Type Away Cait

pc: Instagram / @cait_malilay_reads Will I ever, again in my life, fall in love with another book as much as "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara?  Shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize, this whopping 816-page-long novel tells the story of four friends who meet in college, develop their own identities and face life's obstacles and milestones that come with adulthood. Readers will meet  Willem, the charming actor;                    Malcolm, the creative architect; JB, the cocky struggling artist and                    Jude, the mysterious lawyer with a dark past. ***TRIGGER WARNING:** This book contains descriptions of rape, addiction, physical and emotional abuse, self-harm and suicide.  This novel that's loved by many celebrities, such as Dua Lipa, Chris Pine and Dakota Johnson , is about friendship, the effects of trauma, love in all its forms and, of course, life it...

pc: IG / @cait_malilay_reads "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University, Ph.D., is basically your introduction to fascism college course, or, in other words, Fascism 101.  At 193 pages long, if you don't include acknowledgments, one can definitely complete this in one sitting. Just because I personally describe it as fascism 101, one must certainly not underestimate the quality of the content as it is well worth the read indeed.  The Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy defines what fascism is in, if not all, most of its forms. Broken into 10 chapters, each goes into depth of a key idea of fascism and provides examples. He points out how one may think that fascism was a threat only long ago back in World War II, the days of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, but as he concludes, "It is tempting to think of normal as benign...there is no need for alarm. However both history and psychology show tha...

Local 2110 of United Auto Workers held a rally at 195 Broadway at 12:30 p.m. on Friday as part of their strike for higher wages, a more diverse workplace and better union security for HarperCollins Publishers employees.  The union represents over 250 employees in the editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal and marketing departments. The rally was co-hosted by R.F. Kuang , Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of “Babel: An Arcane History,” and Molly McGhee, the author of the upcoming novel, “Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind.” “We are asking for other ways to make compensation better for people of color, and make it a more secure place for people of color to work,” said Carly Katz, an audio coordinator at HarperCollins Publishers, in an interview with “Conversations With Cait.” Lee and Low Books found in a 2019 baseline survey that the publishing industry overall is 76% white and 74% are cis women. Katz, who has been with the company for five years, makes about $5...

photo credit: Joseph Cumbo / The Buffalo State Record It’s been a little over a week since SUNY Buffalo State College was ordered to shelter-in-place after there was a nearby shooting outside of McKinley High School. Everything appears to be back to normal: students with their backpacks, the usual sound of the blender at Starbucks in Academic Commons and students rushing to their classes. The suspects may have been identified and it may feel like a lot of time has passed since then, but we mustn’t forget what we’ve learned from this experience. The Record had a chance to interview students on their experience and their thoughts on how the overall campus community was prepared. Katie Egan, a sophomore, was in her dorm in Tower One when she read the Buffalo State email alert and described that many students were acting as if nothing had happened. “I could see out the window that people had left our building. I was like, ‘Why are you leaving the building?’” she said. “I even went down to...

What I look forward to the most when I visit New York City is the food. Here are eight food stops that I highly recommend if you visit the city. 1.) The Coop Restaurant and Bar photo credit: Type Away Cait Whoever said Buffalo has the best wings clearly hasn't tried The Coop. Located in Flushing, Queens this Korean restaurant uses the most organic source of ingredients. Their chickens are raised from a nearby local farm in a free range environment, restricted from hormones that promote abnormal growth, and don't contain antibiotics, according to their website . They have a range of Korean dishes, a wide variety of wines and spirits and they have two types of wings: soy garlic for those who don't favor the spice, and, of course, spicy. Fan of both? Why not order half and half? I ordered the soy garlic and it was so crispy, succulent, and full of flavor. These are hands down, the best , so the next time you head to the city, take the 7 train all the way up to Flushing and sto...

photo credit: Atlantis Build / Twitter  Tune in tomorrow at 5 p.m. on 91.3 WBNY-FM for “Conversations With Cait,” for a discussion with Saladin Allah, the third-great grandson of underground railroad Freedom Seeker Josiah Henson whom Harriet Beecher Stowe used as the primary narrative for her famous 19th century novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” In this episode, he shares the story of his third-great grandfather and as an educator, discusses the importance of acknowledging our histories, the future of the youth and education getting mixed up in the game of politics. Stay tuned for the recap article! For updates, follow @cait_malilay_writes on Instagram.

photo credit: Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock Taylor Swift’s birthday is on Dec. 13, so in honor of her, here are my top 11 Swift songs. If someone says they’re not a Swiftie, they must like at least one song by her. If they tell you otherwise, they’re lying. Taylor speaks to everyone. You don’t even have to be in love to enjoy her music. I don’t know about you, but for this December break, I will be listening to Taylor on repeat. 1.) "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" “So why'd you have to rain on my parade?  I'm shaking my head, I'm locking the gates.” Taylor is known for putting Easter eggs in her songs and music videos. The rumor goes that this is a reference to the Kanye or I should say, “Ye” situation...but “ye” you get the picture. 2.) "The Man" “I'd be a fearless leader.                                                    I'd be an alpha type....

photo credit: Elijah Robinson The Record had an opportunity to speak with the president of Turning Point USA Buffalo State chapter, a conservative-leaning organization that values free speech and has yet to be officiated by the United Students Government, on his thoughts on Critical Race Theory. Alexander Kolasny, a senior at the State University of New York at Buffalo State College and peer minister at the Newman Center, says that he is “personally not a fan of Critical Race Theory,” as someone who plans on being an educator. “With CRT, there is a little bit more of them telling you the narrative even though the narrative is contradictory a lot of the times to the historical things that have actually happened,” the social studies education major said. “It also degrades the value of how people perceive themselves because with CRT, you’re stripping down the person to their associated labels that they are asserting for themselves rather than talking and teaching to the student that'...

