reading

  • “Not one, she realized with a chill, was staring at her as though she had gone mad. They were all staring at her as though she was going to tell them what to do next.” “Paladin of Souls” by Lois McMaster Bujold God-tainted, mad-touched, recently isolated, the main character of Lois McMaster Bujold’s fantasy yarn…

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  • “‘After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.’” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J. K. Rowling It’s always great to revisit the classics, and I don’t think anyone can (effectively) deny that the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is a modern classic. Not only that, but…

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  • “It wasn’t the best story in the world, but, as the mouse had told him on more than one occasion, it wasn’t the worst, either.” “Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest/Wicked Bestiary” by David Sedaris. I am unique. I am an individual. I want to be known for my own voice and my own creative abilities.…

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  • “Oh, and Brad Pitt would not play me in the movie adaptation. Sandra Bernhard will.” “Tune In Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries” by Tim Anderson The ghost of David Sedaris haunts the pages of Tim Anderson’s Tune In Tokyo. Okay, no, David Sedaris is (thankfully) not dead, but his own memoirs and experience in culture shock,…

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  • Oh, Here It Goes Again.

    So, I’ve taken a little bit of a break from writing and from the blog to have some well-spent time with a friend, which I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of on the weekends if this new schedule that gives me Sundays off stays consistent. From what I hear, this is typical…

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  • “I would hope, however, that we might think of these things as what they are: arbitrary fashions of formal language that we must attend to just as we dress according to the random dictates of the fashions of our moment. Remember that what is considered ‘proper’ English varies with the times just as fashion does.”…

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  • “Better dead than undead.” “Alice in Deadland” by Mainak Dhar Anyone who knows me well will know that, among my extensive list of Loves, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and zombies are pretty high on the list. I’m sure this is true for a pretty healthy amount of people, too, so I’m sure they’d be just…

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  • “From huge, publicly owned firms to small independent companies, the corporate world has learned that war is indeed good business, and business is good and getting better.” “Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today’s Private Military Companies” by Michael Lee Lanning Mercenaries is a very straight-forward book, of the non-fiction variety, going through…

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  • ”     ‘We’re paying you to care about rescuing the girl,’ Estialog stated simply. ‘What happens afterwards is categorically none of your business.’      ‘And if we have a moral concern?’      Tayahyla snorted again, but held back comment. ‘An odd bunch of brigands,’ Estialog murmured, ‘to be concerned with morality.’      ‘We never claimed to…

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  • “Locke grunted, trying to hold down his irritation. ‘Men lie, Majani,’ he said, ‘and quite often, and that’s why I ask. You didn’t honestly believe us to just blindly follow anyone with enough gold into caves and secret dungeons, do you?’” I wasn’t sure if I was going to pull off a check-in post today,…

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