Black Girl Joy, Not Guilty Pleasure

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We've been on a rollercoaster of unprecedented times.

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Every time I think we're about to make a turn for the better, the

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world throws more chaos at us.

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Now, I don't know about you all, but I am Ty Yad, and as my daughter

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said, I'm ready to circle back to precedent times like moles.

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During times like this, I turn to things that bring me joy, my favorite escape.

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You already know romance.

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You know, sometimes it feels like the world doesn't love us, especially

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black women, and sometimes we have to escape into a different world.

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If you're here because of my love of romance novels, you know that I've been

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reading them for over 20 years, and for a long time I hid the fact that

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I read the novels, I was criticized.

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Most romance readers are criticized.

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the genre is criticized.

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It's not held to the same kind of love and standards as any other literary

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genre, and it can be uncomfortable.

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You know, sometimes people would ask, so what's your guilty pleasure?

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And I would say romance novels.

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And then I got to a point in my life where I realized how fucked up it

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was that I have to be ashamed of something that brings me so much joy.

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And today we're gonna dive in a little bit more with the mind

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behind Melanin Mindscape, kp.

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We are gonna talk about unlearning all the ways that we have been

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told not to enjoy ourselves.

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And I think talking about it is an incredible place to start.

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So, kp, go ahead and introduce yourself to the audience.

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Hello, I'm KP and I'm the Mind behind Mel.

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And Mindscape.

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Mel and Mindscape is a blog dedicated to all things black, but especially black

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history, black TV, and black literature.

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I'm always posting and reviewing books by black authors, and when my favorite

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TV shows are on, I'm recapping them.

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And I'm sharing black history all the time.

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I would love for you to follow me on IG at Meldon mindscape and visit

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my blog at melaninmindscape.com.

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And I'm super excited to be here with you today to discuss one

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of my favorite things books.

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So thanks for having me.

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You know, we've known each other for a few years.

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Mm-hmm.

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, and I think when I realized just how horrific a reader you were, , and I was

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like, okay, she's reading way more than me and I thought I was a big reader.

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but you read everything, you are into, Nonfiction, literary

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fiction, but all things black.

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And then also, autobiographies.

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History.

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You're everywhere.

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And you've also, even recommended some books to me.

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I like, Ooh, okay.

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I didn't know about that one.

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Yeah.

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so what's your favorite, my favorite genre?

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Yeah.

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That is so hard.

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I know.

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, you can all love it.

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everything.

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Know?

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Um, I don't know.

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I don't know if I have a favorite genre.

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I used to be, a non-fiction girl.

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Okay.

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I very rarely would I , you know, pick up some fiction.

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But when I really got back into reading, I was just reading everything.

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I think for me now, it's not necessarily genre, but authors.

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maybe that's a better way for me to narrow it down.

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so if I'm really feeling like I want to, you know, get into,

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politics and history or something, I'm going to find Eddie glad, like,

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let's see what he's written about.

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Or, or even, you know, James Baldwin.

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I mean you can go cuz that's he wrote.

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A little bit of everything.

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He's like fiction, nonfiction.

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He's just done a little bit of everything.

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Um, it just depends, like I'm just a reader.

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Right.

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Like I, you know, there are a few that I don't like horror.

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I, I'm not a, a big horror girl or sci-fi.

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Yeah.

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Like I, I don't really do those.

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Well, and I know this and I, I, I know you're a very big, you know,

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black history, historical, um mm-hmm.

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and so a lot of the books that I would even see on your blog, recommended,

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were al always a lot of, I saw a lot of non-fiction, but you, do a lot

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of good, great fiction books too.

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And so I, one of the things that surprised me, I wanted to have you on

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was because this summer, You seem to have gone on like a romance novel bench

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So I was like, oh, ok.

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Romance you.

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I didn't know that.

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And so I was like, I'm in.

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like you went down the rabbit hole kind of bench.

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And so I thought that was really interesting because that

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definitely was not something I had seen on your blog before Uhhuh.

