Zakiya N. Jamal was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In other words, she’s a New Yorker through and through. She holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and a MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. She has been published in Romper, BuzzFeed, People.com, Thought Catalog, and more. Her non-fiction essay about her "Cuban Impostor Syndrome" can be found in the Latinx anthology, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed. You can find her on Twitter at @ZakiyaNJamal.
After what has felt like forever HBO finally released the trailer for the fourth season of Game of Thrones and I can’t even contain my excitement. If you haven’t seen it already (seriously what have you been doing if you haven’t) you can find it below.
I haven’t read the books so truthfully I don’t even really know what half of the trailer showed means. I just know it looks good and intense with more battles, drama, love (or lust more likely), and a building plot that will most likely take many unexpected turns.
First, my girl Daenerys is ready to take what is hers: the throne. She clearly isn’t going to let anyone stand in her way and with the help of her dragons and army she seems to have the power to do so.
Now to my favorite family, the Starks. We don’t really get a lot of information about what’s going on with this quickly dwindling family in the preview. What we do know is the Wildlings are coming and Jon Snow is going to be at the forefront of that battle, most likely fighting his former love, Ygritte. Talk about awkward. Arya is still wielding her sword somewhere and I didn’t see Sansa anywhere in the trailer but seeing as her husband was in a cell that can’t mean good things for her.
As for that other family, the Lannisters seem to be dealing with some strive within their own ranks. Cersei, as crazy and evil as she is, loves her kids and will go to extraordinary lengths to protect them, even if it’s against her own family members. I’m not sure what exactly the Lannisters will be arguing about this season but as always it’s looks as if Joffrey will put his foot in his mouth, saying something absolutely outrageous and they seem to have a new enemy that’s out for blood.
There were a lot of characters missing in the trailer that I wished to see, like Tyrion’s love, Shae, who left at the end of last season, maybe? I’m not too sure. I do know she wasn’t too into the idea of hooking up with Tyrion in secret while he was married to Sansa. Also, like I said, Sansa wasn’t in it and I didn’t see Hodor either. This doesn’t mean anything of course. I’m sure all three of these characters will be in season 4 as will a whole bunch more including some new characters.
The real question will be who will come out of this season alive. Sadly we won’t know anything until April.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are great especially when they’re together. It’s no surprise that they were asked to host again for the second year in a row. Their opening monologue was fantastic. They cracked jokes on not only the many actors in the audience but also on themselves. I especially enjoyed their Scandal moment when they talked about Kerry Washington being pregnant and when Poehler blamed Netflix for the future of TV becoming dramas made by SnapChat. These two ladies kept the jokes rolling throughout the show and I think they did a great job.
P. Diddy
I think we can all agree that Diddy was on something last night (some are suggesting he brought his own Ciroc). Whatever it was it made him act a little strangely. From stepping in Usher’s spot when they were presenting to awkwardly trying to hug Bono, Diddy was all over the place. However, I thought it was hilarious so I think it was fine.
The Winners
Their was a lot of talent at the Globes last night and I think everyone’s awards were well deserved. Of course I was rooting for Kerry Washington to finally win an award for her role as Olivia Pope but sadly she did not. However, I love Robin Wright on House of Cards so I wasn’t too mad about it. Other notable wins were American Hustle which received four awards in total (I still need to see that movie!), Frozen for best animated feature, 12 Years a Slave for best drama motion picture, Leonardo DiCaprio for his role in The Wolf of Wall Street (still not an Oscar but maybe one day Leo), and both Breaking Bad and Brooklyn Nine-Nine left with two awards.
The Fashion
Almost everyone looked fantastic last night. Many people did not like Jennifer Lawerence’s dress but I liked it. Then again maybe I’m biased because I love her but I thought she looked cute and I love her haircut.
