February 2025
🌀This month I went down the rabbit hole with these books, podcasts, movies and TV shows! 🐰
Books
This month I read “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride. I saw this book everywhere because it was named Barnes & Noble’s book of the year in 2023. I bought it shortly after but didn’t actually pick it up until now. I am so glad I did because it was a lovely story and a delightful book. It takes place in a place called Chicken Hill, a run-down neighborhood mostly populated by immigrant Jewish and African Americans.
The stars of the book are an unlikely couple named Moshe and Chona Ludlow, who run the eponymous Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Moshe is known for being the first theater to book Black acts, ushering in an era of success for him and his business.
Everything changes after the couple takes in a deaf Black boy and the state tries to take him away.
Goodgoods puts it quite nicely in their book description: “As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community.”
📚 VNSA Book Sale! I went for the second year in a row and I will be there next year for sure. 🙌🏼
Podcasts
In one of the latest episodes of “True Crime Arizona” on Arizona’s Family, host Bryanna Whitney interviews Gabby Petito’s parents, just as the new Netflix documentary on the case is released.
🎙️ LISTEN to the podcast True Crime Arizona episode of “Petito’s Parents Tell All.”
Movies
This month I recommend “Just One of Them Days’ starring Keke Palmer and SZA. I heard it being described as the female version of “Friday” and that’s good enough for me!
TV Shows
The celebrity true crime TV show “Death by Fame” is highly addictive for true crime aficionados. I’ve been watching all three seasons (so far) on Max, but they might have aired previously on ID?
Among the tragic tales of death as a result of fame is the story of the murder of Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay, the tragic killing of Christina Grimmie by an obsessed fan, and the unbelievable episode about convicted killer Joseph Son, most famously known as the assassin known as “Random Task” in the first Austin Powers movie.
This month I was also obsessed with the TV show based on the hit podcast “Scamanda.” It was so cool to be able to put a face to al the voices and stories I binged on the podcast over a year ago. Check out the trailer for TV show and check out the original podcast it was based on, hosted by Charlie TKTK.
🎧 Listen to the trailer of the hit podcast below. 🎙️
