I missed last week because I went to see the recent West End production of Merrily We Roll Along in the movie theatre which was amazing. Yesss, Merrily come to me.  Here's hoping they release that filmed version on DVD because I would totally watch it over and over.  Even if I spent most of the movie crying because it's ridiculously sad at heart.  ( Read more... )

So let's see if doing a weekly book post can get my brain into blogging in a slightly longer form than Twitter & Tumblr...

What I'm Reading Now

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith - I'm only about 100 pages into this, but I'm kind of loving it.  JKR has such a gift for describing people in unflattering terms but making them incredibly ( Read more... )

Sooooo anyone have any great ideas about what I should make for our work potluck on Thursday?  I was going to do a "Chinese" cabbage salad that my mom makes at Christmas a lot, but now four other people are bringing salads so...no ( Read more... )

I have officially moved!  As of this past Saturday, I am completely moved into my apartment.  I still have boxes & boxes - the second bedroom is almost full of book boxes - to unpack, but at least everything is here. Chavez seems to be adapting well.  She's suddenly way less needy without two other cats and a dog to freak her out.

The best part ( Read more... )

The first day of 2012 has brought me a real live winter storm complete with a winter storm warning!    Theoretically we're going to get 8-10 inches over the next 24 hours so I'm spending today kind of hoping that tomorrow the library closes due to weather so I can stay home and watch the Winter Classic.  (I'm still annoyed it's in the freaking ( Read more... )

Most of this year has felt like an eternal slog through the Slough of Despond with neither the Celestial City nor yet the Wicket Gate in sight.  It's a Lost Year in some ways, but if it's Lost then that implies it's possible to be Found which, one can only hope, is a good thing.

Some of the best things of 2011 (in no particular order):

Seeing my ( Read more... )

I hope everyone who's traveling tonight (or tomorrow) has safe going and timely arrivals.  I decided to bow out of driving the six hours out to my aunt's house for our family Thanksgiving because a) I've already been traveling this week and b) I have to work Friday afternoon and driving at 6am sounds awful.

So I'm at home enjoying the Red Wings game ( Read more... )

This is the best definition of middle grade (and to some extent YA) lit that I've seen since Diana Wynne Jones'.

But most kids are are at least as comfortable with complex characters and ethical problems as grownups are. And on the up side, kids are much more willing to grapple with big ethical or moral questions in their fiction. In fact, the best ( Read more... )

The blogosphere has been rightfully up in arms this past week about the Missouri school board that voted to ban both Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Sarah Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer from their schools’ curriculum and libraries.  Given some school board members’ admission that they hadn’t even bothered to read the books and the quality of ( Read more... )