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And, and so I kinda wanna like, you know, wanted to kind of dive into that,

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especially from a reader like you.

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Well, I wanna talk about like, you know, so many people, like I said, this is,

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you know, about it not being a guilty pleasure and why we kind of feel shame

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in, the things that, you know, we enjoy.

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Especially, you know, so many things are put on black women and,

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you know, we can't admit to the things that sometimes bring us joy.

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And so when you went down that beach, I was like, oh, I read that one.

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Oh, she's gonna like that one you.

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And then it was, and I was mad cause I was saying, Well, why didn't you tell me ? I

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mean, I, I, you know, I take suggestions.

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I say, you know, , a lot of people's like, it's a summer reading thing,

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so it's like, oh, it's a beach read.

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I'm gonna take it on vacation.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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You know, I think we fall into that.

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we sometimes kind of justify the things we love by describing

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it as a guilty pleasure.

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and that's one of the things I really think we should banish that like things

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of the idea of pleasure being guilty, but I think black women, absolutely get

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that because, you know, we're supposed to be these superwomen and all these scenes

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and you know, we, we gotta be productive.

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And I think even as black folks, you know, black folks have to be productive.

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And, and so many think of romance and romance novels as

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you know, in insignificant.

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But there's some amazing black writers who are writing Black Romance and who

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doesn't wanna hear about black love.

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Right.

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Um, yeah.

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So like for you, I wanted to ask just, you know, for you, just in

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the beginning, what is your kind of definition of a guilty pleasure?

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it's something that I enjoy on the low mm-hmm.

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or something that I enjoy indulging in that I'm not exactly excited

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about announcing to the world.

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you know, but, Hmm, I, I agree with you that if it's a pleasure,

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it just shouldn't be guilty.

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Like just live, you know, have fun, whatever.

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But yeah, it's just something I like to do that I'm, you know, like,

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oh, I'm gonna do this, but I, you know, I may not share it widely.

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Right.

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And then it's like, why do we do that?

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I think, especially I think the pandemic probably has changed the mindset of a lot

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of people though, because I know, like for me, you know, we were three years in this

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thing now, and I think anything that makes it feel like we're taking time away from

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something that's quote unquote productive.

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Yes.

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Like, like there is value in productivity.

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Mm-hmm.

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. and then if you doing something that feels unproductive in some

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way, it's a guilty pleasure.

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Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.

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Um, I, cuz one of the things I might consider to be a guilty pleasure is

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that I will take my kids to school and I will drive straight to the.

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And then I will, and then, and I will stay there all day.

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And then I'll hit the car.

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I'll be back in time for the carpool line.

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but why is that a guilty pleasure?

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Because really that's the thing, because it's like, when, you know, we're talking

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about guilty pleasure, I guess I'm getting better at it and it does go back to rest.

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Mm-hmm.

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not being seen as being productive.

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Mm-hmm.

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, because that's the way we were kind of.

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. So I think that most of us are unteaching ourselves that, Hey, if I'm gonna take

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this day and I'm gonna do absolutely nothing, it's okay because it's

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what I need, and rest is necessary.

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Rest is also productive.

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I know for me, sometimes I just call it a reset.

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Mm-hmm.

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, like, so much has happened, , and I feel myself getting worn down and I

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feel like, you know, I need to, refill my cup and it's, I need a hard reset

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then, I'm okay with doing it and not feeling as guilty as I may have felt.

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, uh, pre pandemic or Exactly.

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Uh, you know, or, or before.

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And it's just something that I'm, that I am learning.

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I think it's something that we are learning as black women, because we

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have always been, you know, first and foremost, you know, you gotta

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work twice as hard and mm-hmm.

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, you know, you gotta, you have to keep everybody up.

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Your, your family, you know, everybody's depending on you.

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I had a, a mind shift where I look at rest differently now.

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so I would say yes, my little spot excursions, they're guilty pleasure, but

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I am getting to the point where, you know, I don't necessarily care if you know.

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That, that that is what I'm doing.

