Photo by Modern Arts Studio, Oakland, California. From the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust website. Marion Zimmer Bradley, best known for her Darkover novels and a series of Arthurian fantasies beginning with The Mists of Avalon, was born on this day in 1930. She died in 1999. Bradley’s Darkover… Read more »
If you’re interested in books, ebooks, libraries, self-publishing, or even book blogs,there’s quite a lot to interest you this week: The Nation has published a long, thoughtful piece on “The Amazon Effect” by Steve Wasserman. A history of Amazon’s rise as well as an examination of its tactics and its… Read more »
Want to know whose birthday it is? I’ve added a page of author (and illustrator) birthdays to this blog. For the most part, the authors listed are a mix of classic literary types, children’s authors, and authors of fantasy, SF, and mystery. They appear by date. You’ll find the page… Read more »
Magic Under Glass blends elements of fantasy, steampunk, and the gothic novel: orphan girl swept into a high social milieu, mysterious and romantic sorcerer, hidden wife, enchanted clockwork automaton, missing fairy prince. Dolamore melds all of these into a cohesive, intriguing, but oddly spare whole. I have very mixed feelings… Read more »
I’ve been a fan of Aunt Dimity almost as long as the books have been around. Aunt Dimity’s Death is one of my comfort novels, the books I turn to when I’m tired, overwhelmed, or feeling blue: the reading equivalent of a nice cup of tea; and several of the… Read more »
Fantasy author Patricia Wrede recently posted a piece on her blog in which she recalls hearing Judith Merrill, the noted SF author, challenging another panelist’s assertion that a fiction author shouldn’t try to send a message – shouldn’t preach. “Why not?” responded Ms. Merrill. “What better place is there?” A… Read more »
Sorry for the late posting! Here are some of the articles that caught my attention in the past week: On audiobooks: “Let’s Go Reading in the Car” (Judith Shulevitz, New York Times) Shulevitz links audiobooks to storytelling, and recommends some good choices for families. On libraries:“Connecticut Library to Use Overdue… Read more »
If you’re not familiar with the work of Margaret Wise Brown, your childhood was the poorer for it. Brown wrote the now-classic titles Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, as well as The Little Fur Family, A Home for a Bunny and nearly one hundred other titles. Margaret Brown was born… Read more »
A few nights ago, we watched The Adventures of TinTin for the first time. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but had been told it was good, so we rented it from Netflix. I loved it! Our daughter described TinTin as being “like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Indiana Jones…… Read more »
I came across a number of interesting articles in the early part of the past week. I’ve been a bit preoccupied during the latter part of the week, trying to plan a family vacation for next month, which kept me from keeping up with the blogs I normally follow, so… Read more »
