I'm obsessed with Nancy Drew right now. I never read her mystery books when I was a kid, but of course knew of her. Who doesn't? She's the grandmother of everything from Sweet Valley High to Scooby Doo, and as indelibly part of our society as Mickey Mouse and O.J. Simpson.

But I recently stumbled across the fabulous biography Girl Sleuth: Nancy ( Read more... )

Things I Wish to Marry
(an abbreviated list):

• My new generation 5.5 iPod. When I put this particular item on my Christmas list, I felt a little icky: I already had an iPod that was trucking bravely along, even after four years of use and abuse. So its battery life was essentially nil. So I couldn't play the new-fangled iPod games on it (or watch ( Read more... )

( And part deux starts off on a frivolous foot! (Surprise, surprise.) )

A short Hansony aside

Although spelling was obviously not part of the Hansons' homeschooling curriculum, Making Poor Use of A Gospel Choir 101 was apparently something attention was lavished upon. The Great Divide is okay, I guess, all funky and foot-tapping, but it sounds uncoordinated and choppy to this spectacularly untrained ear. Also, and go ( Read more... )

One of the biggest perils of working in book publishing is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the books. They're everywhere, all the time: books you're working on; books you wish you were working on; books you're not working on, but are trying to make the books you're working on be like ( Read more... )

If I were to collect the feathers that never seem to stop floating around my apartment, I could build myself a life-sized set of angel wings in plenty of time for Halloween. This, it seems, is TJ Maxx's revenge--I pay $20 for what should have been an expensive throw pillow, and they rig it for feathery self-destruction that kicks in the second it ( Read more... )

ProfitWhen I was at my last job, I felt ever-so-slightly guilty for calling myself an editor. I wasn't one, not really--I was a manager, an overseer, a busy little bee who moved books from one person to another, making sure things got done. I had some degree of say in how the book looked and just how finely tuned its text would be, but manuscripts ( Read more... )

I couldn't help myself--a list of books loaded down with Terry Pratchett and Bill Bryson. What, have I died and gone to heaven or something?

( The Longest List of Books This Side of the Library of Congress )

In my life, I've loved a countless number of authors: There were casual flings (Diane Duane, J.R.R. Tolkien), long, torrid affairs (Terry Pratchett, Elizabeth Peters), and a few, precious soul mates. Like most people, I can safely say that the first to fall into this last category for me was Laura Ingalls Wilder. She taught me how to read, Laura ( Read more... )

A trio of recs dealing with Artemisia Gentileschi, a 17th-century painter: Artemisia, The Passion of Artemisia, and The Life and Art of Atemisia Gentileschi.Although I'm no great lover of biography or historical fiction, I occasionally hunger for a good story about someone who actually lived, and then spiral off into obsession with that person for ( Read more... )