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I took a whole day, I did absolutely nothing except drop my kids off and

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pick them up and you know, and I'm fine with that and I'm better for it.

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Right.

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So, you know, yeah.

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We do need to get out of the, you know, there are no guilty pleasures, you know?

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Exactly.

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so let me ask you this then.

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what led you on your binge of Romance Live?

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Was it kind of like that thing where you were just looking to escape, you were

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looking just to, you know, like what you were saying, kind of reset and, you know,

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everything was so heavy and, and this has been like a really heavy few years.

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Couple of years, right.

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so I was never a non romance.

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Okay.

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we just didn't talk about Hillary . Well, you know, I didn't have the blog for,

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you know, the blog is, is semi-new.

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So I was reading all along, but I wasn't always using Good Reads or

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I didn't always have the Instagram with, you know, cuz there, there were

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years where I may have read 50 books.

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and I may have talked about 10 of them cause I was just reading.

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but Jasmine Guillory is, an author that I've always read her books.

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I'm usually up to date on all of her books.

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I think right now I'm too behind.

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But I always read her behind too.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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The, the new one, cuz there's one that just came out.

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And then, by the book I started that when I had by.

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Okay.

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And so that's the one I, I have to get back to.

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And then her newest one.

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So I've always, she's been one that I've always been like, Ooh, she has a new book.

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Let me read it.

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So I've always I've read them sparingly, not for any particular reason, but you

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know, just right that, but what's been happening to me a lot lately is that,

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one I am trying to teach my kids to.

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read all genres.

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Stretch yourself.

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You know, I have a kid that's a scientist, he only likes to read science books.

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. I got this other kid who only wants to read, uh, graphic novels, right?

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And so I'm telling them like, Hey, hey guys, let's read

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a little bit of everything.

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So I'm like, well, I'm gonna take my own advice as well.

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so what happened was, what had happened was what had happened , what

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happened was, I think it might have been a Jasmine Guillory book ends.

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You know how when you finish a book, especially if you're using Good Reads or

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Audible or SCRs or Kendall suggestions, they gonna give you suggestions.

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Oh, did you like this book?

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Try.

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That's how I got caught up.

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so I did that and I can't remember who it was.

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It might have been maybe Christina Johnson.

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And, but one, she's a good one.

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Exactly.

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So I was like, oh, okay, cool.

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Okay.

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But it was a series and so one, you can't not read the other, you can not

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read the, so that's what happened,

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So I was like four books in.

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and then they're like, well, if you like that series, , like it's the next one.

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You don't like this.

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It was crazy.

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It was one month where, and this may be the one that you're talking about.

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, when I posted the books for the month, I pro, I think I read like

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24 books that month or something.

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Yeah.

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And it was because of the romance book.

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Because you know, they're usually shorter.

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Yeah.

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Than what I'm accustomed to reading.

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Like I'm accustomed to a good 300, 400 pages.

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Mm-hmm.

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. So these are shorter.

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They might be novella, you know, it.

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I'm able to read twice as much whenever you romances.

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So I think that month I went through maybe two SE girl, it was just series after

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series and I was like, you know what?

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I need to stop.

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So that's what happened.

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Like that's why you saw the uptick, because I got sucked in.

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And then I was like, oh, well okay, I got a couple.

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You haven't read Uhhuh . Well you haven't read this one.

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This one.

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Uhhuh.

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, And now I have to be intentional about starting one of their books.

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Like Christina, Christina c Jo's, or, another one, Mika James Mika.

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I got caught up and ended up having to read all of the series where there in this

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coastal island, I think it was four books.

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So now I'm like, okay, if I'm gonna start reading a Christina Johnson

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and nine times outta 10, it's gonna be a series and I'm gonna have to

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be prepared to be five books in

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Cause you know, whatever.

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So that's what was happening to me when you saw that explosion.

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I was getting caught up in serious.

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So let me ask you this, because I know you are a big history buff.

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Mm-hmm.

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, have you gotten into any of the black historical romance, like Beverly Jenkins?

