Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.10, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.

# The Black Letters

a literary blog

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://theblackletters.net/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [The Kellerby Code, by Jonny Sweet (2024) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-kellerby-code-by-jonny-sweet-2024-e/) - Reviewer: EmeraDate read: 8.23.2025Book from: Personal collection Edward is living in a world he can't afford and to which he doesn't belong. To camouflage himself, he has catered to his friends: fetching drycleaning, sorting flowers for premieres. It's a noble effort, really - anything to keep his best pals Robert and Stanza happy. In return,
- [Creation Lake, by Rachel Kushner (2024) E](https://theblackletters.net/creation-lake-by-rachel-kushner-2024-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 6.1.2025 Book from: Library Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics, bold opinions, and clean beauty, who is sent to do dirty work in France. “Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom
- [The Route of Ice and Salt, by José Luis Zaraté, transl. David Bowles (1998)](https://theblackletters.net/the-route-of-ice-and-salt-by-jose-luis-zarate-transl-david-bowles-1998/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.1.2023 Book from: Library The Route of Ice and Salt is a dark reverie written from the perspective of the captain of the Demeter, the doomed schooner that transports Dracula and his crates of Transylvanian earth to the English coast. José Luis Zaraté, a prominent Mexican writer of the fantastic, imagines the captain as
- [Those Who Hunt the Night, by Barbara Hambly (1988) E](https://theblackletters.net/those-who-hunt-the-night-by-barbara-hambly-1988-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.21.2021 Book from: Library James Asher, a retired member of the Queen’s secret service in Edwardian England, has settled into quietude as an Oxford professor of philology with his physician wife, Lydia. But his peace is shattered when he’s confronted by a pale aristocratic Spaniard named Don Simon Ysidro, who makes an
- [The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty (1971) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-exorcist-by-william-peter-blatty-1971-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.27.2021 Book from: Library Well, this was disappointing! I maintain that The Exorcist has one of the most compelling moral/existential conflicts of any work of media: a priest of failing faith is called in to deal with a horrifying case of putative possession, which may therefore prove the existence of the Devil… and of
- [Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay (1967) E](https://theblackletters.net/picnic-at-hanging-rock-by-joan-lindsay-2020-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.17.2020 Book from: Library It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub
- [The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-virgin-suicides-by-jeffrey-eugenides-1993-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.19.2021 Book from: Library Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides is one of the most ecstatically beautiful, dream-like, and mournful books I’ve ever read, up next to Lolita. The two work together well in so many ways: the cuttingly yet not wholly satirical paean to the promise of America; the drenching languor and lust; the
- [Desultory Annotations for Gerald Durrell's "The Entrance" (1980)](https://theblackletters.net/desultory-annotations-for-gerald-durrells-the-entrance-1980/) - Gerald Durrell’s infamous Gothic horror story “The Entrance” is the final story in his collection The Picnic and Other Inimitable Stories (1980), which otherwise comprises a series of arch, Wodehousian, semi-autobiographical comedies, centering on absurd mishaps that beset Durrell’s family outings and European travels. (“The Havoc of Havelock” is one of the funniest things I’ve
- [Mongrels, by Stephen Graham Jones (2016) E](https://theblackletters.net/mongrels-by-stephen-graham-jones-2016-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 9.11.2021 Book from: Library Bloody, meaty, funny, sly, dreamy, sad, longing, gonzo, dirtbaggy. What Kathryn Bigelow's Western horror movie Near Dark did for vampires, Stephen Graham Jones' novel Mongrels does for werewolves. (I was delighted and unsurprised to see Jones citing Near Dark as a foundational influence in the afterword.) I treasured reencountering that
- [The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro (2015) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-buried-giant-by-kazuo-ishiguro-2015-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 9.28.2020 Book from: Personal collection In post-Arthurian Britain, the wars that once raged between the Saxons and the Britons have finally ceased. Axl and Beatrice, an elderly British couple, set off to visit their son, whom they haven't seen in years. And, because a strange mist has caused mass amnesia throughout the land,
