Okay, okay, I know I’m on my hibiscus right now, but I have these links and I’ve been rounding them up all fortnight. I don’t want to deprive you. Just enjoy these links, and then be off with you, for my hibiscus continues. This is a fabulous slide show, compiled by the incomparable Linda Holmes of NPR, of the costumes in the Miss Universe costume show. I like the yellow one that is yellow because I love yellow. The Daily Dot wants us to figure out how to write about transgender people, already. Trevor Noah! More Trevor Noah, right? He starts off…
13 CommentsCategory: Misc.
Hi everyone! This is a quick notification that I’ll be doing adventures in the month of February, which will keep me away(ish) from blogging this month. The podcast should still be coming out on schedule, and I’ll still be visiting your blogs as often as I can, but generally it’ll be quiet around here. Get at me on Twitter or by email (readingtheend AT gmail DOT com) if something particularly amazing happens that requires my attention. Like if the fourth Raven Cycle book gets a title other than Raven Cycle IV: Children with Large Bank Accounts Finally Get What’s Coming to Them. FAQS: Q: What kind…
25 CommentsOkay, these are a bit old by now. Too bad for you! I haven’t done a links round-up in a while and that is why. Kate Elliott discusses female friendships on television at The Book Smugglers, and recommends some forthcoming fantasy books, thus lengthening my TBR list for 2015 even further. Seriously, my 2015 list is out of control. I need help. An article on Pamela Colman Smith, the wonderful artist of the classic Tarot deck. Hers is the only Tarot deck I will condescend to use. Others are beautiful, but Pamela Colman Smith’s has all the symbolism. Rembert Browne…
10 CommentsFor 2014, I set myself a goal of reading one book by a person of color out of every five books I read altogether. That number was on the low side because I’d never done this sort of experiment before, and I didn’t want to set myself up for failure. As many people (Amanda of Book Riot, recently) have noted, the book world is remarkably white, and it’s a cycle that reinforces itself. If — like many bloggers these days! — you embark on a project that necessitates your seeking out books by nonwhite authors, it can be tricky to…
45 CommentsHello my scrumptious delights! Did you miss my links round-up last time, when I did not do one? I did! But here I am again with a new one. Edan Lepucki thinks about whether character likeability is beside the point, at The Millions. And I kept thinking about how nobody liked Harriet Vane when Strong Poison came out. I know about this from Dorothy Sayers’s letters. Readers wrote to her in droves begging her not to marry Peter to that dreadful woman. BACK OFF, people of the 1930s. Harriet Vane is one of my favorite characters in all of literature.…
12 CommentsI love publisher catalogs, y’all. I can’t describe how much I love them. It’s because I judge books by their covers, and publishers’ catalogs offer me the opportunity to do that on a grand scale. So here are a few of the books from 2015 for which I am excited, in no particular order. Flood of Fire, the last in Amitav Ghosh’s wonderful Ibis trilogy, appears in August, and then I can at last set about getting matching copies of all three. Sea of Poppies was one of my favorite books of its year, and while River of Smoke was…
31 CommentsWhat time is it? It’s time for the Literary Review’s annual Bad Sex Awards! Huzzah! The only sad thing is that apparently Patrick Ness (in an uncharacteristically curmudgeonly turn) opposes the Bad Sex Awards. He thinks they’ll have a chilling effect on people writing sex scenes. Maybe they will have a chilling effect on people writing bad sex scenes. If you enjoyed the Sims Friends from my last links round-up, you’ll love this article about a woman determined to seduce the Sims Grim Reaper, a goal she pursued by repeatedly murdering her Sims in order to get the Grim Reaper…
25 CommentsConfession: Apart from the RIP Challenge, there’s nothing about Halloween that I enjoy. I don’t eat candy anymore, and having to put together a costume stresses me out horribly. So none of these links have anything to do with Halloween! Down with Halloween! Oh, except for this one: Lory of Emerald City Book Review is kicking off an awesome new blogging event, Witch Week! This year, we’re celebrating the inventor of Witch Week (the week between Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day) with a week-long appreciation of Diana Wynne Jones. Lory will be hosting guest posts from me and a number…
22 Comments