My favorite bookish links from the week of September 26 – 30:
Tana French’s Intimate Crime Fiction
“In her Dublin Murder Squad series, the search for the killer becomes entangled in a search for self…All crime novels are social novels. They can’t help it; without a society to define, condemn, and punish it, crime itself wouldn’t exist.”
Seven Wonderfully Weird Harry Potter Quizzes To Take
“We’ve been sorted, and re-sorted, into our Hogwarts houses with J.K. Rowling’s blessings…and last week, we received the gift of the patronuses … [but] now we can’t retake it, here are 7 other wonderfully weird Harry Potter quizzes to take instead.”
Can You Read a Book the Wrong Way?
“Any published writer will have the experience of thinking you were saying one thing — one very clear and seemingly unmistakable thing — and then encountering a reader who thought you were saying something totally different. In this situation, the writer might seem to have the last word; who would know better what the text means than its creator?”
150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words, Explained
“Aegis, bouillon, chiton. Flautist, gyro, haute couture. Lackadaisical, mascarpone, peremptory. The English language is filled with words that stump the tongue with their tricky vowel pairings, consonants that seem neither hard nor soft, and rogue e’s that end up being anything but silent. Let’s face it, proper pronunciation is a trip.”
A Fourth Time, I Ask: Are Picture Books Leading Our Children Astray?
“On three previous occasions, I have confronted the thorny — yet seemingly obvious — question of whether or not picture books are leading our precious, innocent, impressionable, doe-eyed youth down a skull-strewn path to ruin. I had (naively) thought that three installments would be enough to successfully confront the problem — yet, alas, there are simply too many books on our children’s shelves that, through deceptively cheery artwork and sly subversion, are destroying our tots from within. Here are four of the worst offenders I’ve recently had the displeasure of reading.”
Best Uniforms in Books
“School has just started again, and everyone has survived the stress of picking out an outfit for the first day of school. But here’s the kicker: that stress repeats itself every day, especially if you find that your closet is lacking. School uniforms solve that issue, although some are better than others. We’ve compiled a list of our favorite uniforms in books. Don that plaid skirt and tie—we’re headed for a roundup.”
Leave a Reply