Friday Reads 6-19-2020
Whoo Boy. We're hanging tough over here this weekend. Today is Juneteenth which celebrates the day that Galveston TX found out that Lincoln had freed the slaves, 2.5 years after the Emancipation Declaration. This event effectively ended slavery in the U.S. since there were still slaves in TX until they found out about the Proclamation. So there's some celebrating for that.
On the other hand, President Trump is beginning his campaign rallies here in Tulsa tomorrow. Racist activities against brown people started last weekend. Businesses near the area where the rally is being held are being boarded up. The libraries in the area are closed. QT is closed. Let that sink in. QuikTrip. Is. Closed. QT never closes. Never. 3 am? Open. Christmas? Open. Tornado warning? Open. Trump rally? Nope. closed for 4 days. The mayor instituted a curfew, but then Trump called him so he retracted it. It's a clusterfuck. Our COVID-19 cases have broken records this week, and it's not a great time to pack 20,000 people into one place. But, Trump is almost guaranteed to win Oklahoma, so he doesn't really need these voters. If they die of COVID, it's worth it to see how the whole rally situation pans out before they go to places that actually matter.
Needless to say we're a little anxious around here.
Also, I found out that there is a readathon this weekend. The Blackathon is a 48 hour readathon that begins today. And since it's in June, this is the queer edition. The goal is to read books by black authors with LGBTQIA+ characters. I happen to have a couple of those on my shelf.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender - I started this one this morning. It's about a trans boy in NYC who was outed in a big way at school. He is obsessed with getting revenge.
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta - This is about a college kid who finds his place in the world as a drag artist.
Those are the ones I hope to finish for Blackathon.
Foundryside by Robert Jakson Bennett - I'm still working on this one. This is for that Book Tempter's TBR Challenge. It's only 503 pages, but the print is small and it's pretty dense.
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan - This is the last one I need to read for the Book Tempter's Challenge.
Starting on Monday we have the Hogsmeade Readathon. I will probably do a separate TBR for that though, since I haven't really worked out what I want to do for that one, yet.
Whew! That's going to be a lot of books. Oh well. The more the merrier!