- [Mortar and air](https://theblackletters.net/mortar-and-air/) - I have a new poem about early spring in a city (among other things) out in Boulevard's spring issue, which also contains an interview with Téa Obreht, first-hand accounts from the Wuhan lockdown, and much wonderful fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You can order a copy here. (An ebook version will be available later, too.) -
- ["The Regimental History," by Andrea Barrett (2019) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-regimental-history-by-andrea-barrett-2019-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.15.2020 Read from: Personal collection This story appears in the 2019 fall edition of Ploughshares. Dear Maurice, this morning it is raining very hard and the wind is rattling our tent, so we can hardly hear each other. Thanks for the news about Albert's sister, which cheered him. I'm glad the girl helping Aurie
- ["The Bear," by Beulah Amsterdam (2019) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-bear-by-beulah-amsterdam-2019-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.20.2020 Book from: Personal collection This story appears in the winter 2019 issue of Ploughshares. In the dim forest cabin, a brown bear stared at me. He sniffed my suitcase. I froze. The bear looked at me with his deep black eyes. We gazed at each other. No longer afraid of him, I
- [Flesh and Bone, by Julia Gfrörer (2013) E](https://theblackletters.net/flesh-and-bone-by-julia-gfrorer-2013-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 6.16.2017 Book from: Gift from K. (<3) Flesh and Blood is Julia Gfrörer’s first published comic, and my second-favorite of the three I've read, after Black is the Color. Grim, wry, blood-and-hemlock-flavored, this is highly recommended for lovers of Robert Eggers' film The Witch. This is so narratively satisfying, all the symmetry and the sinewy Machiavellian
- ['Salem's Lot, by Stephen King (1975) E](https://theblackletters.net/salems-lot-by-stephen-king-1975-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 12.7.2019 Book from: Library 'Salem's Lot was originally published in 1975. I read the 2005 special edition, which includes the prequel story “Jerusalem’s Lot,” the sequel story “One for the Road,” and deleted scenes. Jerusalem’s Lot is a small, blue-collar town in Maine, rife with gossip and the petty drama of adultery,
- [Seven Gothic Tales, by Isak Dinesen (1935) E](https://theblackletters.net/seven-gothic-tales-by-isak-dinesen-1935-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.25.2018 Book from: Personal collection On a rainy night in the winter of 1874, on an avenue in Paris, a drunken young girl came up and spoke to me. I was then, as you will understand, quite a young man. I was very upset and unhappy, and was sitting bareheaded in
- [Author Event: André Aciman discusses Find Me](https://theblackletters.net/author-event-andre-aciman-discusses-find-me/) - Excerpts from André Aciman discussing Find Me, the sequel to Call Me By Your Name. The event was on November 11, 2019, hosted by the Harvard Book Store at the Brattle Theater. Aciman is very fluent, charming, and sort of artfully self-deprecating. On being back in Harvard Square, where he was previously a Ph.D. student in
- [The Bridal Wreath & The Wife, by Sigrid Undset (1920, 1921) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-bridal-wreath-the-wife-by-sigrid-undset-1920-1921-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 9.22.2019, 11.21.2019 Book from: Library This is a review of the first two books in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy: The Bridal Wreath and The Wife. I read the recent translations from the Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally, after giving up on the original translations by Charles Archer and J. S. Scott, which
- [Tempests & Slaughter, by Tamora Pierce (2018) E](https://theblackletters.net/tempests-slaughter-by-tamora-pierce-2018-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 12.24.2018 Book from: Personal collection Kakaner & I still make the occasional foray back into YA fantasy; last year we achieved the particular landmark of her first introduction to the worlds of Tamora Pierce, author of much-beloved if not critically acclaimed YA fantasy. Pierce's numerous four-book series, populated with tough heroines
- ["The Man in the Woods," by Shirley Jackson (2014) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-man-in-the-woods-by-shirley-jackson-2014-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.18.2019 Read from: The New Yorker I didn't realize that Shirley Jackson's children were still discovering unpublished stories of hers; the New Yorker has published two in recent years, "The Man in the Woods" and "Paranoia." "The Man in the Woods" is a delightful choice for a stand-alone publication. Tense, elegant, and cryptic, its
- [The Moonlit Road & others by Ambrose Bierce (1909-12) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-moonlit-road-others-by-ambrose-bierce-1909-12-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 3.27.2019 Book from: Personal collection, but Bierce's work is in the public domain & can be found online for free; see ambrosebierce.org, for example. The Moonlit Road and Other Ghost & Horror Stories is a collection of twelve of Ambrose Bierce's stories (selected from 1909 and 1912 collections of his work),
