Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be
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4.1 • 17 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this "saucy and smart" memoir, a journalist uses pop culture as a lens to navigate her identity as a Black woman (Oprah Daily).
Nichole Perkins takes readers on a rollicking trip through the last twenty years of music, media and the internet, exploring her experience with mental illness, her attachment to the TV show Frasier, her role as a mistress, Prince, and what it means to figure out desire and sexuality in a world where women are still expected to prioritize marriage.
Combining her sharp wit, stellar pop culture sensibility, and trademark spirited storytelling, Nichole boldly tackles the damage done to women–especially Black women–by society’s failure to confront the myths and misogyny at its heart. Nichole illuminates how to take the best pop culture has to offer and discard the harmful bits, offering a mirror into our own lives.
A Roxane Gay Audacious Bookclub November Pick
Named "Most Anticipated Books of 2021" by Buzzfeed and Lithub
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perkins (Lilith, but Dark), a poet and former cohost of the Thirst Aid Kit podcast, examines religion, Black womanhood, desire, and sexuality in this powerful work of cultural criticism. She cleverly illustrates how pop culture has the power to shape, break, and illuminate the stories people tell about themselves and their intersecting identities. In one essay, "Kermit the Frog," she reflects on her childhood love of Miss Piggy, only to understand as an adult that the "felt porcine femme" was abusive toward Kermit and, in that way, created a warped mirror of the domestic violence she witnessed between her parents growing up. In "I Love Niles Crane," Perkins aspires to experience a divine love, in which a man "think my presence is a blessing from on high." Meanwhile, she connects her earliest feelings of desire to Prince's "Girl" ("the nastiest, sexiest song I'd ever heard in my life") and reminisces on how she learned "what was possible in Black college life" from the Cosby Show spin-off, A Different World. Writing from a place of humility and humor, Perkins paints an exuberant portrait of a Black woman speaking to and from her power. Tender and bright, this intimate work piques nonstop.
Customer Reviews
Ok read
This memoir is sort of lighthearted and entertaining. If you’re looking for something to aspire you then this book isn’t for you. This book was 90% of author bragging how good her poom poom is, 5% College & career, and 5% about her upbringing.