{"id":14223,"date":"2020-05-13T18:07:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T01:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kimberlypearl.co\/blog\/?p=14223"},"modified":"2021-07-16T19:23:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T02:23:43","slug":"quarantine-reading-one-book-a-day-week-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kimberlypearl.co\/blog\/quarantine-reading-one-book-a-day-week-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Quarantine Reading: One Book a Day (Week 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still at home, reading one book a day<\/a> for as long as this quarantine lasts.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If it isn’t clear by now, I’m choosing my daily reading by color and mood (which appears as two sets of criteria, but so happens to be one and the same in my book). My little library is organized by category, then arranged by shade: it’s easy on the eyes, even easier to navigate. And somehow, this system always works out beautifully\u2014proving there is<\/em> substance to color theory.<\/p>\n

DAY 44: DEACON KING KONG<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Deacon King Kong<\/em><\/a> + Chanel Desert Rouge<\/em> Eyeshadow<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I’m embarrassed to admit that James McBride, the award-winning, best-selling author, was not on my radar until I saw Deacon King Kong<\/em><\/a> on SJP’s Instagram feed<\/a>. The novel reads just as if you were watching some television epic\u2014shot like Motherless Brooklyn<\/a>,<\/em> starring the most charming cast of characters. It’s gripping, timely, and full of heart.<\/p>\n

DAY 45: WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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What Are You Looking At?<\/em> <\/a>+ vintage Betty Boop sweatpants<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I’m no art connoisseur, just a civilian who pored over art books as a kid and as an adult plans most of her trips anywhere around the local art museums. How the Art World views Will Gompertz’s What Are You Looking At?<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is unknown to me\u2014but as an interested bystander (proud member of most tri-state museums on a rotating basis), I found this especially helpful in better understanding the progression of modern art through the years. Fun, quippy, and informational is just what I needed.<\/p>\n

DAY 46: CHINA POP<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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China Pop<\/em><\/a> + Roxanne Assoulin\u00a0Hip-Hop But Not<\/em>\u00a0earrings<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I found this near-fine edition of\u00a0China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids, and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture<\/em><\/a> marked-down to $1.00 sitting on a clearance trolley outside of Book-Off. (I was trying to kill time before doors opened the first time I saw Moulin Rouge: The Broadway Musical<\/em><\/a> and stumbled upon this used video game and bookstore. Never one to resist a good browsing, I ended up with a stack of books that, luckily, I didn’t have to relinquish to coat check at the theatre.) Of course the cover piqued my interest: my Taiwanese parents believed in the importance of complete, American assimilation, and my own shame at Otherness kept my culture at an arms-length distance, but as an adult, I’m ready to embrace it if just to understand my family more. (I did, however, have a short-lived fascination trying to understand how Mao could even rise to power, but my heart hurt too much at the horrors of destroying centuries of a culture.)<\/p>\n

I’d like to think this book found me. I devoured it, and not because I felt an obligation to because of this one-book-a-day goal. There were familiar anecdotes. Tidbits I never knew but\u00a0should<\/em> have, had I been more accepting of myself. A wave of appreciation for insight into a world that I will never fully understand, but want to try\u2014because life is more than just where we are.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n