Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Ruth Arnell

Thoughtful Thursday: In Memoriam

I’m teaching a class this semester on political rhetoric and communication. As of Saturday afternoon, my syllabus was shattered into pieces as I sat watching the news headlines update on my laptop. Numbers and names of dead and wounded slowly were updated as reporters scrambled to discover some sort of truth in the murky swamp of insanity and hate.

As I listened to President Obama attempt to comfort a confused and grieving nation, I was touched by his plea to live up to the vision of America that was possessed by a young child.

Imagine, imagine here for a moment,

January 13th, 2011. Ruth Arnell | Thoughtful Thursday | 3 comments |

Thoughtful Thursday: Ennui

Yes, dear readers, I feel a sense of ennui. I don’t know if it is post-holiday depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, or the unrelenting snow covering my yard, or what, but I feel a delicate tinge of lavender shaded ennui around the borders of my soul. The primary symptom of this is that I don’t feel like reading anything. Nothing looks good. I’m tired. I’m cranky. The Harry Potter movie was depressing. There is nothing new or original out there in the literary world.

Do you ever get into one of these funks? If so, how do you make it go away?

January 6th, 2011. Ruth Arnell | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 18 comments |

Thoughtful Thursday: Best of 2010

Yesterday we released our Best of 2010 list. It’s always an interesting process generating a list like this with a dozen people or so. We read broadly and there’s not a lot of overlap, so what I’m going to do today is just quote some of our reviewers on why they chose the books for the list that they did. I’m including links to the author pages so you can see the reviews in full, and I’ll include some of the better cover art to help break up the wall o’ text.

Kelly said:

One of my favorite books this year was In Dreams Begin by Skyler White.

December 30th, 2010. Ruth Arnell | Thoughtful Thursday | 4 comments |

Thoughtful Thursday: Happy Holidays

I’m hip deep in Christmas cheer over here. The cookies are baked, I’m waiting on one more present to arrive, the dead bulb on the strand of lights has been replaced. I need to find the baby Jesus for the nativity scene (it’s got to be around here somewhere) and family are gathering from near and far.

We’ve gone through Hanukkah, Solstice, Kwanzaa, and today is Festivus – hint, if you ever need to wrestle Kat to the floor, just knock her TBR pile over on her. It makes the job much easier – and Christmas is just around the corner.

December 23rd, 2010. Ruth Arnell | Thoughtful Thursday | 1 comment |

Blue and Gold: Fast, intense, and dramatic

Update: We now know that K.J. Parker is a pseudonym of Tom Holt.

Blue and Gold by K.J. Parker

Talk about unreliable narrators! If you like that technique, you’re sure to enjoy K.J. Parker’s Blue and Gold. It’s a fast, intense, and dramatic little book that will entertain you for an afternoon.

Saloninus is probably the cleverest alchemist who ever lived (or is he?). After publishing several important (?) papers and losing his tuition money, he drops out of the university and begins a life of crime,

Thoughtful Thursday: Ho Ho Humbug

A few things here before we get going.

Don’t forget to enter our “Anticipate the Best of 2010″ contest from two weeks ago. The winner will be announced next week.

Congratulations to Karen Wester Newton for winning the book of her choice from our stacks on last week’s Thoughtful Thursday. I’m considering asking for an iPad for a birthday present next year. We’ll see how well e-books and tree books get along. Karen, contact us to let us know what book you want.

Now, I’m a professor, and this is finals week.

December 16th, 2010. Ruth Arnell | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 7 comments |

Pegasus: Pages and pages of nothingness

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Humans came to this land generations ago. There they formed an alliance with the pegasi, defending them from evil creatures in exchange for shelter in Pegasus lands. As a sign of the alliance, members of the royal families of both races are magically bound together when the human comes of age. These ceremonies are performed by the Speakers, the only humans who can understand Pegasus speech, until at the binding of Princess Sylvi and Ebon, when they discover they can understand each other perfectly. This threatens to upset the balance of power between the two kingdoms and break the Speakers’ hold on power,

Thoughtful Thursday: E-books, v6832567298459

Seriously, it seems that all the media does anymore is talk about the decline of the print book. And with Google announcing it’s e-book service this week, the demise of the paper book has again been prophesied. But, in the spirit of Monty Python, I would like to proclaim, on behalf of books, “I’m not dead yet!”

Reasons why books will always be a part of my life.

1. I’m an academic. I teach political theory. That means I teach texts that are thousands of years old. So not only do I have my own notes in the margins,

December 9th, 2010. Ruth Arnell | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 57 comments |

Tam Lin: One of my favorite books

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

Tam Lin is Pamela Dean’s retelling of the classic folk tale, done as part of The Fairy Tale series created by Terri Windling. The folk tale is about a battle between the Faery Queen and a mortal girl for the heart and soul of Tam Lin, a young man enthralled by the Faery Queen. Pamela Dean has taken the innovative step of setting the story at a university in the Midwest during the seventies, which is pretty smart,

Thoughtful Thursday: Life’s Too Short to Read Bad Books

This has left me speechless.

I knew it was bad. I just didn’t know it was that bad.

Our list of FanLit Faves of 2010 comes out later this month. We’ll send a book to the reader who correctly anticipates the greatest number of books that we put on our list. Rule: You can only guess 5 books (SFF books published in 2010). The reader who has the greatest number of their guesses on our list wins their choice of books from our stacks.

December 2nd, 2010. Ruth Arnell | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 21 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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