Weekly Round Up: The Mindy Project, Junot Diaz and Book Lists

Happy Wednesday everyone! It’s rainy and cold here after a solid month of above average temps and sunshine and I’m using it to clean out files I’ve been holding onto forever, which is also kind of becoming my metaphor for letting go of the me I was and embracing what’s coming, which sounds far more sort of new-agey and zenish than I usually am. But I’ll blog about that another time. This is my round-up post.

So, I finally discovered Orange is the New Black on Netfix and I binge-watched all the eps. So much love for this show and the way it represents race and sexuality. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close with compelling narratives for each of the characters. Plus, that opening song is pretty darn catchy. I was talking to my friend about how much I like it:

Me: “I would totally be someone’s bitch within five minutes of showing up. I’d just feel more secure that way, like if I just knew, you know?”

Friend: “Yeah, you totally would. You’d be just like Piper only someone’s bitch and constantly bringing up facts that are related to whatever is being talked about but that no one else would care about or get.”

Me: “Wait, you don’t think you’d be someone’s bitch? We grew up on the same street, went to the same schools. It’s not like you’re some hardened street thug.”

Friend: “I can pretend to be. You can’t. Your need to share useless facts is stronger than you are.”

True friends really know you, you guys. There is some comfort in that.

Last night was Fox’s comedy premieres. New Girl was cute, but The Mindy Project was fantastic. I know James Franco’s one of those guys everyone loves to hate, but I seriously just kind of love him (except as an Oscar host. I hated him there, mostly because it seemed to be one of the few times he wasn’t genuinely trying to have fun, like he was just resigned to sucking. I respect effort!) and he didn’t disappoint last night. The whole gang’s back with some new additions, and I hope Franco and Kaling get to spar for awhile.

As for the new shows, Brooklyn 99 has potential – the writing was pretty solid with some good one-liners, but just go ahead and delete Dads from your PVR. I watched five minutes, mourned for where Oz from Buffy and Frank Buffay Jr. from Friends ended up, and cancelled my series recording. Seth Green and Giovanni Ribsi are far too talented for this and I can only hope the writing took a serious dive after they’d already signed a contract, and that they didn’t commit based on this particular script.

Also managed to read a couple of books!  This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz was beautiful. I haven’t read any of his other books, so the main character in this connected series of short stories, Yunior, was new to me but wow, what a clear and authentic voice. This should be mandatory reading for units on character development in writing classes. He’s not a likeable character, necessarily, but you feel him, even if you are a white, middle-class, middle-aged feminist living in the suburb of a mid-sized Canadian city and not a young, urban, Dominican-American, sexist playboy living in a Jersey ghetto.

Kind of fitting that right after I read that, I dived into We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulowayo. It’s not as pretty and lyrical and literary as Diaz’s work, but 10 year-old Zimbabwean Darling has a strong voice all her own. The first part of the book takes place in Zimbabwe and details the simple but poor life of Darling and her friends in the shantytown they’ve been forced into since the revolution. The second half explores Darling as a teenager, having joined her aunt in the US. The theme that links the two is that of displacement, of living a life you weren’t really supposed to be, of never really feeling a part of your world. Though at times the text becomes burdensome and repetitive, and though there were parts that seemed colder than others, overall I think Bulowayo is going places and this debut novel is only a hint of what she has going on.

Speaking of books, a couple of lists were circulating on Facebook this week. I’m pleased that I’ve read 85 of the books on this list of 100 Greatist Books for Kids ; less pleased that I’ve only read 205 of the 399 books Rory Gilmore was seen reading on the 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls (which I can’t wait to share with the tween in a couple of years!). And, finally, this list of the books people are most likely to pretend to have read was also pretty cute. I’ve actually read about five, but I’ve seen the films for the remainder! That kind of, sort of, counts right?

I must return to my purging. Hoping it’s sunny and dry where you are, unless you need to get some purging done yourself. Then I wish you a nice, rainy, productive day.