Page 30 - BCALA Winter 2018

30 | BCALA NEWS | Volume 45, Issue 1 reimagining this positive Black male
character as a junkie just seems wholly inappropriate and unnecessary.
Just this once, I wanted to have my fictional Black male librarian hero on the big screen in a hit movie. Stephen King created a truly unique character
when he created Mike. And now Mike is reduced to a stereotype.
The adult Mike Hanlon of the 2019 part-two of “IT” will not be a character that I can present to other Black males as the badass librarian whose handle on information and knowledge helps
a community overcome its threats and challenges. All the same, my quest to bring more Black males into librarianship will continue. It just stings a bit that I’ve lost a key ally in this quest.
Book Review: Real Women Do It Standing Up
By Tasha Martinez
Lord, Leighann.
Real Women Do It Standing Up. New York, NY: Leighann Lord; 2016.
286p.
$15.00 Paperback. ISBN: 978-0-9862093
The book that I had selected to
review for the BCALA publication
was “Real Women Do It Standing
Up: Stories from the Career of a
Very Funny Lady.” Leighann Lord
is a comedienne, author, and radio/ TV co-host. This memoir shares stories of Lord’s life and career as a comedienne in a humorist way. Lord begins her book by explaining how she got into comedy after getting an undergraduate degree in journalism and getting a regular nine to five. By finding her niche, Lord goes to tell
her tales in a chronological way. As the book progresses, Lord explains some difficult questions such as: how do you balance content of being an artist, how can you relate to them with your content, and how do you stick to your true person without conforming to the stereotype of being an African American woman in comedy. With Lord’s words, the reader can read
the passion of her profession while
learning some lifelong lessons.
The book is organized in a creative way. The book itself is 286 pages
long. The book is divided into seven sections, and within the sections are short stories that fit the overall theme of the section. At the beginning of each short story, there is a quote or a clue per se about what the reader will read next. Those quotes definitely set the tone for the next section, but don’t
be surprised if while you’re reading you flip back to the quote. Finally, the book has a lot of whitespace which doesn’t hinder the eyes of the reader.
My overall impression of the book was great. As a person who does not enjoy humor books much, this was the first one that I have enjoyed. Throughout the book, Lord gave practical advice about life with the quotes she made in many situations. The first quote that I will share is, “I love high-heeled shoes but they’re not