One of my all time favorites was Sofia Vegara. As always she looked flawless. Her dress accentuated all her curves in the right way and I just couldn’t take it. Also, her Modern Family co-star, Sarah Hyland was also killing it on the red carpet. Other notable ladies were Taylor Swift, Dianne Keaton, Kaley Cuoco, Sosie Bacon (the Ms. Golden Globe), Krya Sedgewick, and Reese Witherspoon. They were all working it and I wish I could afford their fashion.
All and all, I thought the show was great and I wouldn’t mind if Fey and Poehler hosted again. I’ll be crossing my fingers and my toes in hopes that dream comes true. Now onto the next award show. When’s the Oscars again?
Back again for another Hate It or Love It this week. As always I’ll be taking a look at iTunes top 10 singles for the week (or really the current moment that I check it) and saying whether I hate it or love. Here we go.
1. Dark Horse by Katy Perry ft. Juicy J
Thank you Katy for knocking down Timber a peg. I still love this song although I definitely haven’t been listening to it as much as I was last week. You go Katy!
2. Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha
I think I already made it expressly clear how much I dislike this song last week so I won’t go into it again. Definitely still hate it.
3. Say Something by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
Love this song. One of my favorite love songs. Also, I’ve found it’s a good song to do my readings to. Very peaceful and calming. Love it!
4. Counting Stars by OneRepublic
Speaking of songs to add to my “Study” playlist, this one’s a goodie. It’s a little more upbeat than “Say Something” but it’s still a pretty chill song. I love it.
5. Let Her Go by Passenger
Okay I might just make a new playlist out of these songs. This is such a soft, relaxing song (despite the kind of sad lyrics). Definitely a song I’ll be listening to while I lay on my bed, flipping through my reading, and bopping my head along to the music. Love it.
6. Pompeii by Bastille
Finally, a new one on the list. Truthfully, this isn’t really my type of music. This is definitely a song I wouldn’t have listened to of my own volition but I like it. It’s different but good. I’ve never heard of Bastille but they’re an Alternative music group made up of four guys (two of which are very attractive by the way) and they sound great. I like the vocals and the lyrics sound kind of trippy to me. When I hear it I can just imagine someone closing their eyes and dancing around in the grass, swaying their arms around. Either way, I enjoy it. I might not put it in my iTunes library but I won’t change the station if it comes on the radio.
7. Team by Lorde
Another new edition to the list, Lorde has gotten another single onto the top 10. This song sounds like “Royals” transformed into a love song. She’s still talking about “living in a city you’ll never see on screen” but now it’s not about being with her friends but having a partner on the team with her. I think the song is cute and for a 17-year old girl, pretty deep. I love it.
8. The Monster by Eminem ft. Rihanna
Still loving this song but it’s getting to the point where it’s starting to get annoying which may be evident by it’s tiny drop on the list. We’ll see if it still makes it on the top 10 next week.
9. Story of My Life by One Direction
Still loving it. I don’t listen to it often and it’s not in my iTunes so I’m clearly not obsessed with it but I like it. I think it’s a cute, typical One Direction song.
10. The Man by Aloe Blacc
Another new addition to the list. Aloe Blacc has been around a while apparently but he’s new to me. I like him. He sounds great and I can just imagine him singing this to me and I love it. He reminds of Mario a little in “Let Me Love You” because he’s basically telling a woman he will be there for her, always, and she can let everyone know because it’s true. I love it. Adding to my iTunes now.
Now that I’ve given my opinions on these songs, let me know what you think by voting for your favorite song of this week. Thanks!
I love Lea Michele, truly I do. I fell in love with her as Rachel on Glee and I think she’s a phenomenal singer, which is clear by her success on Broadway and now on Glee.
However, I just don’t think Michele has a voice fit for pop music. I like her as a singer on Broadway singing ballads and belting out heartfelt songs. When she did “New York State of Mind” along with co-star, Melissa Benoist, I thought it was fantastic. She hit all those notes and I probably listened to that song on repeat for days.
