'Ten Days in a Mad-House' by Nellie Bly

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The saddest and scariest part of this journalistic account from the late 19th century (originally published in 1887) is how easy it was for the reporter to be declared "incurable." No one even remotely tried to "cure" her.

By McD - Penn University library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16890004

In fact, of the women she encountered in the "mad-house," few of them would be considered mentally ill by today's diagnostic standards. No doubt some of them were depressed, but others were grieving. Some of them were just poor. One woman couldn't be evaluated at all because she didn't speak English and none of the four doctors could speak German.

It was shockingly easy for a woman to be locked away forever, mistreated, and deemed incurable just because she had unfortunate life circumstances happen to her.

I listened to this LibriVox audiobook - free public domain books read by volunteers - using the Podcoin app on my phone. Podcoin pays you tiny amounts of money to listen to podcasts and Librivox books. You can donate your pennies to charities or save them up to exchange for gift cards.

To get 300 free podcoins when you sign up, use the referral code NERDY. This benefits the Nerdy Bitches podcast. I'm not affiliated with it in any way other than being a fan. Past episodes have covered Harry Potter books, the Divergent series, Ready Player One, geek crushes, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an entire month of Batman podcasts, and much, much more.

Some of the many LibriVox books you can listen to on Podcoin include:

12 Creepy Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Julius Casear by William Shakespeare
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

'Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer' #nonfiction

Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer by Barbara Ehrenreich

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Something about Barbara Ehrenreich's prose makes me gobble these books down like a snack-sized bag of potato chips.

This book can stand alone, or it could be thought of as a follow-up to her book Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Reaching back into her training as a cellular biologist, Ehrenreich touches on the "wellness" industry in the U.S., as opposed to the health care system. She mentions Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop, but the point of this book is not to take down the "wellness" industry, no matter how woo-woo some of its propositions may be.

Rather, it is to examine the ways in which human beings trick ourselves into thinking our actions can have an effect on how long we'll live and how healthy we'll be in old age. The book focuses on Americans, not because Americans are necessarily more deluded and unhealthy than other peoples, but more to narrow the scope of her investigation. Ehrenreich systematically debunks the things we think we know about healthy aging, such as the necessity of taking calcium supplements to build stronger bodies to ward off osteoporosis. She looks at the way we medicalize aging when some "symptoms" of aging may be an inevitable part of being human.

Death is also discussed in this book. I learned that among the many tiny creatures that may feast on me after I die, there may be butterflies. I find this oddly comforting; I don't think I'll mind being food for butterflies. It also reminds me of an old line from The Simpsons: "Nobody ever suspects the butterfly."

By David Shankbone - David Shankbone (own work), CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1615963

I checked out this book from my local library using the Libby app and was not obligated to review it in any way.

Did you know that if you use a SNAP EBT card for food benefits, you can buy your fresh fruits and vegetables from Amazon Fresh? I didn't know that until I, as I'm in between day jobs, signed up as an Amazon affiliate.

https://amzn.to/43ZVu9a

The Aladdin XXX Live-action Musical Parody Is Here

THE ALADDIN XXX LIVE-ACTION MUSICAL PARODY IS HERE.

AND IT'S CALLED ALADDICK.

PRESS RELEASE: (Woodland Hills, CA) May 23rd, 2019 – Drop your harem pants and start rubbing your lamp because the most magical musical porn parody of all time is here! Aladdick is the live-action, hardcore, song-singing, blue genie-filled porn parody of Aladdin, and it was created by WoodRocket and Pornhub, the horny folks behind Hamiltoe and Game of Bones 2.

Aladdick premieres Thursday, May 23rd on WoodRocket and Pornhub for Free.

The extra-long Aladdick Extended Version, featuring more sex with a porn parodied Princess, is available exclusively on Pornhub Premium.

When Princess Jizzman goes looking for a prince to satisfy her royal genitals, she comes across Aladdick over and over again. With the help of his Vagenie and flying carpet, he disguises himself as Prince All D. But will evil Jafuck, screw him over? Find out in Aladdick.

Aladdick stars April O'Neil, Donnie Rock, Daisy Ducati, Tommy Pistol, AJ, Nikki Sequoia, and Will Tile as Vagenie. It was written and directed by Lee Roy Myers.

Check out Aladdick for free at WoodRocket and Pornhub (on the WoodRocket Channel).

Watch the SFW trailer of Aladdick on WoodRocket and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsRNjgg-A3Y.

