Back in the day, when I was an eager Harry Potter fan anticipating the next book, J. K. Rowling’s interviews intrigued me. The authors of the series I’d loved before were all dead; no one could post C. S. Lewis’s answers to fan questions online or ask E. Nesbit what…
(I promise that title is the worst and only pun in this blog entry.) Sherlock Holmes is one of the world’s most popular and iconic characters. He is re-imagined for every generation and niche. He’s a child; he’s an old man; he’s a she. Sherlock Holmes is a delusional drug…
Happy long weekend, fellow Canadians! The first three episodes of the lesser-liked modern Sherlock Holmes series are out. So of course I jotted down what I thought, because: Sherlock Holmes.
This High Holiday season, I thought about a joke.* Three rabbinical students are praying on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The first student, a pious individual who has spent years and years studying Torah and Talmud and who spends all his spare time going over learned commentary, is moved…
Reluctant readers, this post is not for you. You are the naturals, already well versed in this most precious of skills that we voracious bookworms lack. Not for you the precarious stacks listing on your bedside table, the shelves overflowing (but already two layers deep!) with acquisitions never read, the…
Books YA/MG fiction The Whispering Mountain (**** – liked) Shades of Milk and Honey (**** – liked) The Boneshaker (*** – enjoyed) Ashfall (**** – liked) Adult fiction Heart-Shaped Box (**** – liked) A Single Shot (*** – enjoyed) The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (**** – liked)…
Books MG/YA fiction Akata Witch (**** – liked) The Shadow Guests (***** – loved) The Doom of the Haunted Opera (*** – enjoyed) Liar’s Moon (**** – liked) The December Rose (***** – loved) Graceling (***** – loved) Saranormal: Ghost Town (*** – enjoyed) The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (**** –…
(Even you, Elementary. Though I admit your circumstances are slightly different. BUT I WILL *NOT* SPOIL THEM, SO READ ON WITHOUT FEAR!) I love updates of Sherlock Holmes, but I have not yet encountered a single version of Irene Adler who does not make me want to punch the character in…
(Yes, Murder Mystery 2013 was this weekend! That means pics and recaps next week! And also that I’m exhausted. In the meantime…) When it comes to books adapted into TV shows or movies, I often feel as though one can adopt a Pascal’s Wager-style two-by-two outcome grid: Things they changed…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is impossible to tell how striking a particular piece of writing is until you’ve read several dozen examples of that genre. This applies to genres of novel as much as it applies to essays and cover letters. Purely in the interests of…