You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye
Any time someone tries to keep someone else from reading a book, the intent is to ban … even if the ban applies only to one sixth-grade classroom in some rural town.
Paul’s Book Reviews: Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Memoir, Young Adult
“Nothing is more important mostly than a funeral,” Violet said as they ate a noon lunch of soup and sandwiches. “The whole point of a person’s life—or the lack of a point if it’s more or less rounded—can’t help popping out at a funeral.” She wedged the last triangular bite of wheat bread, cucumber, mayonnaise, […]
Thursday Bag o’ Geekery
Donna’s old Dell died this week, and last night we ordered a new MacBook Pro to replace it. Slowly but surely, Macs are edging out PCs around these parts. Four or even three years ago, if someone had told me we’d ever drink Steve Jobs’ Koolaid, I’d have scoffed. But then I got an iPad, […]
Paul’s Movie Reviews
“I’m a psychiatrist, Miss Taylor. Normally, when people hit things with their car, there are skidmarks on the pavement. A brick wall is a pretty good reason to use the brakes, turn the wheel. You didn’t do that.” — Jude Law as Dr. Jonathan Banks in Side Effects Side Effects (2013, USA) A subtle mystery […]
Paul’s Book Reviews: Fiction, Nonfiction, Fantasy, SF
I went outside and smoked a cigarette, looking this way and that, the very picture of an American idler in Mexico, right down to the grass-green golfing trousers. They had looked all right on the old man from Dallas but they made me feel like a clown. They were hot and sticky, too, made of […]
Paul’s Book Reviews: Fiction & Fantasy
“Friends on the outside were always asking why he stayed in […] he had tried to find an answer sitting alone at dinner in the club filled with administrative majors and mothers talking about their children, but he never could. In his mind he carried Saturdays of flying, with the autumnal roar of crowds on […]
You Know Nothing, Jon Snow
Shit happens. Life happens. You know nothing, Jon Snow.
You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review Lookback: Four for the Kids
Far from being isolated incidents of parents being shocked at something a child brought home from school, I believe these reports indicate an organized movement to force a specific Christian religious message on children.