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Like she has, like, I just absolutely know you would love her because she,

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she goes so in depth with the research and the, the, the historical part

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of it is, so a lot of it is based on real characters and real things.

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So have you kind of dived into any of.

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I'm saving her , because several people have have told me, that I need

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to, get on her stuff and I looked and you're like, A million books , right?

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So I said, okay, wait a minute.

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I'm gonna save her because I feel like if I.

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, I'm going, wanna finish.

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And she has a lot out there.

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Yeah.

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She has a lot out there.

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And a lot of connected characters.

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yeah.

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I remember when I first started reading, I, I actually might have started with a

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Beverly Jenkins novel and it was Indigo.

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It was based in Michigan and was about a woman that was a slave that used to

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be a slave on an indigo plantation, and her hands were stained blue.

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And so like I found myself every, when I started reading her books, I found

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myself like stopping in the middle of, and then looking up some of the

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historical facts that were in the book.

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It took you forever to read.

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And I just know, I was like, oh, she's got to, and I know how

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much you love black historical.

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So like, yeah.

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Mm-hmm.

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But a lot of her, even even her more recent ones are connected to characters.

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They're like descended from characters in earlier books.

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And I wanna start at the beginning, so, yes.

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. Yeah.

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And then she has like, there are, series that are about the black

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Cowboys there is like mm-hmm.

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the, the French Creole and the weed, like they're all over.

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She has, I mean, she's touched like a lot of different historical

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stuff and I was like, oh, let me see if this really happened.

Octavia Marie: 00:15:20

Oh,

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I just know it's a lot.

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And so I was like, let me just, you know, Yeah.

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I'm gonna figure out how with through all of it.

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. Yeah.

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Cause once you started, like, that's really a, once I started it's like,

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well, I gotta get the next one.

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And that's what, that's what was happening to me with all the other ones.

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And so some like Christina Jones

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yes.

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And even, Tia Williams.

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Yeah.

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Oh yeah.

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I love Tia Williams.

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Yeah.

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so, you know, seven days in June I read that and it was amazing.

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And then I had to go backwards.

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You had to go back and get the other To get all the rest, yeah.

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To get all the rest of Tia's book.

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So that's kind of how things are popping up for me.

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And I tried my hardest at the beginning of each month to.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:02

Give myself some type of book map because I have like reading a d d, like, I'll,

Octavia Marie: 00:16:07

I'll be all over the place and if I hear on npr, somebody talking about their

Octavia Marie: 00:16:12

book, I, ooh, I'm starting that today.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:15

Like, I, I can't, and that's, that's one of the reasons why I love libraries.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:20

But, services like Script and Audible.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:23

And Kendall worked better for me and I, I'll just rather pay for

Octavia Marie: 00:16:26

it because I can't, I can't be in line waiting for the book.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:31

I gotta read it today.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:32

I said, you know, if it's I, I gotta read it today.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:35

Is it dropping today?

Octavia Marie: 00:16:36

I need to read it today.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:37

So, because I'm like that , it's hard for me.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:41

, it's just hard for me.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:42

And that's what I said about Beverly Jenkins, right?

Octavia Marie: 00:16:45

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:45

Beverly Jenkins.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:46

Um, that I was gonna try to quiet my mind.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:50

and figure out how I was going to attack her body of work.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:53

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:54

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:54

Well, I'll send you some suggestions since I've read most of 'em . Yeah, you do.

Octavia Marie: 00:16:59

You know what?

Octavia Marie: 00:17:00

That would be helpful.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:03

You could prioritize them for me.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:06

Absolutely.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:06

Will , that's kind what I need.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:09

Like Yeah, because I get rabbit holes.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:13

I, yeah, and you, you absolutely will go down a rabbit hole.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:16

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:17

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:17

Do you consider reading romance a guilty.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:20

No.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:21

No.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:21

Okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:22

And I wonder especially, for black women and, you may, you know, have an idea, but

Octavia Marie: 00:17:28

why do you think that people have been led that reading or writing or enjoying

Octavia Marie: 00:17:34

romance and now is such a shameful thing, especially for black, black folk?