- [Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight & Nightmares, by Jon J. Muth (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/dracula-a-symphony-in-moonlight-nightmares-by-jon-j-muth-1993-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.5.2019 Book from: Personal collection Jon J. Muth's graphic-novel retelling of Dracula is delicate, foreboding, and ravishingly lovely - if slightly unconvincing from a narrative perspective; luckily the written narrative is almost beside the point when the art is this lovely. I ride or die for watercolors, and had to locate a copy
- [Selected poems, by C. P. Cavafy, trans. Edward Keeley & Philip Sherrard [E]](https://theblackletters.net/selected-poems-by-c-p-cavafy-trans-edward-keeley-e/) - Reviewer: EmeraDate read: 7.1.2018Book from: Personal collection All links below go to reproductions of Keeley’s translations by the official Cavafy Archive. Cavafy is considered the greatest modern Greek poet. Gay, eccentric, private (though not reclusive), and obscure as a poet during his lifetime, he wrote poems during the late 19th and early 20th century, both about his sensual
- [The Grotesque, by Patrick McGrath (1989) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-grotesque-by-patrick-mcgrath-1989-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 5.10.2017 Book from: Personal collection - grateful thanks to C. for this gift! Something is rotten at Crook, the decaying English manor house that is the setting for McGrath's exuberantly spooky novel. Fledge, the butler, is getting intimate with the mistress. Fledge's wife is getting intimate with the claret. Sidney Giblet, the
- [His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/his-majestys-dragon-by-naomi-novik-2006-e/) - Reviewer: EmeraDate read: May 27, 2018Book from: Personal collection Capt. Will Laurence is serving with honor in the British Navy when his ship captures a French frigate harboring most a unusual cargo–an incalculably valuable dragon egg. When the egg hatches, Laurence unexpectedly becomes the master of the young dragon Temeraire and finds himself on an extraordinary journey that
- [The Lodgers (2017)](https://theblackletters.net/the-lodgers-2017/) - INCEST, the answer is incest. If you're marketing anything in the line of gothic horror, it takes a minimum of three words to establish that the big reveal is incest: "twins" and "no outsiders." 2017 Irish horror film The Lodgers is lusciously beautiful, slightly underbaked, and very much undercut in the suspense department if you happen to
- [Swing Time, by Zadie Smith (2016) E](https://theblackletters.net/swing-time-by-zadie-smith-2016-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 6.16.2017 Book from: Personal collection Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in
- [LeFanu II: Haunted houses, gouty judges, over-familiars](https://theblackletters.net/lefanu-ii-haunted-houses-gouty-judges-over-familiars/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: December 2017 Book from: Personal collection Reviews of Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu, pt. I: Green Tea, Squire Toby's Will, The White Cat of Drumgunniol Many of J. S. LeFanu's human ghosts share a moral type - grasping, corrupt old men of power - and a countenance: "sensual, malignant, and unwholesome"
- [Agents of Dreamland, by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2017) E](https://theblackletters.net/agents-of-dreamland-by-caitlin-r-kiernan-2017-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.21.2018 (reread) Book from: Personal collection (you can read an excerpt online at Tor.com) The word for this Lovecraftian novella is not exactly luscious, but somehow that's always what comes to mind when I think about it. Kiernan just does something exceptional with style and tone here: the prose is implacably menacing, cuttingly
- [The Midnight Swim (2015, dir. by Sarah Adina Smith)](https://theblackletters.net/the-midnight-swim-2015-dir-by-sarah-adina-smith/) - I watched Sarah Adina Smith's The Midnight Swim (2015) late last fall. It's a strange, quiet psychological horror movie, with the soft-yet-tense quality that I love about a lot of domestic thrillers that focus on female experience. (The Virgin Suicides, for example, or the first act of mother!.) The film focuses on three half-sisters who reunite at
- ["The Hill and the Hole," by Fritz Leiber (1942) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-hill-and-the-hole-by-fritz-leiber-1942-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 3.13.2018 Read from: Reproduction posted by The Sanguine Wood; also available here on unz.org Tom Digby swabbed his face against the rolled-up sleeve of his drill shirt, and good-naturedly damned the whole practice of measuring altitudes by barometric instruments... This Leiber tale has a rock-solid Weird premise: a geological surveyor's instruments tell
- [Booklish #7: Through the Woods Tart](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-7-through-the-woods-tart/) - View Recipe: Through the Woods Tart Emera first shared Emily Carroll’s horror webcomic “His Face All Red” with me several years ago. It’s an unsettling, inconclusive tale of two brothers who set out to kill a wolf that has been terrorizing their village, but nothing is what it seems. The story is a swirl of
