City of Writers: A Weekly Newsletter
The novel was published in 1920 about 1870s New York society. It's fascinating how one look, one casual phrase could destroy a person's entire reputation. I think that's still true, but for the most part, we can start over somewhere else and bounce back. If someone is ruined (the Beauforts,…
Back when I was a wee little Gilly, my Ma got roped into a subscription for Reader's Digest Condensed Books. This novel appeared in vol. 217 in 1995, when I was 12. I didn't have the luxury of going to the library often as a child. It truly was a…
I have decided to elevate Ray Bradbury to be the grandfather of my literary aesthetic, which is cinematic absurdist.
I found an essay (an interview, really) in this book where he states
“all my stories are cinematic. … I may be the most cinematic novelist in the country today. All of my short stories can be shot right off the page. Each paragraph is a shot.”
I KNEW there was a reason why I enjoyed his work so much!
Continue reading →
I have been an avid devourer of books since I was a child. My hunger to read new material got so awful that I would read the phone book. Not the numbers so much, but the information that the book held. I truly believe there is only one literary work…
Life and death are very important themes throughout Jean Anouilh’s “Antigone.” It is made very clear from the very beginning what sort of character Antigone will be. “C’est la petite maigre qui est assise la-bas, et qui ne dit rien. Elle regarde droit devant elle. Elle pense.” Even if you…
A Dirty Job (paid link) was my first novel of his because I bought the ebook on sale. That novel actually ended up inspiring me one of the short stories in my thesis, Electric Angels. It taught me that even if there are rules, and your characters are the only…
You have cleverness, dexterity, and creativity—all of which powerfully combine when you are at risk—if you listen to your intuition.
Gavin de Becker, the Gift of Fear
I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages. I finally was able to get finish it with my Digital Silent Book Club and burning through it during my WFH lunches. It’s so nice to not have to bring my lunch every day; it’s already in my house! Then I can focus on simply reading and eating.
Anyway, I digress.
Continue reading →
Dear Mr. Sirius Black,
This is it, I guess. This is farewell, goodbye, adieu. I’m ready to let you go now.
I wept like a baby when I saw the image of you in my head fall behind the veil at the Department of Mysteries in Order of the Phoenix. I swear. Little tears squeaked out from the corners of my eyes as I saw you fall. You were so close and yet so far away. I wanted to leap into the pages and rescue you myself. I couldn’t believe Jo would do that to me (okay, everyone who read that passage and were outraged at your death). It was exciting and earth-shattering to see you fight so valiantly against Bellatrix, but to fade away like that hurt me like a dagger in the back.
Continue reading →
Olivia Joules is a freelance journalist for the Sunday Times. She has been asked by her editor to cover a fabulous Hollywood makeup line launch party. While there, she ends up catching the eye of the sexy Pierre Feramo, who may or may not be an Al-Qaeda terrorist. What follows is her adventures around the world. She pursues hunches and leads on the pretense of working when really, she wants to know more about Feramo.
She is eventually recruited by MI6 for a mission of utmost importance. Her adventures were presented very much like a modern-day James Bond. Not quite as exciting as saying something Sydney Bristow would’ve found herself in, but I shall leave it at that.
Continue reading →
Twilight is everything that I thought it would be, and more. And what I thought was that it was horrendous. The language feeds into its young adult target audience. Basically I went into reading it knowing it as trussed up LDS fanfiction, and it read like that. My opinion didn't…