I create a weekly list of the articles, books, podcasts, TV and movies I consumed in the previous week. I'm not listing everything but things that I feel are worth noting.
My Fighting Family by Morgan P. Campbell.
Morgan Campbell is best known as a sportswriter and media personality, having worked for the Toronto Star for 18 years and now is at home on CBC Sports. In My Fighty Family, he tells the story of his family, the fights, the personalities, and the moments that made him. He shares his experiences growing up black in Canada juxtaposed to his family who come from or still live in Chicago or Michigan or other cities and tiny towns in America.
When I read something really great, it either inspires me to write, or I'm not a literary critic, nor would I pretend to be, but I know what I like, and I really enjoy Campell's memoir.
If you enjoy audiobooks, choose the audiobook. Campbell's performance of the story is exceptional. He's reading the book, but he's telling his stories. Stories he's no doubt told many times before, with all of the love, pain, joy and humour of those moments coming through on the Audio.
Salman Rushdie's Top 13 Writing Tips
Bobby
As a person who enjoys writing and has dreams of writing my own books and memoirs, when I read something that touches me, it elicits one of two responses. A) I'm inspired and it ignites a fire in me to start cracking the keys and write something all my own. Or B) I feel like a fraud and silly for even thinking of writing anything more than email because I could never create something so beautiful.
Campbell's memoir is in the former, but anything by Salman Rushdie is in the latter. Be it Satanic Verses or his own memoir of his time in hiding, Joseph Anton: A Memoir, I appreciate it and forget about my own aspirations for a while.
So, when I saw that Rushdie was doing a MasterClass on writing, I thought maybe. I balked at the $180 a year for MC, but I did find a link to his top 13 writing tips.
Griselda - NetFlix
I started watching Griselda, 3 episodes in, and so far, so good. I enjoy everything and anything from the 80s cocaine scene. It's all wild, and now that it's close to 40 years on, we can start looking back with the same nostalgia as past generations looked at prohibition-era gangsters like Al Capone.
The Fall of the House of Usher - NetFlix
I really didn't know what to expect, but I enjoyed how each episode was an homage to a Simpson's Treehouse of Horror episode 😉. The modernization of Edgar Allan Poe's classics was very well done.
The MAGA Diaries - Audible
Tina Nguyen
Tina Nyguen tells her story of graduating into the conservative content machine, where young people are groomed into the right-wing conservative moment. Courted early, groomed while they're young and impressionable and reputation ruined for most other media jobs. Thankfully for Nyguen, she managed to escape, find normal employment and write a book telling her story.
There wasn't a lot of new information, but to have an insider explain the machinations and connect the dots clearly and concisely will be nice for future aspirants considering taking a gig with these partisan hack factories.
