I can't decide whether I should just call it as a blogger or attempt to make some kind of go of it.

So far, I have made very little progress in making such a decision. 

Then again, this year I've made very little progress at anything but raising my blood… Read full post »

Shawna has a Tiger's eyes and an infatuation of anything Hello!Kitty.

She is capricious. Canny. Ever-changing.

This child has one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen.

One moment she will happily tell you about how she beat down another girl at school because she was "disrespectin… Read full post »

(Coughing to cue my fellow readers to stopping yapping over coffee . . .)

Hello. My name is Amelia.

And I'm a romance novel addict.

(Response, "Hi, Amelia.)

That wasn't so hard.

This next part is going to be more difficult.

As that celebration of coupled love - Valentine's Day - approaches,… Read full post »

The Semi-Writerly resolutions have gotten off well.

Well, excepting the relearning basic Danish.

Rosetta Stone's customer service folks and I need to have a word about why the thing won't fully install and now won't come off my computer.

But I digress . . .

So far had kept to semi-diet,… Read full post »

The New York Times Review of Books must have read my mind.

Or, at least one of the writers featured in the  Review's online features and I think alike. That would be Emma Donoghue, the author of  Room.

We both have resolved in the coming year to complete the same… Read full post »

As the New Year draws near, I fear I will be visited by spirits.

Not the three spirits of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. 

For me there will be no ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future to bring me to some greater truth.

No, as the New Year approaches I find… Read full post »

Moog Moog the Space Barber and The Weaving of a Dream are both nestled on my book shelf today along with The Divine Comedy and The Widow Killer.

I am just under 26 years old.

I graduated cum laude from one of those venerable liberal arts schools that pride… Read full post »

Robert Burns had it right.

The best laid plans after all . . .

But, rather than bore anyone reading with why it’s taken me months to update the “Year of Reading Dangerously,” I will just scurry on through.

After all, nobody needs a meditation on how our best intended plans… Read full post »

(Cue lazy plucking of the banjo in the humid air while bullfrogs croak and a distant steamboat's bell clangs.)We could be lazin' along, you and me, with Jim and Huck and reckonin' and spittin' and chewin' and wavin' to them there riverboats as we read ourselves a book of Huck's adventures by… Read full post »

So, a question was born in my mind today. I have to thank the thoughtful posters at Salon's Broadsheet, for playing stork. My question-baby is related to the great post, "The Dictionary: Too hot for fourth grade?"

Posted earlier today (and by that I mean several hours earlier from where I… Read full post »

Good idea: Try to complete National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO) in November. And get holiday things done.

Bad idea: Try to complete NANOWRIMO in November when involved in an intensive Year of Reading Dangerously.

I apologize for my long absence. Trying to read a serious book after banging out thr… Read full post »

So, "A Year of Reading Dangerously," comes to what I consider the first weighty tome. (Had realized over the weekend I forgot a lede ... bad newspaper reporter, bad!)

This is a chunky thick book. It took me so long to read because I suffer from Good-writing-overloadis. You laugh.… Read full post »

At long last, I'm back!

I know, I know. I'm slacking. To keep the explanation of my lack of posts short, here's what's been happening in my life to date: busy work days, helping my father with set construction for a high school play, cleaning my apartment, packing for a trip… Read full post »

I had planned to start this review off in a completely different manner. But, like the Tom Bombadil character in the Lord of the Rings, I decided not to pursue that tangent.

Add to that I feel incredibly guilty for not blogging (blame it on a pinched neck nerve, dog-sitting… Read full post »

It was a dark and stormy night ... okay, so it's only a dark and kind of windy night in St. Louis as I, rather than pondering weak and weary, write and muse powered by caffeine.

Welcome to the first review of A Year of Reading Dangerously!

The first book… Read full post »

It has finally arrived!

Welcome to 'A Year of Reading Dangerously!'

With the arrival of Banned Books Week 2009 on Sept. 26, my year of reading as many or all of the most banned and challenged books of 1990 to 1999 plus those most challenged in this current decade has begun.… Read full post »

My excitement grows. "A Year of Reading Dangerously," draws ever nearer. I'm taking notes and getting my thoughts in a row for what I hope will be a year of broadening my mind. Who knows what the future will hold?

With that in mind, I want to take you all on… Read full post »

As Banned Books Week draws ever nigh, I wanted to take time out from getting ready for the launch of "A Year of Reading Dangerously," to take a look at Karla Kuskin's The Philharmonic Gets Dressed.

As anyone (I hope there is an "anyone") who has been following the prelude to… Read full post »

While not as noted as the passing of actor Patrick Swayze (yes, I was a teenage girl and therefore felt a little heart string pull on hearing the news that the Dirty Dancing heartthrob died today), I saw this morning that Jim Carroll, author of The Basketball Diaries, and several collections… Read full post »

I would hazard to say that censorship and challenging books likely dates back to the first scratchings we consider writing.

Books have been challenged, burned, locked away, taken off shelves ande placed under librarian's chairs since libraries came into being.

Books have a curious power to divide,… Read full post »

This post would have taken place much sooner but for technical issues I was having with my accounts both at OpenSalon and at Amazon.com. Add to that the other banned book stories that popped up and you have this belated discussion of Herge's Tintin in the Congo, or Tintin au Congo.… Read full post »

This is a little late but, regrettably real life intervened for me a bit.

Mulling my way through the New York Time's "Obituaries" section, I ran across this the other day: Children's author Karla Kuskin had passed away.

To read her complete obituary, click here.

My thoughts are with Ms. Kuskin's… Read full post »

So, I did take the weekend off. Kind of.

Some of the logistical things for "A Year of Reading Dangerously" had to be dealt with.

For starters, I had to determine how much money I owe the St. Louis Public Library.

Eek! Yes, I know. I'm one of those terrible… Read full post »

A later post today may actually revisit the "Tintin" discussion started by the New York Times yesterday but this caught my eye in my morning news round-up. So, my hat's off to the BBC, no writer given.

It appears a biography on the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, has been… Read full post »

(I have to give a nod to the Dixie Chicks for the title of this post)

So, I return. There is no drum roll. I can't say I come in glory or even have a little entourage to applaud my decision to return to the blogosphere.

After my last post, I… Read full post »