Photo Credit: Erin Schaff/ The New York Times It's been just a little over six months since the storming of the U.S. Capitol and unsurprisingly, GOP officials have showed their opposition to critical race theory. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida  tweeted that critical race theory "teaches kids to hate our country and to hate each other."  The Florida State Board of Education unanimously passed an amendment banning the teaching of CRT. It took me a while to wrap my head around this because arguments like the ones DeSantis make are absolutely unreasonable and given without context. To ban CRT, appears to be an attempt to erase the history of our past and to deny systemic racism.  CRT is a lens to analyze how racism shaped our world. How is that such a bad thing? How much more narrow-minded can people be? One of my biggest concerns as a college student who is fascinated by this lens perspective are, how will these bans impact the next generation? Will children turn into narrow-...

Remember that old PBS show called “Reading Rainbow?” I never really appreciated this show nor, to be completely honest, reading for that matter. I mean, I liked books and all, but I never truly appreciated the binding of the pages, that fresh smell of a new book, the yellowing of the pages as it ages, and the power of literature as I do now as a college student who made the decision to dedicate their life to writing and reading. As an English and journalism major, I look forward to watching the news, not only to be up to date with current events, but to get a sneak peek at the guest speakers’ bookshelves. I know, I know. Call me weird. Call me nosy, but I’m not the only one who does it. Apparently, The New York Times does it too . Yes, celebrities are just like us. They eat. They sleep. They read. The New York Times spotted Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure” on Paul Rudd’s bookshelf. David Ben-Merre, an English professor at The State University of New York Buffalo State College, said ...

  Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History,  written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman, is a compelling graphic novel of one man's fight to survive the Holocaust. What makes this story unique is that instead of using people, Spiegelman uses mice to represents Jews, and cats to represent the Nazis. Spiegelman also breaks away from the standard storyteller in which he himself plays a role and the order of events is told as if he didn't yet write the Maus series. He is gathering the necessary information from his father, Vladek, to write it. This was a great call on Spiegelman's part because had he not ordered the events as such, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to capture the father's character as well as he did.  Spiegelman succeeds at painting his father and making readers feel attached to the story. In the present, Vladek is old and ailing as he reminisces of his experience in Nazi-occupied Poland. Spiegelman captures his bitterness and that gre...

The 30-page book contains a speech given by William Lynch, a white slave owner, in 1712 on the James River in Virginia. "keep the body and take the mind" - Willie Lynch This is Lynch's recommendation and method for breaking down black men and women and making them into slaves. He compares the breaking down of human to a horse. His racist view of them is that in their "natural state," they are "wild" and "uncivilized" (14-15). There was a separate method in psychologically breaking down women compared to men, but in both cases fear was the slaveholders' main weapon. Though a short read, it is absolutely disturbing. People say that when art — in this case, literature — makes you feel something or draws emotion to you, you know it's worth your time. My stomach turned with every page. It was absolutely disturbing to read the mindset of a slave owner, actually so disturbing that I had to read it in two sittings. It's not that it was a ...

"Big Black: Stand At Attica" is a graphic novel memoir about the historical 1971 Attica prison uprising told from the perspective of Frank Smith also known as "Big Black." *SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD if you're unfamiliar with the historical context of this event The prisoners wanted one simple thing: to be treated as human beings. From dropping hot shell casings on one's skin, to one roll of toilet paper per month, to poor medical treatment, the prisoners had enough, so they drafted a manifesto. When that didn't work, they took matters into their own hands.  Written by Frank "Big Black" Smith and Jared Reinmuth, and illustrated by Améziane, what I was especially interested in and looking forward to prior to the completion of this book —not to mention the fantastic illustrations— was observing the idea of reversal of power. It took a moment, a faulty lock that broke the wall separating the oppressed from those in charge. When the rebel...

Photo Credit: MASTERPIECE | PBS  / Facebook We've survived two Sundays without "World On Fire." The first season had come crashing down to a cliffhanger. While we wait for the moment to find out whether Kasia will meet Harry at the top of the hill or if Lois will go through with marrying the dashing Canadian pilot, Vernon, let's use this time to spotlight the very different, yet very powerful women. **SPOILERS AHEAD!!** Lois She's very   headstrong.  For instance, in the season finale (S1 ep. 7), she strongly tells Harry that she doesn't want him to be part of her or the baby's life. Another trait to describe her would be spontaneous. After his return from Poland and even though she sensed he was hooking up with someone else, she decided to have sex with him resulting in an unplanned pregnancy at a very inconvenient time: World War II. Despite the circumstances, instead of just weeping about it, it seems she easily accepted the com...