If you are a big reader like I am, you may read books centered around the holiday theme when the calendar flips to December (or maybe earlier!). Like me, you may have some favorites, and then some new discoveries. Classic favorites include Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women", Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", Truman Capote's "A …
Returning to my creative roots
I create content for a living, both writing and producing video content, so it has been almost two decades since I've done any creative writing. My father has written poetry his entire life, so I was encouraged by him to keep up my creative writing as a hobby, but life happens, and the pen was put aside as the bills stacked up.
My Favorite 2021 Reads
Not a coincidence that my last post was the Best of 2020 Books, because 2021 was a blur. Isn't everything during a pandemic a time-warp? Seriously - 2021 was jam-packed. While I didn't do much writing last year, I did a TON of reading,
Best of 2020 Books
Even before quarantine started in March, I knew I was going to read a lot more in 2020, given that I started the year without a full-time job. What has changed since January is how I choose my books. Before this year, my book choices were primarily based off Reese Witherspoon's book club, or the …
The Silver Screen in Black & White
I spent most of my free time over the holidays catching up on my Criterion Collection watch list. I guess it was to combat my brain turning to mush from too many Hallmark holiday movies? I've always loved older movies, so it was a no-brainer for me to subscribe to the Criterion Collection earlier this …
Southern Squared’s Summer Reading List
School started this week in Georgia, and like quite a few students this year, this 42-year old is learning outside of the classroom from her home. Okay, so my reading assignments aren't quite Catcher in the Rye, the Great Gatsby and Madame Bovary like in Mrs. Tomblin' 10th grade American Literature or Mrs. Epperson's AP …
Championing Juneteenth in Changing Times
I didn't learn about Juneteenth in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college. It wasn't taught in American history classes which included the Revolutionary War, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Transcontinental Railroad, both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and even the Cold War. Our textbooks didn't include anything about …
Summer Streaming Series
Let me tell you from previous experience... having a few months off with no income (aka, unemployed) is NO FUN. But, I did get to catch up on tv shows that I always wanted to binge, but never had time (Golden Girls, Designing Women, The Wonder Years). I heard Scandal was leaving Netflix May 19, …
The 80s Movie Bracket
March is all about brackets, but for us, it was all about quarantine this year. I was looking forward to Atlanta hosting the Final Four this year, but instead, I enjoyed looking at all of the brackets our friends created. I saw brackets for candy, kids tv shows and board games, but what about movies? …
Quarantine Stream
UPDATE (4/29):Tonight, I watched The Namesake in honor of Irrfhan Khan, who passed away today at the age of 53 of cancer. Khan was a celebrated Indian actor, but I have only seen him in his English speaking parts, Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire and The Namesake. I wrote a little something about The Namesake, …
Sravanthi Meka 