- [An Obedient Father, by Akhil Sharma (2017) K](https://theblackletters.net/an-obedient-father-by-akhil-sharma-2017-k/) - Reviewer: Kakaner Date read: 12.31.2017 Book from: Bookstore browse session An Obedient Father is a harrowing story of a rather run-of-the-mill moneyman Ram, a middle rung manager within a governmental structure, corrupt and unambitious, who repeatedly molested and raped his daughter when she was pre-pubescent, and now finds circumstances forcing her and his granddaughter to live with him
- [The Young Bride, by Alessandro Baricco (2016) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-young-bride-by-alessandro-baricco-2016-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.23.2017 Book from: Personal collection A scintillating and sensual novel about a young woman’s ingress into a fantastically strange family. The hand of the young woman in question has been promised to the scion of a noble family. She is to make her preparations for marriage at the family’s villa, whose inhabitants
- [Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu (1861-1923) E](https://theblackletters.net/best-ghost-stories-of-j-s-lefanu-1861-1923-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: Vars. in November and December 2017 Book from: Personal collection The Dover collection of Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu (originally issued in 1964, with a rapturous introduction by an E. F. Bleiler, "an editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature" according to Wiki) contains the following
- [Beauty is a Wound, by Eka Kurniawan (2017) K](https://theblackletters.net/beauty-is-a-wound-by-eka-kurniawan-2017-k/) - Reviewer: Kakaner Date read: 1.26.2017 Book from: Personal collection, recommended by Marbiru (thanks!) Weaving back in forth in time, moving from character to character, the author tells the story of Indonesia from its Dutch colonial days, through the Japanese occupation during World War II, and into independence as a modern state. Kurniawan’s characters are broadly
- [Laid Waste, by Julia Gfrörer (2016) E](https://theblackletters.net/laid-waste-by-julia-gfrorer-2016-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 6.14.2017 Book from: Gift from K. - THANK YOU! So fucking dark and anguished. Julia Gfrörer's Laid Waste is a desperate song about human love amid plague-stricken Europe - like a graphic novel cousin of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Grasping, bony fingers and limp corpses. Gfrörer intercuts long passages of the deepest existential despair with
- [Revisiting the Old Kingdom](https://theblackletters.net/revisiting-the-old-kingdom/) - Reviewer: Emera As might have been suggested over the past couple months, I (and Kakaner too) was engaged in a full reread of Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series in order to prepare for the arrival of Goldenhand, the latest book. Some thoughts , mostly high-level, somewhat scattered - I. Of the Old Kingdom series, I think Sabriel is the
- ["The Love of Beauty," by K. J. Bishop (1999/2012) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-love-of-beauty-by-k-j-bishop-2012-e/) - "The Love of Beauty" is collected in Bishop's That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote, and you can read the story free online at the Weird Fiction Review. Near the middle of the night, Seaming dithered in front of the brick arch – formerly a minor gate in the old city wall and now a decoration in a lane. If there existed
- [Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, by Arthur Machen (1948) E](https://theblackletters.net/tales-of-horror-and-the-supernatural-by-arthur-machen-1948-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.2.2016 Book from: Personal collection Thanks to Kakaner for reminding me that I had a serviceable, if brief, draft of a Machen review lying around - (I find this cover so upsetting) Collection contents, with favorites in bold: The Great God Pan, The White People, The Inmost Light, The Shining Pyramid, The Great
- [I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House (2016)](https://theblackletters.net/i-am-the-pretty-thing-that-lives-in-the-house-2016/) - Director Osgood Perkins' The Blackcoat's Daughter was one of my favorite horror movies of the past couple years: an extremely quiet, extremely tense little maybe-supernatural horror movie with an almost all-female cast. Thematically and artistically it seemed to end up standing in the shadow of The Witch (far and away the horror movie of the last, oh, five
- [The Pearl, by John Steinbeck (1947) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-pearl-by-john-steinbeck-1947-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.1.2017 Book from: Borrowed from J. For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife cannot temper his obsession or
- [Saga, vol. 1, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (2012) E](https://theblackletters.net/saga-vol-1-by-brian-k-vaughan-and-fiona-staples-2012-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.14.2013 Book from: Personal collection I've been doing some thinking this spring about figuring out reviewing practices, or a mindset, that don't have me regularly consuming 3+ hours for writing and headscratching that I meant to have done in one, doesn't give me hives, and generally achieves a higher fun/stress ratio.