Octavia Marie: 00:17:38

You know, we've been taught to kind of be ashamed.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:40

Black love, I guess.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:42

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:42

. And, especially since the pandemic publishing as a genre, how much it,

Octavia Marie: 00:17:47

it, um, increased but the, the, the number one genre for the last several

Octavia Marie: 00:17:53

years as far as money has been romance.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:55

It's cause women read genre.

Octavia Marie: 00:17:57

Cause women read and black women read, but they don't think we do . But we do.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:03

We do.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:03

But I thought.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:05

, I maybe, I hoped, I thought that myth had been dispelled with Terry McMillan.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:12

Exactly.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:13

You know, like when, uh, she was hot.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:16

every black woman I I knew had that book in the salon, had her, was in the salon.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:21

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:22

I just feel like, yeah, black women, we, we've always been reader.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:26

yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:26

I don't know why people think we don't read.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:28

and when you look at the statistics, the largest segment

Octavia Marie: 00:18:31

of readers are black women.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:33

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:35

. Yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:36

Not read about black love.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:39

Right, right.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:41

And, you know, I just think that books are like anything else.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:44

Where there's a spectrum, right.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:46

Um, you know, I tell people all the time that people ask me, well,

Octavia Marie: 00:18:49

why, you know, how can I read more?

Octavia Marie: 00:18:52

And I always say, well, in order to read more, you have to read more.

Octavia Marie: 00:18:57

Like read a few at a time, because we are all very moody people.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:03

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:04

. And if you have like, you know, I like to have a book in maybe three

Octavia Marie: 00:19:08

different genres going at the same time.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:11

Okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:11

Because I'm not in the mood, I'm not in the same mood every day.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:15

Okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:15

Exactly right.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:16

So it's like, on this day I may not feel like, reading about the Civil War , but.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:23

, I might feel like something a little light, right?

Octavia Marie: 00:19:25

So I might, you know, I might go for the romance.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:28

It's just like Netflix asking you how you feeling today?

Octavia Marie: 00:19:31

What you, you know, what, what you to vote for?

Octavia Marie: 00:19:32

Comedy, drama, you know, it's the same thing.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:35

I think books are the same thing.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:37

It's not that one is necessarily better than the other.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:40

I think it's just more of how are you.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:45

. If you read according to your mood, I think you will read a whole lot more.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:50

And so there are times when people do want to turn on Netflix and watch a romcom

Octavia Marie: 00:19:56

or, or, you know, or just a romance.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:58

Exactly.

Octavia Marie: 00:19:58

And I also think it comes back to this idea, and we are coming back

Octavia Marie: 00:20:02

to a pleasure being somehow how less valuable than pain and happiness

Octavia Marie: 00:20:07

being less valuable than say, trauma.

Octavia Marie: 00:20:09

And so when we talk about, we, we talk about pleasure and talk about physical

Octavia Marie: 00:20:14

pleasure and a lot of pla places.

Octavia Marie: 00:20:16

obviously there are all sorts of romance novels, but the majority of them

Octavia Marie: 00:20:20

focus on physical pleasure, pleasure for people who are not allowed to.

Octavia Marie: 00:20:25

you know, especially, when we are talking about black romance novels and the

Octavia Marie: 00:20:29

world is not allowed to talk about it and experience that kind of, you know,

Octavia Marie: 00:20:34

love happiness, you know, in in, in public and through other forms of media.

Octavia Marie: 00:20:41

And so when you, even when you look at some of the stuff, you know, now

Octavia Marie: 00:20:44

we're seeing a few, like one of Tia Williams books is being turned into

Octavia Marie: 00:20:48

a movie and when I saw that the Bridgeton series was, coming out, I

Octavia Marie: 00:20:51

was like, Hmm, I'd rather see you.