But ever since she attempted to do “Baby One More Time” on Glee I have not liked her on pop songs. It just doesn’t sound right to me. Michele sounded like she was trying to hard. I know for that song she was obviously trying to embody her inner Britney but her voice just did not fit the song and there was really no way to fix that.
Similarly, this is how I feel about her new single, “Cannonball”, from her debut album, Louder. The song, which was written by the talented Sia, is a great song and I can see why Michele wanted to sing it after the passing of her boyfriend, Cory Monteith.
Even so, I just can’t get with the song because Michele’s voice just doesn’t seem right for it. Her over enunciating of the word “cannonball” along with her attempts at stretching out notes that should just be left alone is not flattering. It’s frustrating because she has a great voice but just not for this song or this type of music.
I’m interested to hear the rest of the album when it is released. I am hoping for the best but currently I am not blown away. Although, I must say the video for the song (found below) is pretty amazing and I do appreciate that it is a tribute song to Monteith. Like I said I love the lyrics I just don’t think this is the song for her but hey, why don’t you take a listen and decide?
I must say, I really missed Teen Wolf and I am so glad its back. First, if you haven’t watched this episode please stop here. There will be spoilers. Okay, here we go.
First of all, Stiles my poor baby. He is going crazy and I just felt so bad for him. When his father had to hug him to help him get through his nightmare, I wanted to hug him as well. Also he can’t read and his dad might lose his job because Scott’s dad is a jerk. I just can’t.
Also, Scott and Alison are going crazy as well. The whole thing with Alison’s aunt scared the crap out of me and I thought Scott might actually kill his dad when he started to turn. I wouldn’t have been mad if he did, to be honest.
One of my favorite scenes was when Scott hit Isaac because he might be sort of dating Alison now. I’m curious to see where that goes. I mean Scott is clearly going to have his own love interest this season so I guess Alison is fair game but truthfully we all know Alison and Scott are endgame so it’s a just a matter of time before they end up back together anyway but it’ll be fun to see them with new people.
The most crazy thing to happen though was the ending. After a while I kind of figured that the girl Papa Stilinski was looking into was probably a wolf but still I was shocked that I was right. And what in the heck is going on with Derek (and Peter but I don’t really care about him)??? I was looking for him all episode and then they just left us with that and the preview literally tells us nothing. Ahhh I can’t wait until next week!!!
I’m not sure how I feel about Melissa De La Cruz. She has this uncanny ability to write books that make you want to keep reading but for me this feeling mostly comes from curiosity, not interest.
I thought this book was okay. There’s a lot of mystery in it that left me wondering what would happening next. However, I also found many of the characters to be irritating.
This book is the first in another series about vampires, which already deterred me a little bit. Of course, Cruz puts her own spin on the vampire idea. In her series, vampires live forever through their blue blood that carries on their many lives. Basically, they are reincarnated over and over again. They still drink blood but the sun doesn’t kill them it only makes some of them itchy if they’re allergic.
The main character, Schulyer, is an outcast at her prestigious high school. Even so she has a hidden beauty and when a senior and one of the most popular guys in school, Jack, notices her and one of her fellow students is found dead things start to change for Schulyer who later finds out she’s a vampire and so are many of her classmates.
Of course, there’s something special about Schulyer, who’s curiosity about who she is and the death of her classmate leads her to a search for the truth about who could be killing vampires who are supposed to be immortal.
Like I said, I kept reading because I was curious. I wanted to know what Schulyer was and who’s killing these kid vamps. Overall, however, I didn’t find the novel to be that great. It didn’t draw me in and I wasn’t obsessively reading it late in the night to find out what happens next.
Even so, I will most likely still read the next one because I want to know what happens next. Who knows, maybe I’ll like the next one better.
Stars: 2 out of 5
Borrow or Buy: Borrow. This is definitely a book I wouldn’t re-read. Unless you need a refresher on what happens when you finally get around to reading the next one. But in that case you could probably just read the summary on Wikipedia.