- [Booklish #6: Cimorene's Enchanted Earth Shortbread Cookies](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-6-cimorenes-enchanted-earth-shortbread-cookies/) - View Recipe: Cimorene's Enchanted Earth Shortbread Cookies I've been mulling the flavor profile of one of my most beloved fantasy heroines-- Cimorene, the princess from Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles-- for quite some time. I wanted to capture the essence of Cimorene traipsing through forests, starting and stumbling upon gritty and fantastical adventures, and all with
- [We steel our fluffy hearts...](https://theblackletters.net/we-steel-our-fluffy-hearts/) - ...and sail in hunt of Moby Peep. Get your Deckard on: Youtube user Crysknife007 (of course) provides days’ worth of ambient loops from the Blade Runner soundtrack. Consider recommendations for New York Times Okay-Sellers and others from the Book List of Book Lists. “Inside the New York Public Library is a little red train that delivers books.”
- [Hiatus](https://theblackletters.net/hiatus/) - Life intervenes. Sorry! Regular Wednesday posts had a good run while they lasted, I'm actually reading significantly more than I was last year, and ideas for posts are accordingly a frequent and wistful mental distraction for me, but we're going to have to drop back down to Sometime Posting. Thank you to those who have
- [The Pastel City, by M. John Harrison (1971) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-pastel-city-by-m-john-harrison-1971-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.23.2017 Book from: Personal collection Cover art by the wonderfully named Gray Morrow "Some seventeen notable empires rose in the Middle Period of Earth. These were the Afternoon Cultures. All but one are unimportant to this narrative, and there is little need to speak of them save to say that none of
- [Haunted Legends, ed. by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/haunted-legends-ed-by-ellen-datlow-and-nick-mamatas-2010-e/) - Haunted Legends is a 2010 anthology of supernatural horror stories/weird tales/whatever, edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas. I picked it up when Kakaner and I went to Readercon in 2010, and have read it 2+ times since. The table of contents is stacked with major names: Catherynne Valente, Caitlin Kiernan, Laird Barron, Ramsey Campbell, et
- [Frazetter](https://theblackletters.net/frazetter/) - Two posts on book covers I've enjoyed recently over at sff art blog Muddy Colors: This affectionate post by Arnie Fenner on some of the quirks of sff illustration giant Frank Frazetta's work - in particular his difficulties with scale, which I've always found pleasantly headscratch-inducing. Call it incidental Wonderlandian surrealism. Lauren Panepinto's post on book covers
- [Wet Moon vols. 1 and 2, by Sophie Campbell (2004) E](https://theblackletters.net/wet-moon-vols-1-and-2-by-sophie-campbell-2004-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: Nov. 2016 I've enjoyed the work of Sophie Campbell (formerly Ross Campbell) for 12, 13 years maybe. In high school I spent hours poring over the endless portraits (almost exclusively Wet Moon characters, at the time) in her deviantART account - humid, sexy, angsty, a little uncomfortable, very Goth, all executed in her trademark
- [BBCF: The Diabols](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-diabols/) - Cover art is whatever (actually I quite like the front cover, so perfectly of its era as it is); this BBCF is all about the copy-writing. Thanks to Pandemonium Books' sale on used books for R. W. Mackelworth's The Diabols (1969), and for one-sentence paragraphs: Their bodies were colored lights; their voices were music. But whatever they touched
- [The Sherwood Ring, by Elizabeth Marie Pope (1958) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-sherwood-ring-by-elizabeth-marie-pope-1958-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 8.11.2016 Book from: Personal collection Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family’s ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full
- [Two novellas of the Old Kingdom](https://theblackletters.net/two-novellas-of-the-old-kingdom/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: Jan. 2017 "Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case" appears in Garth Nix's 2005 collection Across the Wall, and "To Hold the Bridge" appears in his 2010 collection of the same name; both novellas flirt with the notion of everyday life in Ancelstierre (1920's England/Australia parallel) and the Old Kingdom (magical) respectively, but of
- [Some little dry bodies](https://theblackletters.net/some-little-dry-bodies/) - Another brief interruption for self-promotion: I have two poems in the fall issue of the literary journal Boulevard. Again predictably, one is about ghosts, and the other is about rats, or a dream of rats. preview the table of contents | buy digital | buy print And my first short story, a fairy tale set in
