A Tale of Three Maxims

Ever fallen so in love with a book that you could literally see every moment? You smell the smell of each location, feel the temperature of the air, hear the specific pitch of every voice saying every line? People like us should not watch book-to-movies. I recently finished reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier to my husband J. I’d read it three times already. I love the story and have vivid...

9 Shocking Moments of 2009

As 2009 draws to a close, most of us look back on the year's events with fondness. Or grimaces, depending on which event you're thinking of. This was a year of "shocker" moments--every couple of months, it seemed, we were blindsided by some unexpected news story. Some made us sniffle, some made us angry. Some were so strange that we simply blinked at our televisions for a few seconds, then turned...

Sci Fi, Fantasy Lovers Unite!

Most Sci Fi/Fantasy lovers agree; our beloved genres take a lot of abuse from the general public. Whether it's outright disdain for the genre, or a passive disregard for it, we've all felt the sting of having our great worlds, stories and concepts dismissed as fringe hobbies for "losers." But what if Sci Fi and Fantasy are already an integral part of our culture--so integral that people would be...

The "Best Of" Book to Movie List

A recent flurry of blogging on the subject  "Books vs. movies: which is better?" got me thinking about the whole book-t0-movie phenomenon. I even got in on the debate in a guest-blog over at Cinema Three (movie connaisseur Silver Autumn's witty blog about films and pop-culture). My thoughts on this subject are many. On the one hand, books and movies are such different media that I feel odd...

Dark Conflict in YA Books

I've noticed a trend in young adult literature that I don't remember being the case when I was a teen. While browsing popular YA fiction web sites, I keep running across books about the darker "hot topics" of today's culture--teen molestation by older men, self-mutilation, suicide, etc. Is it just me, or were YA books a bit less grim ten years ago? (And yes, it has been ten years since I was in...