About stories of all kinds
Once Upon a Time--The Inimitable Jeeves A week ago I read Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, delighted to be once again immersed in the carefree, devilishly hare-brained world of Bertram Wooster. So I thought now would be as good a time as any to post a picture I made aligning the Wicked Witch… Continue reading The Inimitable Wicked Witch
Long before I started this blog, I had ideas for posts about books I've read. And here we are three years later and I'm finally finishing this review of two books I read back-to-back in the summer of 2016: Black Rabbit Summer and Black Rabbit Hall. I wanted to do this review/comparison because I thought,… Continue reading Chasing Rabbits: Black Rabbit Summer and Black Rabbit Hall
Ah, time travel: creator of paradoxes, destroyer of timelines, and conveniencer of plots. I like a good time travel story, whether it be the new Who (Moffat loops and all) or the good old Back to the Future. Time travel tends to frequent science fiction, but is also exploited for its potential in the historical… Continue reading Time in Flux (Capacitor): Ruby Red and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
"Will the real John Donne please stand up?" This was the question that greeted the class on the forum during our study of the works of John Donne. If you know anything about John Donne, it's probably that his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions: Meditation 17 is the text from which Ernest Hemingway got the title… Continue reading On-Line English Literature Discussion: John, I’m Donne
This is a book blogging deal hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words which I am participating in. My version of this today is going to be narrowed to my re-reading activity (which has been extensive of late). I'm re-reading many books from my shelves in order to remind myself of why… Continue reading WWW Wednesday: Re-reading Edition
As a kid, most of what I read was part of a series. And did it ever suck when the library was missing some of the books. Now, for whatever reason, I don't read as many series. There are extensive series--particularly in the fantasy genre, it seems--yet most of the books that appeal to me… Continue reading Serial Killers: The Pros and Cons of Book Series
Folklore. Fairy-tales. Horror stories. Urban legends. Mythology. What is it about the inexplicable, the fantastical, and the outrageously unrealistic that captures the human imagination? For that matter, what is it about the human imagination that causes it to manufacture these things, if indeed there is no outside originator? It was while studying "The Old Nurse's… Continue reading On-Line English Literature Discussion: Not Natural
If you've read widely at all, you've probably read a book that's been translated. Easiest example: the Bible. All translated unless you're reading it in ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Books have been and are being translated by the millions. I feel as though most are probably translated from English into other languages these days;… Continue reading Books in Translation: author’s voice or translator’s voice?
In any work of writing, even this blog, whether we are conscious of it or not, there is a voice that comes through. It's what you hear in your head while you're reading. It's how it makes you feel--is it whimsical? Informative? Tense? Know-it-all? It's up to how you interpret what you're reading on the… Continue reading Writing in Style: Authorial Voice
The desert isn't as empty as we think. Sands crawl over sands, rippling with wind or the tracks of sidewinders. Ruins gape, abandoned by the men who made them and left for an inheritance of the relentless sun. But it's not only elements, lesser creatures, and the relics of human habitation that fill the desert.… Continue reading Gods and Saints: Setting in Story
Fictitiously Yours 