We seem to have a strong intuition that part of what makes us human is our ability to die. Witness the countless stories in which the villains’ goal is to live forever, or in which a character demonstrates his or her essential humanity by giving up the opportunity to do…
After last week’s big old long post about criticism, I figured I’d like to get back in the not-tl;dr-post game. But what to write about? Then I remembered: c’est l’Hallowe’en! Everyone knows that Hallowe’en is a time to dress up, get candy, and have fun. There’s no greater moral to…
What is constructive criticism, and where does it overstep the boundary between “criticism” and “attack”? I’m interested because of this. Let me first make clear that I don’t care one way or the other about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I read the first book, didn’t like it at all, and…
But first – yay for friends visiting and for visiting friends. My friend Christina visited Toronto from Texas this week, and now I’m in Ottawa, able to visit other friends. Thanks, Christina, for making it out to Toronto, and thanks, Ottawa people, for hanging out :) Right. Free speech. I’ve…
I can’t think of anything interesting to write about. So here are some speculative fiction for middle grade and young adult readers that I like. None of them is by any means flawless, but I enjoyed them all. So there. As a bonus, here is one non-speculative fiction middle-grade book…
That, if you were wondering, was the sound of me this Friday afternoon. See, my sister’s birthday is around the end of the month, but since we won’t be in the same city that week, we decided to arrange for her present now. If you know my sister, you won’t…
Or, “Strange Childhood Obsessions”. Yeah, this is going to be a weird one. Exhibit A:
But first… happy Father’s Day, Dad! Well, if J. K. Rowling’s not done with Harry Potter, then neither am I. (Stop that groaning!) So I mentioned in passing in my review of Prince Caspian that, despite appearing more liberal and progressive, the Harry Potter series gives me the ICKY!s much…
The Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon):
Here’s the scoop: I don’t care about good people who do good things for good reasons and are never heart-wrenchingly tempted by evil. Sorry. This explains a lot of my taste in fiction; I’ve never been able to sympathize very much with Lucy and Peter Pevensie, or Harry Potter, or…