“The Surgeon’s Daughter” By Audrey Blake

The second installation of the Nora Beady trilogy (read “The Girl In His Shadow” Audrey Blake). After things go awry in England due to her role in a groundbreaking surgery, she’s ostracized from the medical community and society at large. A woman participating in medicine beyond baby duties is scandalous, putting Dr. Horace’s license in peril. The attention gets Nora an opportunity to become a real doctor in Italy. Ahead of England and its time, an elite school in Bologna allows women to obtain degrees.

Nora is faced with greater hardships than learning the language as she goes. The male students and teachers aren’t fond of her, making it difficult. Dr. Horace’s failing health doesn’t make it better, especially when he’s begun expanding his home into a hospital. Money suddenly becomes an issue, leaving her future in dire straits. Will they make it? There are so many highs and lows, plot twists, I love that about this series. Granted it gives me anxiety. Even if Nora succeeds at getting her degree what will she do with it back home? Seeing the battles women faced to be seen as self actualized beings, with our own wants and needs is inspiring. I felt gratitude upon finishing. Thankful to all the women before me who were bold enough to demand, then take a seat at the table. Via: Target

“The Bluest Eye” By Toni Morrison

A multi-narrative story about the Breedloves, with Pecola Breedlove as the main protagonist. A family characterized for lacking pulchritude, violence and being poverty stricken. Matters are made dire when little Pecola is raped and impregnated, by her drunkard father Cholly. Desperate for an ounce of respite in her miserable life, the abused girl wishes for a pair of blue eyes. Slavery is over, but systemic racism remains alive and well through Jim Crow laws and more. Ensuring African Americans maintain an inferior, low quality life, while whites are put on pedestals of beauty and wealth through unfair advantages. Of course she believes being white adjacent will make her life better, at the time it would. A belief cemented by her mother Pauline, a maid for a well to do family.

Beautifully written, engaging and thought provoking, Toni Morrison deserves all the praise. Themes of incest, rape, racism, violence, pedophilia, religion and addiction keeps this on the banned books list. A satirized depiction pertaining to the generational effects of slavery, on the black diaspora in America. More importantly how vitriolic whites want their victims to live, dehumanizing us to justify their savagery and laziness. A must read, apt during pedophile and racist rapist Donald Trump’s Israeli led administration. Solidifying beauty is power through Pecola’s desire and the treatment of Maureen Peal in contrast (read AI Architects Want Pretty People Privilege). This book is timeless, giving me a clarity that’s left my soul detoxed, wrung out to dry, cleansed. Via: Target

De-Conditioning: Prison Labor

Modern Day Slavery.

Via: Bianca X Garcia