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pc: Cait Malilay "A Second Reckoning: Race, Injustice and the Last Hanging in Annapolis" by Scott D. Seligman delves into the historical case of John Snowden, a Black man charged under circumstantial evidence for murdering a White woman named Lottie Mae Brandon in 1917.  Seligman , an award-winning writer and a historian, walks readers through the case and the historical time period of Maryland's capitol, focusing specifically on race relations, while occasionally touching on gender norms and laws that restricted women from participating in government. Seligman presents the book in such a way where he's not setting out to prove whether Snowden was guilty or innocent, but rather simply stating the facts. There are many characters that help push forward the investigation, which made national headlines, one of them being Mary Grace Winterton Quackenbos Humiston. Humiston was a detective from New York who was hired by The Washington Times to solve the case.  She came fro...

pc: Cait Malilay  Can you imagine if you found out that the people who raised you weren't actually your parents? "A Girl Returned," by Donatella Di Peirtrantonio, tells the story of a 13-year-old girl in the mid-1970s Abruzzo whose life is turned upside down when one day she is dropped off at a house full of strangers, who happen to be her real family. Unnamed, she is referred to as "l'arminuta," the returned.  The phrase, "the returned," implies that she becomes objectified.  She not only returns to her real family, but her nickname, which was labeled by her classmates,  emphasizes that she lacks a sense of identity, and feels discarded and unwanted.  "One had given me up with the milk still on her tongue, the other had given me back at the age of 13. I was a child of separations, false or unspoken kinships, distances. I no longer knew who I came from. In my heart, I don't even now," (Di Peirtrantonio 115). It turns out that who she...

The Republican-majority House of Representatives removed Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a vote of 218-211 on Thursday. The GOP repeatedly called out Omar for her past anti-Semitic rhetoric and statements about Israel. Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio addressed on the House floor how she was barred from traveling to Israel in 2019. "How can someone not welcomed by one of our most important allies serve as an emissary of American foreign policy on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and given her biased comments against Israel and against the Jewish people, how can she serve as an objective decision maker on the committee?" Miller said. She has since apologized for her remarks after being urged by her colleagues on both sides in the then Democratic-majority House led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.  @IlhanMN / Twitter Omar gave a touching speech while displaying a photo of her 9-year-old self as she shared her background, an...

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...

Women of the Buffalo Chinese Fashion Group align to show traditional Chinese clothing at the 2023 Lunar New Year celebration hosted by CCWNY at University at Buffalo's Center for the Arts. pc: Cait Malilay The Chinese Club of Western New York hosted a Lunar New Year celebration at University at Buffalo's Center for the Arts on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. An estimate of 1200 people attended this year's celebration of the year of the rabbit. Jun Wang-Tiedemann, the president of CCWNY, said that the rabbit is a symbol of "prosperity, longevity and positivity." "It is a year for contemplation, hope and relaxation. Our goal for this event is to celebrate and raise awareness for Asian Chinese culture in Western New York," she said. Guests were greeted at the door where they received a red pouch with goodies. CCWNY sells Chinese paper cut artwork. pc: Cait Malilay There were tables where they could learn more about the culture, like the art of Chinese paper cutting ,...

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...