It’s been a while since I’ve read anything from Scott Westerfeld and man have I missed him. I forgot how much I love his books. What’s great about this book is it’s not really a book, it’s a novella.
Being only 55 pages long it literally only took me about two hours to read so for those of you that hate long books, this will be a great fit for you. Set in a utopic world where people no longer have to sleep, deal with illness, and can teleport anywhere they want to go, students are required to take a class that’s only purpose is to show them how bad the world was before it became the utopic society they have.
The main characters, Kieran and Maria, both have to give up something for two weeks. Kieran, chooses to forgo sleep, not fully understanding what sleep is, and Maria, chooses to give up her hormone regulations, thinking it’ll be an interesting experiment.
I thought the concept of this book was very interesting and a little different because many of the books that have come out recently have focused on dystopias, whereas this novel portrays a world that is perfect. At first it sounded pretty good to me but then once the two protagonists start trying out their experiments it makes you realize how much you’d be missing if we lost those things.
Yeah, our hormones can be really annoying sometimes, especially when you meet that hot guy who turns out to be jerk but you can’t help but be attracted to him. But there’s also the goods things, like when you get butterflies for that awesome guy you just met at Starbucks who asked you for your number.
And seriously, who doesn’t love sleep? When your head hits the pillow after the longest day of your life? Fantastic.
I thought Westerfeld did an excellent job with this novella. It was short and sweet, making a point but not dragging it out. He also didn’t rush the plot. It was perfectly timed and just felt like a shorter book.
Even though he doesn’t go in depth on this world he’s created and what led to it being the way it is that’s okay because you get so drawn into the characters and what they’re doing that you forget to even think about that. Instead you find yourself falling for these characters and laughing at their confusion of things we deal with every day. One of my favorite parts was when Kieran couldn’t figure out how we fall asleep in the first place and couldn’t get how we could waste so much time sleeping.
The only thing I didn’t like about this novella is that I wanted it to keep going. Then again that might ruin it because the ending was pretty good. Definitely a must read.
Stars: 5 out of 5
Borrow or Buy: Definitely buy. It’s really cheap (only $1.99 on the Kindle) and it’s a really short read so you can read it and re-read it fairly quickly.
Every Saturday I will take a look at iTunes Top 10 singles and decide whether I hate it or love it. You can agree or disagree with my opinion but thankfully the Internet allows me to state anyway. So here we go.
1. Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha
Hate it. Hate it so so much. I don’t even think I’ve been able to listen to the whole song because I find it so irritating. This songs combines two of the most irritating artists and I absolutely can’t stand it. I don’t even know what this song is about because I can’t get past the horrible sound of it. Definitely a thumbs down.
2. Dark Horse by Katy Perry ft. Juicy J
Love it! I’ve been obsessed with this song ever since this guy made a video of him dancing to it on Tumblr. It starts all cool and quiet and then the beat drops and it’s like it’s saying, “It’s time to get it,” and then I do. Also, I’m not a big fan of Juicy J but I think he adds a nice touch to this song as well. It’s a nice addition of ratchet to an otherwise very pop song. Good job Katy!
3. Say Something by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
Love it so much! This is such a sweet and heartbreaking song. I love all the vocals and the lyrics: “Say something I’m giving up on you.” It’s a love song but it’s one that’ll make you cry because it’s not about new love it’s about trying to keep that love alive. One person is asking, basically begging, the person they love to say something to make them believe their love is still there. It’s amazing. Makes my heart ache every time. Someone grab me some tissues.
4. Counting Stars by One Republic
Love it although I’ll be perfectly honest and say that I’m not sure I know what this song is about. I just find it catchy and I love One Republic’s sound. The song just sounds good to me and the lyrics sound deep so I’m just going to go with that and vibe along with this catchy tune.
