A salute to the Cannonball Read and the Readers, for bringing this book into my brain. Holy crap, you guys. So good. Honestly, I had been expecting (and bracing myself for) something super duper effed up, based on the reviews that I had skimmed (to avoid spoilers). And yeah, it’s dark and horrifying and confusing and complex, but still really fricking readable. Here’s what I texted about 20 of my closest friends when I was halfway through and couldn’t stop reading last night: “It’s as […]
Being a Christian is much harder than Fox News tells you.
You know how I said we weren’t done with Zachary Grey? Yeah, we’re not done with Zachary Grey. WHY DOES MADELEINE L’ENGLE RETURN TO HIM? Was her readership in desperate need of a “bad boy” to swoon over and so she kept him in her books? Did she genuinely love him and keep him in her books? Why is he here? Constantly? Alas, these are the questions that will continue to plague me after I’ve finished reading. I *think* I get why Zachary exists in […]
To suffer is as human as to breathe.
Any time that there’s new Harry Potter, I become about 15 years younger, and squeeeeeeeeeee. So, of course, new Potter, and I’m there. Full disclosure, I work in theater. Large-scale theater. Big shows. This show is in my work realm. So reading new Potter, but in script form, it was hard to turn off my work brain. “Is that a quickchange?” “need more details about that prop” “are they going to eat that, or can it be glue?” etc. These are the notes that I […]
The reward of true service, surely, is to be asked for more.
At long last, we reach the end of the “Temeraire” series. Hot dang, it’s been 9 books… where would our heroes travel? how would they encounter Napoleon? would Laurence have complicated feelings about women in the military? would Temeraire rake his giant claws into the ground in distress over something? where would they settle down for retirement? all these questions had to be answered, and more! It’s no secret that I’ve adored this series, even though it became deeply repetitive and predictable. And in a surprising […]
My enemies are too great. Too many. And I too weak.
When I hit the top of the wait-list and was notified by the library that this book was finally available, I was so excited that I actually took a screengrab and texted it to a friend. And it doesn’t disappoint. I will admit that I was vaguely disappointed, but really only because this series has only ever broken new ground in my brain the once, and that was with the first book. A little disappointing, but totally understandable. And come on, if it had changed […]
Comfortable diversion, but the audio version is a must-listen.
*Spoilers follow* I saw the movie How to Train Your Dragon in the theatre, and absolutely fell in love with it. I loved the world, thought the characters were fun and relatable, and was absolutely blown away by the art, but the stand-out for me was the dragon Toothless. But I loved everything. I thought the tumultuous relationship between Hiccup and his father felt authentic, if a little on the absurd side (this is a cartoon, after all), and Hiccup’s role as an outsider felt […]