The name beneath the name
When the woman who shelves the scifi section at my bookstore slid the new Orson Scott Card book to me last week I saw something disturbing on the cover. Aaron Johnston. Who was this guy? Was Card headed down the James Patterson path, using a helper to write his stories? I was concerned. Card has … Continue reading
Historical fiction, with cyborgs
As a historian, I’m a sucker for time travel novels. To go back in time and observe is a historian’s dream. (We’ll never know, though, even if we were there, exactly what people were thinking and feeling at any given time in history. People are unfathomable. Some things will always be guesses.) In some time … Continue reading
Through the eyes of a child
One of the reasons Ender’s Game is my favorite book is because you see how the adults are manipulating Ender, the main character who is six when the novel begins, and how he reacts to the new world they force upon him. Ender is smart. He adapts quickly and understands most of the manipulation going … Continue reading
Will the real Patrick Ashby please stand up?
In the opening pages of Josephine Tey’s classic mystery novel Brat Farrar (1950), a young man decides to commit a crime. The crime is impersonation and the motive is money, of course. The young man, the eponymous Brat (a derivation of “Bart”), looks almost exactly like Patrick Ashby, who had disappeared, believed a suicide, eight … Continue reading
Giving romance a go
Last summer I read a few books by the romance writer Candace Camp from her Matchmaker series. The series revolves around Lady Francesca Haughston, a widow who sets up young women in good marriages in 19th century London. I read three of the books: The Marriage Wager, The Bridal Quest, and The Wedding Challenge. Yes, … Continue reading
Reread quest
The book you reread is different from the book you read the time before. You change. Your reading strategies change. The book expands to fill more of your life. I’ve been writing about books I love, that I reread because I love both the experience of reading them and the experience of having read them … Continue reading
Stories for all your various summer needs
While summer reading lists tend to put one in mind of trashy paperbacks stashed away in canvas bags for beach reading, not many of us will spend the entire summer in a folding chair. Thus, a good set of summer reading suggestions will include options suitable for a variety of situations and pursuits. Whether you’re … Continue reading
Preparing for Potter
I’ve never read Harry Potter. Working in a bookstore with loads of diehard Potter fans, my usual excuse often fell short. I tried telling people that I was simply too old when the books came out. The first book was published in the fall of 1998 in the U.S. and I was in eighth grade. … Continue reading
My summer stack of comics
Did you know that scientists recently calculated how much we actually read in our work and personal lives? It seems a typical person today consumes the equivalent of 174 full newspapers a day in information — nearly five times as much as 25 years ago. Between email, print material, internet browsing, and advertising, we are literally inundated with text … Continue reading
The exiles return
Melina Marchetta is an Australian writer well known for her YA novels set in Catholic high schools (the wonderful Saving Francesca is a frequent reread.) She also won the Printz, a high honor for YA books, for Jellicoe Road, a book I found so sad that I haven’t ever picked it up for a second … Continue reading