Octavia Marie: 00:20:52

Some of Beverly Jenkins was turned into, yeah, I think that plays a,

Octavia Marie: 00:20:57

part in it too, that, going back to it's, you know, pleasure is not

Octavia Marie: 00:21:02

as valuable as pain and trauma.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:05

yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:06

And I think maybe it's how we've been taught as far as,

Octavia Marie: 00:21:10

maybe there's a book hierarchy

Octavia Marie: 00:21:12

Yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:13

because a romance author is not gonna win the Pulitzer.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:17

Exactly, yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:19

And so, and when we're in school and we are reading what they

Octavia Marie: 00:21:23

tell us we have to read, it's not gonna be a romance . Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:28

, it's not going to be, in my opinion, you know, reading the required reading

Octavia Marie: 00:21:32

in school was, was horrible for me.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:35

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:35

I read it, but I didn't enjoy it.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:40

and you know the books that they choose.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:44

, you know, it, it's probably stunted a lot of people.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:46

Honestly, it's probably the reason why a lot of people don't read

Octavia Marie: 00:21:48

after these schools . But what society has deemed worthy is very,

Octavia Marie: 00:21:55

very removed from romance novels.

Octavia Marie: 00:21:59

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:00

, E even.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:01

I won't say even fiction, but I'll say black fiction.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:04

You know, it, it just depends.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:05

Like the only people I think that have really broken that

Octavia Marie: 00:22:09

would be like a Tony Morrison.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:11

Yes, yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:12

You know, where, you know if they allow you to, where you will study her work.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:18

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:19

And that's right.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:20

But then you still have people who I think are just as much as, as, as a genius as

Octavia Marie: 00:22:24

Tony Morrison, like Audrey Lorde, that.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:29

you could go through your whole schooling high school and college

Octavia Marie: 00:22:32

and they have never heard of her.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:34

Exactly.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:35

You know, so it's very, it's subjective, of course.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:38

And then there's this hierarchy, you know, of the books that, society

Octavia Marie: 00:22:41

as a whole are going to lift up.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:44

It's not , it's not going to be the romance.

Octavia Marie: 00:22:47

What's, and I mean, in a way I get it because, You're taught, for a book to

Octavia Marie: 00:22:52

have, you know, this worthiness, right?

Octavia Marie: 00:22:55

You're looking for symbolism and character arcs and you know, all those things you're

Octavia Marie: 00:23:00

taught to look for in a book, you may not necessarily see that in a romance book.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:06

but what I have found out about these romance books is that, especially being

Octavia Marie: 00:23:11

a black woman, is that I can relate to.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:14

the women.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:15

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:16

, not even about their romances, but just about their lives.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:20

Yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:20

Life.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:21

Okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:21

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:22

Like, uh, you know, that college educated woman, this happens and

Octavia Marie: 00:23:26

you know, the, there's always something that I can relate to.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:30

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:31

. From these characters.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:32

Even if it's a character that if you looked at me and you looked at her, you'd

Octavia Marie: 00:23:34

be like, nah, y'all had nothing in common.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:36

but you, you can see yourself.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:37

You can see yourself in them.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:39

And so I think even though they're not gonna get, they're never gonna be on

Octavia Marie: 00:23:42

the level of Shakespeare, cuz you know, everybody loves to talk about him.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:45

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:23:46

I don't think we're ever gonna get there, . But at the same time, I think

Octavia Marie: 00:23:50

that even though these romance stories might not be as quote unquote deep or as

Octavia Marie: 00:23:57

symbolic, I think they're still worth.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:01

in the stories, right?

Octavia Marie: 00:24:02

It's just like, you know, there's worth in all of these people's

Octavia Marie: 00:24:05

stories because they're really not that far off from real life.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:09

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:10

And there's some really great writers that incorporate, I mean, I bring it back

Octavia Marie: 00:24:14

to Tia Williams when, you know, when I read seven days in June, it was such a.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:19

The, the romance was almost a, a secondary character to the rest of

Octavia Marie: 00:24:23

exactly of what was going on in that book.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:24

And it was all very relatable.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:26

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:27

, very relatable stuff.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:28

And, even now I'm seeing, another episode that I'm talking about,

Octavia Marie: 00:24:32

curvy Kirby, women and black women and why some women are worthy.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:38

love and some are not.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:39

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:40

. And then, one of the recent books I read.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:43

