Tag: reading

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Print Design: Three Book Formatting Flaws and How Indie Authors Can Avoid Them

July 7, 2019

My Sunday long runs often take me past the local Little Free Library (LFL), and I can never resist a peek inside the charming hutch. Two new additions the other weekend immediately caught my eye. Once was a phased-out library hardcover of Douglas Adams’ sci-fi classic The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I immediately snatched … More The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Print Design: Three Book Formatting Flaws and How Indie Authors Can Avoid Them

In-Flight Entertainment: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Stories

December 9, 2018

Epiphany struck me 35,000 over Chicago. Dimmed lights in the plane cabin made my laptop screen glow conspicuously on the tiny tray table, an invitation to judge over my shoulder, but I didn’t have time for self-consciousness. I had revisions to finish. Faced with a cross-country business trip, I’d assigned myself a travel project of … More In-Flight Entertainment: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Stories

Review: “American Gods”, by Neil Gaiman

April 30, 2017

Did the three norns, spinning our fates at the foot of Yggdrasil, ordain that I finally got around to reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods mere weeks before the television adaptation premiered? It had languished on my to-read list for years, but an unusual confluence of events–remembering the title after spotting another Gaiman novel on sale, … More Review: “American Gods”, by Neil Gaiman

Review: “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin

January 10, 2017

From my earliest memory of stories, I’ve loved science fiction; however, I admit I’ve had only a small exposure to non-Western examples of the genre. Liu Cixin’s 2015 Hugo winner The Three-Body Problem offered an imagined future with different cultural roots. The result is an intriguing (if imperfectly executed) novel with exquisite historical resonance. The Three-Body Problem weaves … More Review: “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin

Review: “Ancillary Sword” by Ann Leckie

November 25, 2016

Ancillary Sword lacks some sharpness, but still holds an edge as unique science fiction literature. The story resumes where its predecessor Ancillary Justice left off. Breq, now captain of an imperial ship, embarks on an errand to a neighboring star system where social conflicts simmer. Leckie seems determined to include the panoply of trending laments: colonialism, the plight … More Review: “Ancillary Sword” by Ann Leckie