- [Tip-tap](https://theblackletters.net/tip-tap/) - We are alive! Just busy, no surprise. I've finished my degree; Kakaner is crushing her 3,906th career change and constructing a new library. (We're talking custom-sized shelving for different book formats, guys.) I have piles of fragmentary reviews, and once every few months we exchange a volley of emails brainstorming a new Booklish, which eventually subsides
- [Rat Queens, vols. 1-2, by Kurtis Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Sejic (2014-5) E](https://theblackletters.net/rat-queens-vols-1-2-by-kurtis-wiebe-roc-upchurch-stjepan-sejic-2014-5-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.2016 Book from: Library Rat Queens is a rambunctious Dungeons ‘n’ Dragons parody featuring a gang of ultraviolent, foul-mouthed lady adventurers: Hannah the moody, uptight elven mage, dwarven warrior Violet (pictured above with her orc boyfriend Dave), escaped-from-a-Lovecraftian-cult cleric Dee, and candy/hallucinogen-obsessed smidgen (i.e., halfling) Betty. In Volume 1, the Queens deal with the
- [Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle (2014) E](https://theblackletters.net/wolf-in-white-van-by-john-darnielle-2014-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.28.2016 Book from: Personal collection John Darnielle is the Mountain Goats, one of my very most favorite bands, a band-of-my-heart. Wolf in White Van was his first full-length novel, and was nominated for the National Book Award when it came out. (And, great recent news: his next novel is slated for release early next
- [Big Five; Carter and Katsavos](https://theblackletters.net/big-five/) - Ali Almossawi, an engineer/designer, elegantly illustrates every subsidiary of the Big Five American publishing houses (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette). Fascinating and pretty to look at (and playing "spot the sff imprint" is fun), but, as always, it's slightly unnerving to be reminded how conglomerated just about everything we buy nowadays is. ----- Angela Carter
- [Clariel, by Garth Nix (2014) E](https://theblackletters.net/clariel-by-garth-nix-2014-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.13.2016 Book from: Personal collection (Sorry for the disordered posting schedule lately; I lost my posting buffer, and only just got the time to make it back up again. Wednesday posts will resume next week.) Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with
- [Beka Cooper: Terrier, by Tamora Pierce (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/beka-cooper-terrier-by-tamora-pierce-2006-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.17.2016 Book from: Lent by E. Much goodness. The Legend of Beka Cooper trilogy is a Tortall prequel (set 200 years before the main Tortall books) that combines rookie cop procedural, gritty medieval slums, subtle magic, and a dual murder/kidnapping mystery, all written in a journal format using wonderfully earthy, pungent Old English slang.* (Women and men are "mots"
- [Undercover: Clariel](https://theblackletters.net/undercover-clariel/) - The long-dormant Undercover series features the design quirks hidden under hardcover books' dust jackets. Kakaner and I have both been binge-re-reading Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, building up to an attack on the two latest: the extra-dark prequel Clariel (which neither of us had just read), and the just-released sequel Goldenhand. While I really, really do not like the over-the-top, video-gamey new
- [Tamsin, by Peter S. Beagle (1999) E](https://theblackletters.net/tamsin-by-peter-s-beagle-1999-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 6.20.2013 Book from: Personal collection Arriving in the English countryside to live with her mother and new stepfather, Jenny has no interest in her surroundings, until she meets Tamsin. Since her death over 300 years ago, Tamsin has haunted the lonely estate without rest, trapped by a hidden trauma she can't remember,
- [Spruced-up covers for Dahl and more](https://theblackletters.net/spruced-up-covers-for-dahl-and-more/) - Charming Baker's new covers for Roald Dahl's short fiction First of all, why is my name not Charming Baker? Secondly, these are really elegant and disturbing. (The Cruelty cover makes me wonderfully uncomfortable.) I do feel that Dahl's adult fiction still has a decided cartoon or slapstick element that is not so elegant as these, but of course the
- [Wizard of the Grove, by Tanya Huff (1988/9) E](https://theblackletters.net/wizard-of-the-grove-by-tanya-huff-19889-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 9.3.2016; 9.17.2016 Book from: Personal collection Wizard of the Grove is an omnibus reedition of Tanya Huff's 1988/1989 romantic high fantasy duology, Child of the Grove and The Last Wizard. I picked this up back in high school based on the lovely cover art (which I note has been redone recently to be trendily dark, teal, and high-contrast),
- [The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-lies-of-locke-lamora-by-scott-lynch-2006-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.14.2016 Book from: Personal collection The Lies of Locke Lamora features long cons, crime-boss uprisings, and bloody revenge plots amid the cluttered criminal underworld of a bustling, sweltering, alchemy-infused alternative medieval Venice. Our heroes: the Gentleman Bastards, a tiny brotherhood of con artists, led by the unparalleled liar Locke Lamora. One of my good
