In an effort to allow people more time to cogitate and ruminate on our Book Club selection, it was suggested that we post some topics for discussion prior to the actual discussion which is scheduled for this Sunday. Continue reading
Books
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Today I’m here to share some sad news with all of you. Peyton Moss, or “p_mouse” as we knew him, has passed away after a battle with cancer. Peyton was one of the first commenters on Crasstalk after the Gawker migration and was a founding member of our community. His passing is a great loss to all of us here who enjoyed his wit, kindness, and intellect.
Peyton was a not only commenter here, but also a writer, and a member of the Marketing Team. He was always an enthusiastic promoter of the blog and was always happy to give his advice an assistance to novice writers making their first unsteady steps in their writing. He was always kind to everyone on the site, adding a sweet word or a joke when arguments got heated and tempers flared. Continue reading
Welcome to Book Club: The Next Generation. Before I present our next book to be discussed, allow me to get some housekeeping out of the way. You may have noticed that this book choice was not a result of several voting rounds. That is because there has been a decision to have Book Club operate under the purview of DogsOfWar. Dogs will select the person to lead each book group. If you wish to be considered for leading a discussion, email Dogs at CommentsOfWar at gmail dot com and present your book for consideration.
Now that we all are on the same page (heh), allow me to present our next book, The Preservationist by David Maine.
Although it would be easiest to describe Maine’s debut novel as a retelling of the Noah’s Ark story from the Bible, it is much more than a simple reinterpretation. His narrative takes the few chapters about God’s judgment and punishment of his failing creation and expands and adds essential missing characters, as well as filling in the holes and questions left by the incomplete Biblical narrative. Continue reading
I may love young adult books, but there’s no question that I’ve long passed the age of what qualifies as a “young adult.” Once upon a time, however, I was a mini version of me, and oh God did I love to read. Sure, it started with Little Bear and Frog and Toad Together, but before long, I was devouring both Sweet Valley High and the Great Illustrated Classics series that introduced me to literature greats like Robin Hood (which never failed to make me cry) and Call of the Wild. That little girl who happily curls up in any corner of a given room and shuts out the world from behind a novel? Yep, that was me. And on my less polite days, it still is. Continue reading
Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I wrote several Harlequin romance novels. How did I get into it? Like a lot of people, I had graduated from university and couldn’t find work in my field, librarianship. During school I’d heard about librarians being needed so I studied that, but had the misfortune to graduate the year after they (mostly, government and public libraries) had hired all the librarians they could afford. I worked in a bookstore for a couple of years, but it didn’t pay well and I had ambitions beyond that. So I thought I’d try writing Harlequins. They had an established structure, and you had to keep within certain parameters as regards the plot, which struck me as good training for a new and indecisive writer. We got to the point where my husband was making enough money that I could quit work and we wouldn’t have to eat cat food. I gave myself 5 years to produce a publishable novel. It took 3. Continue reading
Sorry about the brief delay in the discussion post! Hopefully this gave those of you who waited until Friday night to open the book (I know who you are) time to finish.
On that note, I would much rather have been writing this post than hard-restraining tornado refugee pit bulls for fourteen hours on a weekend. So if you’d like to help me get my posts done on time in the future, donate to the ASPCA or HSUS.
So. Shake the Devil Off. Did you find it uplifting? A story of triumph over adversity? If you did, give it a quick re-read. But though it wasn’t the feel-good book of the year, hopefully you appreciated the book. And if you didn’t, hopefully you want to tell everyone why.
On the three-month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake in Japan, protesters around the country took to the streets to protest nuclear power after the true scale of the nuclear disaster and details of gross mismanagement of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant by the Japanese government and TEPCO came to light. Rally organizers in Tokyo say about 20,000 people participated in the demonstration. Continue reading
It’s always nice to see YA lit in the news (not counting casting news for Hunger Games because oh my God, hasn’t this movie been finished yet?), but its latest appearance, in Meghan Cox Gurdon’s Wall Street Journal piece entitled “Darkness Too Visible,” might just be its most contentious yet. (You can read Publishers Weekly‘s rebuttal here, Salon‘s here, and you can find links to about a zillion others by going to the fascinating Twitter topic that emerged as a result of the WSJ piece, #YAsaves.) Continue reading
Those of us living in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 dealt with a number of challenges in the aftermath: where to live, how to rebuild, and how to cope with the changes in the city. In the midst of rebuilding their lives, New Orleanians were stunned by the suicide of Zack Bowen in October of 2006 and even more shocked by the event preceding it: the horrific murder of his girlfriend, Addie Hall.
The city, once again, was under a microscope after the crime. Nearly every news organization focused on the grisly details of the crime; some poked fun, some tried to extrapolate meaning, but few dug deep into the background of the two people involved and tried to find a real answer for how their lives ended in the ways they did. Ethan Brown, after writing an article about the murder for Penthouse, packed up and moved to the French Quarter to try to answer the questions so many had. Continue reading
Yes, disposal. Are you shrieking NO! NEVER!? Bursting into tears? Wondering where I live so you can bomb my house?
Let me explain, using trees as an example. Trees have life-spans. Certain types of maple live for about 75 years, then they die and must be cut down. Sometimes it’s wise to cut it down when it’s just very sick.
For books it’s not an exact comparison, but it does happen that eventually a can book get very worn, very dirty, very mildewed. At that time, you should put it in the paper recycle (read details for your local garbage collection, some places want you to remove the hard board covers of a hardback book). Continue reading