find him. The police concluded that Joyce died of natural causes, and no foul play caused her death. Her sisters were notified of Joyce’s passing and all the details surrounding it. They, in return, told the police that they had been trying to contact her for a while and had even hired a private detective to locate her. However, they had no idea what happened to her and decided Joyce had broken all their connections with them and did not want to be bothered by them.
A documentary about Joyce called Dreams of a Life contains interviews with people who knew her and some of her friends. I was able to rent it and watch it for a better understanding of Joyce Vincent’s life and tragic ending. The trailer is below:
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