- [The House with a Clock in its Walls, by John Bellairs (1973) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-house-with-a-clock-in-its-walls-by-john-bellairs-1973-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.30.2016 Book from: Personal collection Orphaned Lewis Barnavelt comes to live with his Uncle Jonathan and quickly learns that both his uncle and his next-door neighbor are witches on a quest to discover the terrifying clock ticking within the walls of Jonathan's house. Can the three of them save the world from certain
- [The King of Elfland’s Daughter, by Lord Dunsany (1924) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-king-of-elflands-daughter-by-lord-dunsany-1924-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.18.2016 Book from: Personal collection In their ruddy jackets of leather that reached to their knees the men of Erl appeared before their lord, the stately white-haired man in his long red room. He leaned in his carven chair and heard their spokesman. And thus their spokesman said. 'For seven hundred
- [Peer into the authorly den...](https://theblackletters.net/peer-into-the-authorly-den/) - ...with a charming illustrated overview of classic and contemporary authors' favorite edibles (and drinkables) while writing. (Whitman: "Oysters + meat. For breakfast!") ---- ...and with an amusingly obsessive infographic comparing authors' wake-up times to their literary output and awardedness. I have quibbles with the visualization (these colors are noooot self-explanatory, or easily distinguishable), but the wake-up times alone
- [Mieville & Grossman, glossed; The Making of a Cover](https://theblackletters.net/mieville-making-of-a-cover/) - Annotations are fun. Here are some handy collections thereof, featuring... yummy obscure vocabulary in China Miéville's The Scar (via a fan): gutta-percha, spillikins, oh my! and allusions in Lev Grossman's The Magicians (via the author): lots of D&D and '70-80's cinema, not surprisingly, but also webcomics and crime fiction... ----- If you love behind-the-scenes stuff, are weirdly interested in
- [Comics, summer 2016: Korgi, ApocalyptiGirl](https://theblackletters.net/comics-summer-2016-korgi-apocalyptigirl/) - Korgi, by Christian Slade (2007): The woodland escapades and scrapes of a fairy-like young girl and her magical corgi companion - corgis were traditionally said to be fairy steeds. There are three volumes so far; I've read the first two. This would be a great gift for folks, children or otherwise, who are keen on fairies and/or dogs.
- [Administrivia: new posts every Wednesday, hopefully](https://theblackletters.net/administrivia-new-posts-every-wednesday-hopefully/) - As I continue to convert my enormous backlog of drafts into actual posts, I'm going to try sticking to a schedule of one post every Wednesday - so consider checking in then, if you are a manual checker-of-blogs. Wish me luck keeping the queue filled (especially as the school year arrives again - I'm teaching
- [“There Are Two Pools You May Drink From,” by Kerry-Lee Powell (2013) E](https://theblackletters.net/there-are-two-pools-you-may-drink-from-by-kerry-lee-powell-2013-e/) - "One by one I’ve started hunting down those hazy figures of my past, the children hiding in the bodies of adults, tucked away in pockets of the countryside like witnesses in a protection program." Kerry-Lee Powell's "There Are Two Pools You May Drink From" (Boston Review) is an excellent read for an evening when you're feeling quiet and
- [Winter into spring, some short fiction reads](https://theblackletters.net/winter-into-spring-some-short-fiction-reads/) - Rikki Ducornet, "Wormwood" (1997) Available in the Iowa Review and in Ducornet's collection The Word 'Desire' Strange, jagged, haunted, heated - like an animal taking little bites out of a freshly killed rabbit. Two children whisper dark stories and dirty, childish love-words to each other as a grandfather lies dying and a terrifying sculpture presides. The last batch of short
- [K.M. & R.P. & MCMLXXL, by M. Dean](https://theblackletters.net/k-m-r-p-mcmlxxl-by-m-dean/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.27.2016 Read online for free. Kennedy Michelakos has decided to quit smoking... She likes to ride horses. Her parents are Greek. We both really dig Tom Jones. K.M. & R.P. & 1971 is a beautifully understated 16-page comic that deals in double layers of nostalgia: one for mildly dysfunctional high school friendships (sigh),
- [The Harp of Imach Thyssel, by Patricia C. Wrede (1985) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-harp-of-imach-thyssel-by-patricia-c-wrede-1985-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.7.2016 Book from: Personal collection DID YOU KNOW that before Patricia Wrede hit it out the park with the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, she wrote a fair bit of generic epic fantasy? It's true! Just look at this: I found a copy at a used bookstore, and could not pass it up.
