Daniel J Nickolas
LightNews LightNews
banner
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
Daniel J Nickolas
@danieljnickolas.bsky.social
250 followers 200 following 100 posts
Bipedal primate of the genus (and orientation) Homo. Mad scientist at heart, who writes and reads books. Trans people are valid. Eppur Si Muove.
Posts Replies Media Videos
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
In light of the erasure at the Smithsonian, let me recommend some books:

1. ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’ by Harriet Jacobs

2. ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ by Frederick Douglass

Both excellent, brutal depictions of U.S. slavery as it truly was, written by survivors.
Copies of the autobiographies of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass, titled ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,’ and ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ respectively.
August 21, 2025 at 3:12 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
📚Juneteenth Read!📖

Celebrate Juneteenth by getting informed with ‘The Originalism Trap’ by Madiba K. Dennie

Dennie exposes how courts use cherry-picked versions of U.S. history and deliberate misconstructions of the Constitution to undermine our civil rights

But also what we can do to fight back!
Cover of “The Originalism Trap” by Madiba K. Dennie. The cover features two orange feathers in an “X” shape, laid over the text of the Constitution. Subtitle: How extremists stole the Constitution and how we the people can take it back. Author photo of Madiba K. Dennie
June 19, 2025 at 7:43 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
The only birthday I’ll be celebrating this week.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” —Anne Frank
Photograph of Anne Frank, writing at a desk.
June 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
Is r/aged_like_milk still around?
Image of a tweet from “The Hill,” posted October 18th, 2024, of Kamala Harris warning, in a speech that, quote, Trump will send the army after you, end quote. The Hill headline for the image reads, Kamala’s newest lie.
June 9, 2025 at 10:17 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 25: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare

because few other rom-coms so perfectly capture the chaos of love.
#BookSky #BookChallenge #ValentinesDay
Cover of the Folger Shakespeare Library edition of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Cover is marbled green with the the title written in a flowing cursive. Opening page for the text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare
February 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
In 1893, Frances E.W. Harper published ‘Iola Leroy’

Responding to books romanticizing the Old South, Harper’s main character, sold into slavery, passes as white, cleverly encouraging white readers to put themselves in the place of a slave. The book was a bestseller.
#BlackHistoryMonth #BHM #BookSky
Split image, with a photograph of author Frances E. W. Harper on the left, and an image of her novel, ‘Iola Leroy’ on the right. The cover of the book features a building with a sign that reads “Auction and Negro Sales.”
February 2, 2025 at 5:10 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
Happy #BlackHistoryMonth

The official White House website is not capitalizing the “B” in the phrase “Black Americans”

And yes, the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Style Manual says to capitalize ethnicities. #BHM
Screenshot of the White House proclamation for Black History Month, 2025, highlighting how the writer intentionally did not capitalize the word “black” in the phrase “Black Americans.”
February 1, 2025 at 3:06 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 24: ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy

because the life we work for is not always the life we get.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Copy of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, Anna Karenina, the Pevear / Volokhonsky translation. Image features a close-up of flowers held on someone’s lap. Opening to Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
January 30, 2025 at 7:46 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 23: ‘The Fire Next Time’ by James Baldwin

because I can see the flames, I can feel the heat.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Copy of James Baldwin’s 1962 non-fiction book, The Fire Next Time. Cover features a black and white photograph of Baldwin, by Sophie Bassouls. Baldwin looks thoughtfully, but with concern, into the distance. Opening to The Fire Next Time “Dear James: I have begun this letter five times and torn it up five times. I keep seeing your face, which is also the face of your father and my brother. Like him, you are tough, dark, vulnerable, moody—with a very definite tendency to sound truculent because you want no one to think you are soft.”
January 29, 2025 at 6:23 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 22: ‘East of Eden’ by John Steinbeck

because we are more than our past.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Centennial Edition of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel, ‘East of Eden’. A seemingly dead tree sprawls across the top of the cover. Farm scenes are visible through the branches. Opening to East of Eden. “The Salinas Valley is in Northern California. It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay.”
January 28, 2025 at 10:14 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 21: ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison

because freedom is a matter of life and death.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel, Beloved. The book is solid red, with the title in gold, and Morrison’s name in white. Opening to Beloved: “124 was spiteful. Full of baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims.”
January 27, 2025 at 7:42 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 20: ‘Educated’ by Tara Westover

because the world is full of discovery
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of Tara Westover’s 2018, ‘Educated.’ Image features the silhouette of a woman standing on a mountain top. The image is cropped to appear in the shape of a pencil top. Opening to Tara Westover’s, Educated. “My strongest memory is not a memory. It’s something I imagined, then came to remember as if it had happened. The memory was formed when I was five, just before I turned six, from a story my father told in such detail that I and my brothers and sister had each conjured our own cinematic version, with gunfire and shouts.”
January 26, 2025 at 7:34 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 19: ‘The Night Trilogy’ by Elie Wiesel

because our humanity is fragile.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night Trilogy’, single volume. The orangish line on the bottom third is a silhouette of barbed wire. Opening to ‘Night’, Elie Wiesel’s memoir of his time in Auschwitz. “They called him Moishe the Beadle, as if his entire life he had never had a surname. He was the jack-of-all-trades in a Hasidic house of prayer, a shtibl. The Jews of Sighet—the little town in Transylvania where I spent my childhood—were fond of him.”
January 25, 2025 at 7:43 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 18: ‘The Stories of English’ by David Crystal

