This month I read The Sisters Brothers and Room. They were both good, but I think only Sisters Brothers is a reread. Room is the sort of book that’s built around reveals and tension, and I’m not sure that there’s much there once that’s gone. Certainly it’s a clever book, and the child-voice is wonderfully…
Life Geek: 09/26/14 – 10/09/14
We’ve moved Life Geek! to a bi-weekly lifestyle feature to make way for some other lifestyle features. Enjoy a brief look into our geeky and not-so geeky lives. Ginnis Tonik, Lifestyle Editor My bestie and I took our pups to the annual Denton Dog Days. Besides a copious amount of free treats and an additional…
A Trip Down Fear Street: The New Girl, Fear Street #1
Welcome to the first review in the Fear Street reread project in celebration of R.L. Stine rebooting the series! You can read the introduction to the series here. Tagline He had to learn her secret or – die trying. Synopsis Originally published in 1989 then re-released in 1991, The New Girl is the first in…
A Trip Down Fear Street: It All Began at the Book Fair
I was in the fourth grade; it was the most magical time of the school year — The Book Fair. My mom had given me some cash, and I squirmed all morning with anticipation until my home-room’s turn to head to the cafeteria/auditorium where the stage housed the movable bookshelves just brimming with entries into…
Creating the Halloween Spirit: 20 Albums
I doubt it will surprise any of our readers that we really, really, really like Halloween around here. We’ve been talking about it and planning and generally getting very excited since the end of August.
October Staff Picks: Comics!
MAGNETO #11 Cullen Bunn (W) Gabriel Hernandez Walta (A) Cover by David Yardin Marvel Comics It’s almost not even an effort to say that Cullen Bunn’s Magneto is going to be hot for October. This series has been a solid punch in the gut and a kick in the teeth since issue one. Magneto’s powers…
Dogears: Short Book Reviews
Changeless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel Gail Carriger Orbit Changeless is the second book in the Parasol Protectorate series. A five-book series set in Victorian England, but with an alternative history where supernaturals (werewolves and vampires) are accepted as members of society. Alexia Tarabotti, the heroine, is soulless which means she is unaffected by the powers…
Life Geek: 9/18 thru 9/24
Life Geek! is our weekly lifestyle feature where we offer readers a glimpse into our geeky lives. Chelsea Ann, Staff Writer This last weekend was Rose City Comic Con in this fine city of Portland, Oregon. My crew decided to go and represent the Oregon Geekness happening on the Disney Channel right now: Gravity Falls….
Roundtable: Growing Up Pop Culture
Recently, Janet Mock, a writer, cultural commentator, and transwoman, opened up on her blog about claiming a feminist identity. What sparked Mock’s recent claim to and stake in feminism was Beyonce’s 16-minute performance at the 2014 MTV VMAs where Beyonce boldly proclaimed herself a feminist in giant, lit-up letters while she stood in the foreground. Prior…
Staff Picks: 10 Most Important Books
On the heels of the Facebook trend “10 books that have stayed with you in some way,” we decided to generate our own top 10 list because unsurprisingly we are all pretty geeky about books. While the Facebook trend veers between most beloved and those that have stayed with you (overlapping, but not necessarily the same),…
R/W: The Original Problem Millennial–Y2K
Word Nerdery This subject was suggested to me by Gibson Twist of Pictures of You. Every century and millennial end comes loaded with hefty dose of end-times paranoia, bacchanalia, and scoffing. Lately there was the fake Mayan doomsday prophecy and only a scant twelve years before that, our first millennial problem child, Y2K itself.
Life Geek! – 09/12-18/14
Life Geek! is our weekly lifestyle feature where we offer readers a glimpse into our geeky lives. Ginnis Tonik, Lifestyle Editor I made a peach paprika pie – sounds a little different, huh? On first bite, it tastes like a pretty typical fruit pie, but then it has these slightly spicy back-notes from the paprika…