5. Let Her Go by Passenger
This song reminds me of Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away” a little bit but better. The song basically says you never know you have a good thing until it’s gone. I found this song to be equally heartbreaking and inspiring. It’s a toss up whether this could be called a break up or a love song because clearly he’s in love with the girl he let go but he’s lost her. I love it. It’s a moving song and I love the lyrics.
6. The Monster by Eminem ft. Rihanna
This so is so catchy! I probably heard it on the radio at least 10 times today and I jammed along with it every time. Even though Eminem pretty much affirms anyone’s thoughts about him being crazy with this single it’s also somewhat relatable. I mean who doesn’t think their thoughts are a little crazy some times. I mean maybe you’re not trying to be friends with the monster under your bed but you’ve definitely thought about knocking out that girl who just cut you in the food line. Plus, it’s just a really catchy, get stuck in your head kind of song. I love it.
7. Story of My Life by One Direction
I’m not a big One Direction fan. In fact I try not to get pulled into their hype because I find their fandom a little annoying sometimes. Even so, I have to admit I like this song. It’s not one I’ll be listening to on repeat anytime soon but it’s admittedly a good song. I like how even though it’s a love song, it doesn’t sound like one. I’m not even sure it is a love song. It could be a break up song. It’s sounds like a good combination of both and it sounds truthful. These guys make you feel their pain, their love, and their heartbreak. I love it.
8. Royals by Lorde
Seriously, how is this song still in the top 10? Seriously? I liked this song at first. I loved the lyrics, I loved that Lorde wasn’t singing about the gold watches she owns or how many houses she has but instead she was keeping it real, talking about how the money and fame doesn’t mean a thing to her. I think that’s just great truly I do. However, after hearing this song over and over and over again on the radio I am so sick of hearing it. Every time it comes on I automatically change the station only to find it’s playing on another station. I just can’t. Sorry but I have to say hate it only because it’s so irritating to me now.
9. Roar by Katy Perry
Katy Perry is doing big things right now. I didn’t like this song at first but it’s grown on me. It’s empowering. Sometimes I just find myself belting at this song, singing, “You’re gonna hear me ROAR!”. Basically if you’ve been feeling pushed down or defeated this is a song to help you get back up on your feet. I love it.
10. Wake Me Up by Avicii
“All this time I’ve been finding myself and I didn’t know I was lost.” Fan-freaking-tastic. I loved this song when it first came out and I’m still in love with it. I’m not sure why these lyrics resonate with me so much but they do. Plus, I really like the vocals and the instrumentals on this track. I also thoroughly enjoythe point in the song when it just becomes this kind of techno, fist pumping beat. It’s like you have this deep song and then it’s like now back to the club now back to deep pondering, now back to club. I love it.
To avoid confusion this is not a book that the Disney movie, Frozen, was based on. This Frozen is the first book in the new Heart of Dread series by authors Melissa de la Cruz (author of the Blue Bloods and Witches of East End series) and Michael Johnston.
Based in a post apocalyptic world, where Earth is now a frozen wasteland, the novel focuses on Nat, a marked girl who has powers she can’t control. The marked are people, or magical creatures really, that humans fear. Similar to the way in which some people still believe they can “catch” cancer or HIV/AIDS in this dystopia people fear the marked not only for their powers but also because they’re scared they can get the “illness” as well. Therefore the marked are persecuted, either being imprisoned or killed on site.
This is just one of the many things wrong with this futuristic society included but certainly not limited to corrupt government, slavers (involved in a lot of black market trading of people), a large disparity between the rich and poor, amongst many other things.
Hence, why Nat wants to escape to what many call the Blue, a far away place that is rumored to be a paradise where the sun still shines and animals still exist. This leads Nat on an adventure along with a boy named, Wes, and his crew to find the Blue.
