“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” ― Toni Morrison
I can say with unshakeable certainty that Rebecca is one of the best horror novels I've ever read. It wasn't an action-packed gore-fest like many books of the same genre, but in my mind that's what makes it one of the greats. It's a British novel positively dripping with atmosphere and dramatic tension with an excellent… Continue reading My Emotionally Abusive Relationship with Daphne Du Maurier
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK OUTLANDER AHEAD. Strap in, folks, this is gonna be a long review. Then again this was a long book, so what do you expect? What I liked: The great characters. I didn't always like Claire, but she always felt like a person and not just a vassal through which the author… Continue reading Thoughts on “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon
When I was a child I daydreamed all the time about talking to my favorite writers. While I was toiling for hours over my own horrible manuscripts, I would wonder to myself what wisdom they would impart onto me if I ever mustered up the courage to write to them. Writers back then were these… Continue reading Social Media Killed My Curiosity About Authors
WARNING: CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR THE AFOREMENTIONED MEMOIR. A synopsis taken from the writer's website: At 23, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent of J. D. Salinger. She spends her days… Continue reading Book Review: “My Salinger Year” by Joanna Rakoff
Growing up, it was difficult to find people who loved to read as much as I did. Or people who read at all, really. I've always baffled by people who claim reading is boring, and yet spend hours and hours in front of the TV watching reality television. "How can you read so much?" they… Continue reading Being a Reader in an Unliterary World
Is anyone else getting tired of one-word book titles? They've exploded in popularity in recent years and seem especially prevalent in YA lit. Particularly with covers that feature attractive female teens wearing extravagant ballgowns and holding their hair up promiscuously. I realize there are many good book titles with a single word or name, but… Continue reading Enough With The One-Word Book Titles!
WARNING: THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL "UPROOTED." IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK AND WISH TO DO SO, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST. So after finally finishing Naomi Novik's excellent fantasy novel, Uprooted, I decided to do more research on her via her website. I was thrilled to discover… Continue reading My Thoughts On “Uprooted”By Naomi Novik Becoming a Movie
I remember in high school being forced to take poems apart line by line. We'd do a few together as a class, which took a better part of the hour, and then we would write one long essay over a more complicated poem on Fridays. To me, there was something weirdly clinical about the whole procedure. It… Continue reading How I Understand Poetry
The Crooked Pen 