S Sheldon, the book s Sheldon, even that one would kind of resonate.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:46

Oh, I like that one.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:48

. You know, I almost, I was almost like, mm, is this about to go

Octavia Marie: 00:24:51

where and I almost put it down.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:54

I, I promise you almost.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:55

I was like, oh, here we go.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:56

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:24:57

like, she, she gotta lose weight in order to find the love and.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:02

It wasn't what it was about, but it wasn't, and I stuck with it.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:06

It, it ended up being, you know, about her and I thought she was gonna go to, I was

Octavia Marie: 00:25:10

like, oh lord, it's one of those . No, no.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:13

It was a total opposite of what and I guess that goes back to what I was saying

Octavia Marie: 00:25:17

is that, like you said, the romance and the sex may is it's secondary.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:22

The secondary, like this was about her.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:24

Yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:24

She got dumped by her boyfriend.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:26

In her mind, she couldn't do better.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:29

Than, than him.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:31

but being dumped made her realize, I need to be better for me.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:35

Exactly.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:36

Exactly.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:37

And that was the story.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:39

And so I think that that's the worth, like when you can take a story, you

Octavia Marie: 00:25:44

could take something with, you, I love it when a book kind of stays with me.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:48

it could be the smallest thing, like for savvy, it was like,

Octavia Marie: 00:25:51

Hey, I need to make myself happy.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:56

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:25:57

and looking a certain way is gonna make me happy, but the

Octavia Marie: 00:26:00

goal is my overall wellbeing.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:03

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:04

It wasn't necessarily about the.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:06

Like, she wasn't about like, I gotta lose 10 pounds, I gotta lose 20 pounds.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:09

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:10

It was like, I'm gonna make all these life changes and as a result,

Octavia Marie: 00:26:14

you know I'm gonna be a better me.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:16

I was reading something, I don't know what it was, and the person was

Octavia Marie: 00:26:19

saying like, you should never feel guilty for reading something because

Octavia Marie: 00:26:22

a book can mean anything to anyone.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:24

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:25

And so for somebody who might.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:27

Body issues.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:28

Yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:29

You know, s Sheldon might have been the book that changed it.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:32

Yes.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:33

To change, or help them deal with whatever they're going through.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:37

And so that's why I think we don't, you know, you can't just throw

Octavia Marie: 00:26:39

away romance novels cuz these women are telling real stories.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:43

Real stories, real, you know, what we are really dealing with.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:46

One of the things I was like, you know what I came to realize?

Octavia Marie: 00:26:48

Read a romance, enjoy life.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:51

Enjoy the possibilities of what loves has in store for us all.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:54

Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:26:55

. See, I think I'm schizophrenic . I think I'm a schizophrenic reader.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:00

And what I was telling one of my friends was that what started

Octavia Marie: 00:27:04

to kind of do sometimes is that I'll use romance as a buffer.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:08

. Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:09

Like, I'll read like 400, souls and then I'll be like, uh,

Octavia Marie: 00:27:12

what Christina got going on?

Octavia Marie: 00:27:14

It's just real, you know, it's like people say about their music choices, like if

Octavia Marie: 00:27:18

you put it on shuffle, like you never know what you're gonna come up with.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:21

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:22

It's almost, it's like a pallet cleanser sometimes.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:24

that's how I use it.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:25

I use it as a reset, like, Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:29

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:29

And so, and sometimes I, like I said, when I try to do my book

Octavia Marie: 00:27:32

maps, I try to just leave space.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:35

I do love black history, indigenous history, you know, and if I'm

Octavia Marie: 00:27:40

reading a book that I know is gonna be, crazy in a bad way,

Octavia Marie: 00:27:43

like, wow, that happened, you know?

Octavia Marie: 00:27:46

And I might have two of those that are in my mind, I wanna get read in a month.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:50

Then I'll think it through.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:51

Like, Hey, okay, so in between this, this book and this book, I'm gonna maybe

Octavia Marie: 00:27:56

read two romance books or whatever.