I thought this book was great. Though this book has a similar to theme to many books coming out recently it’s also a stand out for many reasons. First, this novel is told in third person narration, thereby giving us insight to both Wes and Nat’s perspective which I found to be interesting. Second, this book adds an air of mystery and fairy tale quality to this otherwise very dystopian novel which I definitely haven’t seen in any of the other dystopian novels I’ve read recently (and I’ve read a lot).
Also, I’m usually weary of books that are written by two authors because sometimes you can tell who’s writing what and the change in the style of the novel can get really annoying, early on. However, this novel ran very smoothly, and I felt like I was only reading one author’s writing, not two.
I’m excited to see where Cruz and Johnston will go with this series. Frozen was filled with action, mystery, and a little bit of romance. Though I’m not completely obsessed with this book/series just yet I think this first book built a good foundation for this series to get even better.
Stars: 4 out of 5
Borrow or Buy: Borrow. I thought this book was good but not one that I’d read over and over again. Better to get it from the library and spend the money on that book you’ve had on your wish list for months instead.
As Hollywood gets less creative and innovative we see the increase of books being turned into movies. Of course, this isn’t a new practice its just become more frequent. Here’s the books that I’m most interested to see on the big screen this year (so far anyway).
1. The Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters (February 14)
I love this book series by Richelle Mead (I own almost all of the books), which is why I’m a little disappointed in what I’ve seen of the movie so far. This film looks more like a comedy then the drama and love filled series of books I remember. Even though I’m going to try to resist, I’m sure I’ll still end up going to see this movie in theaters. Maybe since my expectations are so low the movie will actually surpass them.
2. Divergent (March 21)
I’m still on the waiting list to get this book from the library so I can’t really say how the trailer compares to the novel. What I can say is the trailer looked so good I felt inspired to actually read the first book in this trilogy created by Veronica Roth. I’d heard a lot about these books and it was all over Tumblr but I resisted reading it because it sounded like just another dystopian novel with a heroine and her love interest. Even though I tend to love books like that I was getting sick of reading the same thing. Even so, this trailer does look really good so I’m willing to give a book a try to prep for the film.
3. The Fault in Our Stars (June 6)
I loved this book by John Green. It’s probably my favorite book by him and he’s written some great ones. There’s no trailer yet so I can’t say how close I think it’ll resemble the book but the movie poster looks great and Green was heavily involved in the making of the film so I have high hopes for it. All we can do now is wait and see. If you haven’t read the book yet I would definitely recommend it.
4. The Maze Runner (September 19)
(Source: imdb.com)
This is based on another book I didn’t read. I did try to read it however, I just couldn’t get into. I think I got three chapters in before I gave up. However, because Dylan O’Brien will be playing the main character and I’m obsessed with him I might still give this one a try. It depends on how the trailer looks when it comes out, which I’m guessing will be released when Divergent drops. We shall see.
5. Mocking Jay Part 1 (November 21, 2014)
In my personal opinion (and I’ve found many others agree with me) this was the worst book in the trilogy. Though I applaud Suzanne Collins for keeping it real with all the deaths that occur in this last book (because lets face it, this is a war; there will be casualties) it was still not the best book. Therefore I’m kind of hoping the writers, directors, and makers of this film take creative license over this one. As long as they didn’t stray to far from the novel I’d be okay with it. We’ve got a long way to go before this comes out but I’m hoping for the best. The first two films were great and I’m expecting these last two will be just as good.
6. The Giver (August 15)
I don’t even remember how long ago I read this book but similar to a lot of these novels that are being adapted into films, this is based on a dystopian world where the Giver is the only person who is allowed access to the true memories of the past. Every child is dictated what their job will be for the rest of their lives and the main character, Jonas, is chosen to learn from the Giver so he can become the next one. Its too early to tell how this will turn out. The fact that Taylor Swift has been casted in it doesn’t bode well for me since she didn’t do well in Valentine’s Day. However, Meryl Streep will also be in the film and I love her so I’ll give it points for that. Fingers crossed.
[Source: 
Zakiya N. Jamal 