Check out Aladdick Extended Version at PornhubPremium.com.

WoodRocket mixes porn, comedy, pop culture, and redefines adult entertainment. Creating popular and high-quality content like Ask A Porn Star, Porn Stars Reading Hate Mail, and porn parodies like Ten Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles, Strokémon, and Laygo, WoodRocket is the future of porn.  WoodRocket’s content has been featured in Buzzfeed, Uproxx, Gizmodo, Maxim, Complex, AV Club, Spin, Rolling Stone, The Howard Stern Show, GQ, Vice, Esquire, The Hollywood Reporter, @Midnight, Bon Appetit, and many, many more wonderful places.

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'Barracoon' by Zora Neale Hurston #AmericanHistory

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to this short audiobook; it's about a 4-hour listen. This is nonfiction, so be prepared for the very tragic details of the life of Cudjo Lewis. His village was raided by the Dahomey people, his parents were killed, and he was captured to be sold by the Portuguese into slavery. All of those things would be terrible enough for one lifetime, but Cudjo continued to encounter myriad tragedies after the Union soldiers came and told him he wasn't a slave anymore. Very sad.

Cudjo Lewis was a real survivor, though. He hung in there long enough to tell his tale to the brilliant Zora Neale Hurston, a pioneer of recording authentic African-American folklore. Her recording of Lewis's tale is believed to be historically accurate to a high degree, and she also relates it in a literary style that makes it incredibly compelling. But - still very tragic.

By Unknown - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3b10040. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. Public Domain 

If you are an African-American who's descended from enslaved Africans, you may have to consider whether you really want to hear the gruesome details. This is not a lighthearted or easy read. Definitely all white Americans should read or listen to this book, because we should have our eyes fulled opened about what our ancestors caused.

An appendix to this book is a collection of Cudjo's fictional folk tales, which I highly recommend for anyone who's interested in folklore.

I checked this book out from my local library using the Libby app and I was not obligated in any way to review it.

All the Wrong Questions #4: Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?

Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? by Lemony Snicket

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm glad I read this series but also sad to see it end. I thoroughly enjoyed it but was saddened when one of my favorite (relatively minor) characters died. I hope Lemony Snicket, a.k.a. Daniel Handler, returns to middle grade writing again some day.

Favorite quote from this book: “Villainy can win against one library, but not against an organization of readers.”

I purchased this book with my own funds from my local brick-and-mortar Barnes and Noble and I was not obligated in any way to review it.

Charlaine Harris's Stand-Alone Mystery 'A Secret Rage'

A Secret Rage by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hello, I'm not dead. I did kind of forget that I had a book blog, though! But I have been reading. Here's a brief review of the novel I finished today.

This mystery in which the perpetrator of the murder is also guilty of a number of sexual assaults has characters who express some very problematic ideas about sexual assault in general. Even a generally skillful writer, as I believe Charlaine Harris is, must tread carefully around these issues, and this stand-alone mystery left something of a bad taste in my mouth.

Perhaps I was a bit biased because I'm a Northerner and the Southern-born-and-raised character refers to her New Yorker neighbors as sounding like a bunch of squawking bluejays. (We have bluejays in the North, Charlaine - I know exactly what that sounds like.)

I also felt the writing was a bit more unpolished and clunky than I'm used to in such favorite series as the Southern Vampire Mysteries and Midnight, Texas.

I purchased this book with my own funds from Red Dog Books and was not obligated in any way to review it.

'The Magician' by Carla Cook #ParanormalRomance

The Magician by Carla Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an older PNR that I found at a used bookshop, and it was surprisingly good. I liked the characters and the way the author took her time with the romance and didn't force the characters into an unrealisticly quick head-over-heels.

I deducted one star because I had issues with the pacing and structure in the second half of the book. The "all is lost" moment hits, the big bad is revealed, and then the resolution seems to come too suddenly and too easily, without the characters having to stake too much to regain equilibrium.

Then, after the big bad is put down permanently and they're safe, the story has one of those J.R. Ward-type "oh no, it's hopeless, they'll never be together" feints when we all know perfectly well, with only 3-5 pages left, that the happily-ever-after is right around the corner. J.R. Ward often does it well, but in this novel, it fell a little flat for me.

But if you happen across this one at your used bookstore, do give it a read. It has a very likable heroine, she has an adorable kiddo, and there are some really interesting paranormal plot elements.

I purchased this book with my own funds and was not obligated in any way to review it.