Romance is the Shizz, Y’all

Posted by on Dec 29, 2009 in dish | 0 comments Check out this terrific blog about romances posted to DailyKos by Laura Clawson, a self-proclaimed romance lover who also happens to be an Ivy-League Ph.D. with, as she says, “nary a pink sweatsuit in sight.” She does a great job deconstructing many myths about romance novels and their readers. You know, the “porn for housewives” and “rape fantasy” memes that...
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Newbery Update: 1950s

Posted by on Dec 6, 2009 in dish | 1 comment I’m at the halfway mark now, much later in the year than I’d planned. I need to get crackin’ if I’m going to meet an end-of-the year deadline. Then again, this is the decade where things start to sound a bit more familiar. :The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli – Another de Angeli work of historical fiction, Thee, Hannah! was a childhood favorite, so I was...
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R.I.P. Reading Rainbow

Posted by on Aug 28, 2009 in dish | 0 comments Book lovers, get out your black armbands. Today was the last broadcast of PBS’s wonderful children’s series Reading Rainbow.For those of us weaned on The Electric Company and Sesame Street, the advent of Reading Rainbow occurred after we’d progressed from picture books to chapters. Even so, it was easy to get sucked in when a younger sibling or eventually a child of our own...
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Newbery Update: 1940s

Posted by on Aug 10, 2009 in dish | 0 comments I’m noticing a shift in the kinds of books being selected for the Newbery Medal. Perhaps because WWII dominated the early forties, the books are much shorter than some of the ones I’ve already read. Also, there seems to have been a nudge (deliberate or not) to balance the list toward more “boy” books than the slew of girl-focused titles chosen in the 1930s, like Hitty,...
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Best Seller ≠ Best Writer

Posted by on Aug 8, 2009 in dish | 0 comments mimi is obsessive when it comes to her reading. If I pick up a book, I generally finish it. Of course, that takes some vetting. I’ll browse an opening chapter or back cover copy before I commit (mimi is not a reading ho). Once I commit, though, I’m in ’til the end. Normally, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, not so much with the book I finished last night.The book in...
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