In the country of network television
… the one-eyed man is “Kings.” In other words, the show’s not perfect, but it’s a remarkable effort for network TV. Let’s talk about what works and doesn’t work in “Kings.” What works, surprisingly...
View ArticleReadercon: Because it’s not enough that I look like Spock
Guess where I’ll be this weekend? Readercon! You either know what that is and are thinking that I am even cooler than you had suspected, or you don’t know what it is and that vague feeling of pity...
View ArticleWhy “Children of the Soy” is just wrong
Here’s a Halloween-themed post for you all. I’d gotten into a horror-fiction kick a while back, and noticed that every New England gothic that deals with the human or supernatural evil of some little...
View ArticleBest books of 2009, part I
Every year, I keep a running list of the books I’ve read, with an asterisk beside the ones I particularly like. In 2009, I had a pleasingly rounded list of 10 asterisked books, with an even more...
View ArticleYour reading recommendations
…. and what were some of the best books you read in 2009 — fiction or non-?
View ArticleBest books of 2009, part II
… and my further top five from 2009 (I’m enjoying your recommendations too, folks!) 6. The American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. I reviewed this here. 7. Rebuilt by Michael Chorost. See, here we go with...
View ArticleMystery blog
It’s quite clear what the blog is, I mean; it’s a blog about mystery fiction. I know some of my readers are fans — or even if not, many of you are all-around book people who enjoy a good review on its...
View ArticleThe psychology of stories
On the Emily Rooney show today, I talked about stories: the story of “Mad Men,” the storytelling initiative at Central Square Theater, the stories drunken garden club ladies told a research...
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Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Good luck with that. The ConductMom is in town for Thanksgiving, so posting may be light over the holiday weekend. But I’m always eager to hear from you. On the other...
View ArticleAre werewolves the next anything?
In case you haven’t noticed, vampires and zombies are big these days. Really big. AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is the latest manifestation, and a fairly good one it is, too. (Although, as with “True...
View ArticleMore thoughts on werewolves …
Part of the reason werewolves don’t get a lot of love, I suspect, is that they’re harder to work with in film or television. It’s hard to go full lupine. As this rather interesting article from the...
View ArticleOf apes and Alzheimer’s
Mr. Improbable and I saw “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” last night, and enjoyed it greatly. For one thing, it does a marvelous job of allowing viewers to fulfill their fantasies of what they would do...
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“Her Aching Heart” and the science of romance (novels)
Last night I dreamed I went to Central Square Theater again … … because “Her Aching Heart” was so darn funny the first time (Globe review here). Aimee Rose Ranger and Lynn Guerra play modern-day...
View ArticleThe etiquette of talking about geeky things
I love this article from io9 on the seven deadly sins of talking about pop culture, from “non-consensual spoilers” to “letting random controversies get in the way of judging the work on its own...
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Stephen King is making Ebola worse
Salon addresses Ebola panic: Ebola, at least from the American perspective, is something like the great white shark. It’s dangerous, all right, but the odds that it’s going to get you are vanishingly...
View Article“All About Emily” and acting natural
This weekend I read Connie Willis’s novella “All About Emily,” a slight comedy of backstage intrigue, ambition, and … robots: “Oh, dear.” Emily looked over at Dr. Oakes. “I knew I should have said I...
View ArticleA Halloween story from Miss Conduct
I talk a lot about how art and pop culture give us narratives to shape our experience. A fair amount of recent research suggests that fiction can help empathy develop. But there are limits to how much...
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“Game of Thrones” and looks-ism
I did take the “Game of Thrones” books on my vacation, and enjoyed them greatly. Our vacation was a peripatetic one–Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott,...
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And especially, Tyrion
Do you have a Kindle? What do you think of it? (We’re getting to Tyrion, really.) I only use mine for travel, because I tend to forget, instantly, anything I read on it. Straight into the memory hole...
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