because I love my wacky mother tongue.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of David Crystal’s 2004 biography of the English language, The Stories of English. Image features cartoonish illustrations of Victorian Era English men sitting around a table, seemingly drunk, spouting English phrases. Image is part of the larger “The Feast of Reason, and the Flow of the Soul” by James Gillary. Opening to The Stories of English “There was variety from the very beginning. There must have been. No one has ever found a speech community which does not contain regional and social variation, and it is inconceivable that the human race has changed in this respect in the course of a mere 1,500 years.
January 24, 2025 at 9:28 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 17: ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin

because every breakthrough starts with curiosity.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of the Barnes and Noble Classic’s edition of ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin. Cover image is the painting, Orchids and Hummingbirds, by Martin Johnson Heade, which features a small hummingbird resting on a sprawling orchid plant. Opening to ‘On the Origin of Species’ “When we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us is that they generally differ much more from each other than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature.”
January 23, 2025 at 11:11 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 16: ‘The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating’ by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

because nature is healing.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of ‘The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating’ Image features a realistic illustration of a snail on top of the word “Wild”. Snail looks as if it may be moving toward the word “Eating” beneath. Opening to ‘The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.’ “In early spring, a friend went for a walk in the woods and, glancing down at the path, saw a snail. Picking it up, she held it gingerly in the palm of her hand and carried it back toward the studio where I was convalescing.”
January 22, 2025 at 11:18 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 15: ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’ by Harriet Jacobs

because history happened, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Harriet Jacobs’s 1861 autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Barnes and Noble Classics edition. Cover features the 1853 painting “A Slave Market, Richmond, Virginia” by Eyre Crowe. Opening to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away. My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skillful in his trade that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his children.”
January 21, 2025 at 6:57 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 14: ‘Petals of Blood’ by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o

because the powers that be are not your friends.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of the 1977 novel, Petals of Blood, by Kenyan author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. Penguin Classics Edition. Opening to Petals of Blood. “They came for him that Sunday. He had just returned from a night’s vigil on the mountain. He was resting on his bed, Bible open at the Book of Revelation, when two police constables, one tall, the other short, knocked at the door.”
January 20, 2025 at 7:41 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
Today is a day to honor a man who truly deserves our respect.

Martin Luther King Jr. (and many others who stood alongside him) demonstrated what we can accomplish we come together in the name of justice.
#MLK #WeThePeople
Photo of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. waving to people during the March on Washington.
January 20, 2025 at 5:12 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
Bedroom bookshelves.
Main bookshelf in my bedroom, featuring my two plants. Shelf I use as a nightstand, also full of books.
January 20, 2025 at 12:32 AM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 13: ‘Resident Evil: City of the Dead’ (the official novelization of Resident Evil 2) by S. D. Perry.

because man can’t live on Jill Sandwiches alone.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of Resident Evil: City of the Dead. Image features uncanny renders of Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Three iconic monsters can be seen above the two heroes: The Licker, The Red Tank-Top Zombie, and mutated William Birkin. Opening to Resident Evil: City of the Dead. “Raccoon Times, August 26, 1998. Mayor Announces Keep City Safe Plan. Raccoon City—On the front steps of City Hall, Mayor Harris announced in a press conference yesterday afternoon that the City Council will be hiring at least ten new police officers to join the Raccoon police, in response to the continued suspension of the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (STARS), in effect since the brutal murders that plagued Raccoon earlier this summer.
January 20, 2025 at 12:16 AM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 12: ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare

because power doest not last, and does not love you back.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Cover of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s edition of King Lear, by William Shakespeare Opening page of the Folger’s edition of King Lear.
January 18, 2025 at 7:35 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 11: ‘Varjak Paw’ by S.F. Said, illustrated by Dave McKean.

because this was a favorite for me and my sister as kids, and is the origin of family legends.
Cover of S.F. Said’s 2003 book, Varjak Paw. Illustration by Dave McKean Opening to Varjak Paw. “The Elder Paw was telling a story. It was a Jalal tale, one of the best. Varjak loved to hear his grandfather’s tales of their famous ancestor: how Jalal fought the fiercest warrior cats, how he was the mightiest hunter, how he came out of Mesopotamia and travelled to the ends of the earth, further than any cat had been before.
January 17, 2025 at 8:50 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 10: ‘The Gene: An Intimate History’ by Siddhartha Mukherjee

because we are all unique, and yet so very much the same.
#BookSky #BookChallenge
Siddhartha Mukherjee’s 2016 book, The Gene: An Intimate History Opening to The Gene: An Intimate History “The monastery was originally a nunnery. The monks of Saint Augustine’s Order had once lived—as they often liked to grouse—in more lavish circumstances in the ample rooms of a large stone abbey on the top of a hill in the heart of the medieval city of Brno.”
January 16, 2025 at 7:57 PM
danieljnickolas.bsky.social
30 days of books that define me

Cover, opening page, and a brief reason why

DAY 09: ‘City of Night’ by John Rechy

because our loneliness isn’t always our fault.
Cover of John Rechy’s 1963 novel, City of Night Opening to City of Night by John Rechy Later I would think of America as one vast city of night stretching gaudily from Times Square to Hollywood Boulevard—jukebox-winking, rock-n-roll-moaning: America at night fusing its dark cities into the unmistakable shape of loneliness.
January 16, 2025 at 12:40 AM