Octavia Marie: 00:27:58

And, but sometimes that goes crazy because again, series.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:02

The series will get you, then I'll get stuck and then it'll be like

Octavia Marie: 00:28:05

five books later and like, okay, let me go back to my academic one.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:10

So yeah, it's just like, for me, it's just you.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:14

You never know what you're gonna get.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:15

When, when, when the end of the month comes and I post my book,

Octavia Marie: 00:28:19

Oh, she done put up another list.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:21

Ooh, I need to be back.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:22

Ooh, that that, Ooh, what's that about?

Octavia Marie: 00:28:24

Right?

Octavia Marie: 00:28:25

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:26

And that it's schizophrenic.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:27

It's all over place.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:29

So, okay, so you've gone down this, you've found all these new

Octavia Marie: 00:28:32

authors and books from the summer.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:35

Who's been your favorite new author, you've discovered Black Romance authors.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:39

Oh gosh.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:41

Very hard.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:42

That's very hard.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:43

there's So many great authors and stories and well, Tia Williams, we already

Octavia Marie: 00:28:48

talked about, she made, seven days in June, made my top 10 books of the year.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:56

It was that good.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:57

It was really good.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:58

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:28:59

I feel like that might be her best.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:02

and at the end of it I felt like they, like you don't know if they stay.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:07

. Mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:08

. It was, yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:08

Right.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:09

It could have gone either way.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:10

Like you don't have, it doesn't feel closed, but it's like a

Octavia Marie: 00:29:13

happy, happily happy for now.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:16

it was a happy Hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:17

And I was like, I wonder if they cause it, it still like they, they both still

Octavia Marie: 00:29:21

have some stuff to kind of work through.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:23

So it's like, do they together?

Octavia Marie: 00:29:24

We needed a long epilogue.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:27

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:28

Or maybe she's working on a, sequel.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:29

Cause I feel like it, it needs a sequel.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:31

It felt secretly.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:32

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:33

So I, you know, I don't know.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:35

books I have loved, let me say,

Octavia Marie: 00:29:38

I do like the authors where the series includes a set of siblings.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:43

I don't know why I'm drawn to that.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:45

. Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:46

So Christina C.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:47

Johnson has, I think hers is the Wright Brothers.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:49

The Wright brothers love the right brothers.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:52

You love the Wright Brothers.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:53

And then, um, okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:55

Nicole Falls has the Holiday sisters.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:57

Oh yeah, the Holiday sisters.

Octavia Marie: 00:29:59

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:00

So I, those are two that, that stand out, for me and.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:06

A new one is Jamie Wesley.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:08

Oh, I love Jamie Wesley.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:09

Okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:09

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:10

so fake it till you bake it is her, her latest mm-hmm.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:13

and, that was last.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:15

Her sister's book was just last year.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:17

Okay.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:17

So we did a book.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:19

. the book Girl Magic Book Club had her, she came to the book club meeting.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:22

Oh.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:23

And then I started reading all her other stuff cause I had never heard of

Octavia Marie: 00:30:27

her until, fake it till you bake it.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:28

Yeah.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:30

So then I started reading her other stuff.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:32

and I liked, like, I really liked her, but if I had to just pick a favorite,

Octavia Marie: 00:30:37

it's probably Christina Johnson.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:40

and Nicole Falls.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:41

Nicole Falls.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:42

I love Nicole Falls.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:43

Yeah, probably.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:44

Well, thank you for joining me.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:46

This has been quite an adventure.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:48

Again, it is KP from Melanin.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:50

Mindscape, her Instagram.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:53

and, blog will be linked in the podcast.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:55

So make sure you follow her, and show her some love.

Octavia Marie: 00:30:58

Thank you again, kp.

Octavia Marie: 00:31:00

Thank you.

Octavia Marie: 00:31:01

And we'll see you soon.

Octavia Marie: 00:31:04

All right.

Octavia Marie: 00:31:04

Sounds good.