New responsibilities at work mean that I am once again feeling out of my comfort zone, so once again I have turned to books for assistance and comfort. These three books have been my constant companions these last few weeks. The Subversive Copy Editor Author Carol Fisher Saller is a senior manuscript editor at the…
Tag: non-fiction
Revisiting a Childhood Favorite
I grew up reading Prudence Mackintosh’s Thundering Sneakers, a chronicle of a young mother raising three sons in the 1970s and 1980s. The stories are laugh-out-loud funny, and they merit re-reading (even if some of the references have become dated). Recently I received copies of Sneaking Out and Just As We Were: A Narrow Slice…
Review: Jar-Jar Binks Must Die
It’s ever been the assumption that those who write, direct, and act in Science Fiction films are slumming it — that Serious People don’t do SF, and SF is not for Serious People. Daniel Kimmel’s Jar Jar Binks Must Die is a collection of his film reviews that show the reader what happens when you…
Review: Heads in Beds
Fresh out of college with a degree in Philosophy, Jacob Tomsky wasn’t exactly what you’d call hireable. After a few stumbles he ended up at the bottom of the food chain as a valet parker for a luxury hotel in New Orleans. Some would call his rise through the hospitality industry meteoric; Tomsky is more…
Review: Jane Austen’s England
Author Jane Austen lived at a crossroads of time. The French Revolution tumbled a monarchy, the Industrial Revolution altered everything from transportation to manufacturing, Methodism and other “nonconformist” religions gained ground, and the treatment of illness and disease took large steps forward. Jane Austen’s England takes several themes present in Austen’s novels — birth, marriage,…