Vintage Voyages
(Ok, “journey” would probably be a better word, but that’s cliché in the blog-o-sphere, not alliterative, and cannot be interpreted as a sneaky Star Trek reference.) I’ve wanted to do a post like this for a long time. Every time I tried, I ended up shelving it, unsure where I really wanted the post to […]
Book Series Review: Firmament
I suppose, technically, watching Star Wars with my dad was my first experience with sci-fi. Or maybe it was my Dora and the Purple Planet video game, although I feel like that doesn’t count. Either way, I was little then, and I didn’t give sci-fi another thought for years. If I had thought about it, […]
Book Review: The Daughter of Time
Well, this is ironic. In last week’s post, I defended Deep Space Nine as “real” Star Trek when many other reviewers didn’t see it that way. This week, I’m going to be questioning whether a book that is widely considered one of the greatest mysteries of all time really fits that genre very well. First off, I […]
Book Review: Death by Misadventure
When I was a kid, I had a video game called “Ty the Tasmanian Tiger.” I absolutely adored it. Those years were also pretty much the extent of my video game experience. When I asked my high school classmates if they’d ever heard of the game, all I got was “no” and a sense that […]
The Art of the Side Character
This week’s topic grew out of my most recent read, Margery Allingham’s The Late Pig. It’s a short book, my copy is just shy of 140 pages. I could’ve read it in one day, but I read it in two because I had other things to do. It’s a nice little addition to the Campion […]
Atticus for America: Part 2
Intro & Recap In last week’s post, I spent a good bit of time looking at what an American hero is and why they have faded in recent decades. I also explained why fictional heroes can be just as inspiring as real historical figures, especially as those figures begin to slip from our collective memory. […]
Atticus for America: Part 1
Introduction I’ve had this idea for a while, but always shied away as I don’t want this blog to be seen as political in any way, and I was afraid that’s how my thoughts would be interpreted. However, this topic drifts back to the front of my mind pretty frequently. As I’ve reflected more, I […]
The Importance of Being Honest
Some of you may have noticed I didn’t publish a post last week. My usual posting day fell right in the middle of a pretty bad spot of writer’s block. So, instead of agonizing over something that wouldn’t have ended up being very good, I decided to skip posting for a week (well, I guess […]
Laughter & Literature
A man at my church once shared a story that went like this: a Sunday school teacher asked “what is grey, has a fluffy tail, and eats nuts?” to which one of the students replied “I know the answer is probably Jesus, but that sure sounds like a squirrel.” I’ve noticed a similar pattern in […]
10 Favorite Picture Books
This blog might not exist if my mom hadn’t read to me every night from birth to teenagerhood. Maybe I would have still fallen in love with books and writing—they seem to be in my blood—but my mom deserves loads of credit. Raising me on books got me on the right path early. It’s been […]