February 23, 2004

Stranger in a Strange Land

Finally reading this! I've owned it for ages.

Wow, what a neat book! I can really see why people were so affected by this. It's a little dated in spots (it doesn't deal with homosexuality much at all, really) but I enjoyed it. Bits of it are kind of cheesy but I loved the way Heinlein created such a radically different culture for the martians and looked at how it might interact with the culture of humans. Wonderful!

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February 18, 2004

M

by Anton Kaes

This is part of the BFI Film Classics series, and it covers the brilliant Fritz Lang movie "M," which starred Peter Lorre. This was Lang's first sound film, and it ROCKS.

Anyway.

The book is cool, if slim, and it talks about all kinds of things, including Lang's use of parallel visuals and sound to build tension and make a point. This is a great movie, and it's out on DVD. It's worth seeing, and then this book is worth reading to get more out of the film.

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Steel Magic

by Andre Norton, Illustrated by Robin Jaques

What a charming little fantasy! Three kids go exploring in the garden and find a portal to another world... where they have to find three magical items needed in the war against evil before they can go home. It's pretty simplistic, and definitely a young adult book, but I liked it.

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Witchcraft Today

by Martin Ebon

Wow, this is an old collection of essays about the occult, and it varies from mildly amusing to really annoying. The folks who wrote most of it don't differentiate between different branches of the occult (witchcraft = Satanism = new-Paganism). Still, it's an interesting look at what people thought about the occult back when it was written (in 1963).

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February 04, 2004

Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life


Got this as a Christmas gift and so far am really enjoying it! Lots of Peanuts cartoons, with little essays by established authors mixed in.

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February 02, 2004

Mythology Abroad

by Jody Lynn Nye

What a charming little book! Nothing groundbreaking or anything, but rather fun and I'm curious to read the other books in the series.

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They Found Him Dead

by Georgette Heyer

I've only ever read Heyer's romances before, not her mysteries. Should be interesting.

What a great book! Charmingly constructed characters, a ripping yarn of a mystery, and a little romance thrown in for good measure. Good stuff.

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