Today I received a book that I ordered from Amazon that will no doubt feed my love of words. It’s called Dictionary of Word Origins, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. It doesn’t give definitions of words, but instead traces how they came to be in the form that they’re in today, and how…
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Authors Behaving badly: Baycon edition
For those of you who don’t know what BayCon is, it’s a sci-fi fantasy convention held in the San Francisco Bay Area that is mainly focused on writing and writers. There’s also gaming and other fun things, but the panels tend to center on more literary topics. Every year, they have a writer Guest of…
Just for fun: A Girl Who Reads
Literary Lines–October 18
“We are awfully lucky to be here–and by ‘we’ I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of our appears to be quite an achievement. As human we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it…
Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield
“Awakening in a bleak landscape as scarred as her body, Cass Dollar vaguely recalls surviving something terrible. Having no idea how many weeks have passed, she slowly realizes the horrifying truth: Ruthie has vanished. And with her, nearly all of civilization. Where once-lush hills carried cars and commerce, the roads today see only cannibalistic Beaters…
Monkey Mind by Daniel B. Smith
“Daniel Smith’s Monkey Mind is the stunning articulation of what it is like to live with anxiety. As he travels through anxiety’s demonic layers, Smith defangs the disorder with great humor and evocatively expresses its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. Aaron Beck, the most influential doctor in modern psychotherapy, says that “Monkey Mind does…
VIII by H. M. Castor
“VIII is the story of Hal: a young, handsome, gifted warrior, who believes he has been chosen to lead his people. But he is plagued by the ghosts of his family’s violent past and once he rises to power, he turns to murder and rapacious cruelty. He is Henry VIII.” I have an odd fascination…
Literary Lines–July 9
“Suspicion, like bread, rises rapidly in a warm environment.” –from Legacy by Susan Kay
The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
“It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in. And then you’re dead. When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend…
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
“You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart—no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon’s presence, even for the briefest of moments—even at the risk of one’s life—is a delight that, once experienced, can…