- [Archival dump: Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1983](https://theblackletters.net/archival-dump-magazine-of-fantasy-science-fiction-march-1983/) - More tidying of the drafts backlog. I read this issue back in 2011, holy crap; I'm not sure why I wrote about only these two stories. I did note that in the two old MF&SF issues that I own from the 1980's, there wasn't a single female writer, out of 17 total authors and several more columnists (also there were
- [Archival comics dump: Daredevil, Hellboy](https://theblackletters.net/archival-comics-dump-daredevil-hellboy/) - I'm trying to do something about the massive backlog of 60-98% complete post drafts. It's scary in there! For example, both of these bits are from (gulp) 2012. ---- Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (1993), by Frank Miller & John Romita Jr. While Daredevil has long been my favorite single superhero, I wasn't the right kind of
- [Elephantasm, by Tanith Lee (1983) E](https://theblackletters.net/elephantasm-by-tanith-lee-1983-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 3.13.2016 Book from: Personal collection Elephantasm is a violent, brooding, erotic fantasy of revenge against imperialism and patriarchy: Tanith Lee takes on Heart of Darkness, by way of colonial India. Elephants, monsoons, open wounds, whips, trauma survivors, immolation. Lush madness and harsh justice prevail against the privileged and callous. Lee’s usual interest in
- [The Secret Supper, by Javier Sierra (2004) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-secret-supper-by-javier-sierra-2004-k/) - Date Read: 1.16.07 Book From: Boston Public Library Reviewer: Kakaner I happened across this book during one of my genre frenzies (this particular one being religious fiction), and after being bombarded with recommendations for this book in every genre search I conducted, I decided to read it. The story is about Father Agostino who is
- [Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden, by Garth Ennis, art by Carlos Ezquerra (2002) E](https://theblackletters.net/just-a-pilgrim-garden-of-eden-by-garth-ennis-and-carlos-ezquerra-2009-e/) - Date read: 5.5.10 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera On an Earth whose surface has been scorched into uninhabitability by the expanding sun, a lone, gun-toting traveler arrives at what may be humanity’s last outpost. At the bottom of the former Marianas Trench, a group of scientists have established a settlement complete with gardens
- [The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter S. Beagle (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-innkeepers-song-by-peter-s-beagle-1993-e/) - Date read: 5.7.10 (or thereabouts) Book from: University library Reviewer: Emera After witnessing the resurrection of his dead love from a riverbed, a village boy sets off in wild pursuit of the cloaked women in whose company she now rides. One is a sailor-swordswoman-storyteller; the other, a soldier-nun on the lam from her convent. Under
- [World War Z, by Max Brooks (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/world-war-z-by-max-brooks-2006-e/) - Date read: 8.24.10 Book from: Borrowed from my cousin Reviewer: Emera In brief: ZOMBIE OUTBREAK etc. Global pandemonium ensues. So I assumed at first that this was in novel form, and was mildly intrigued since I’d never read a novel-length zombie survival story. (ETA: Oh wait, I have: Warm Bodies.) Turns out it’s actually in
- [The Bell at Sealey Head, by Patricia A. McKillip (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-bell-at-sealey-head-by-patricia-a-mckillip-2008-e/) - Date read: 12.30.10 Book from: Public library Reviewer: Emera The Bell at Sealey Head contains the most outright sexual passage I can recall reading in any of Patricia McKillip's work. Tellingly, it's also a tongue-in-cheek commentary on bibliomania: "The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more. Judd knew
- [Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, illus. Bret Helquist (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/odd-and-the-frost-giants-by-neil-gaiman-illus-bret-helquist-2009-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 5.31.2012 Book from: Personal collection Photo previously featured in the post "Some additions to the horde." In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he's had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless
- [A dispatch from SDCC](https://theblackletters.net/a-dispatch-from-sdcc/) - What Neil Gaiman has been working on for the past 18 months. If you'd like to cut to the chase: it's a Sandman prequel, with art by DC artist JH Williams, explaining from what travails Morpheus was returning when he was captured by Roderick Burgess at the very beginning of the series. "This has been an incredibly
- [Tim Pratt x 2](https://theblackletters.net/tim-pratt-x-2/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 5.10.2013 Digging through my enormous backlog of short story links - "Troublesolving," by Tim Pratt (2009): Read the story at Subterranean Online. and "Little Gods," by Tim Pratt (2002): Read the story at Strange Horizons. Tim Pratt writes very likable prose; the protagonists in both of these stories narrate with easy, musing movement of thought.
- [The Moon and the Face, by Patricia A. McKillip (1985) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-moon-and-the-face-by-patricia-a-mckillip-1985-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 8.8.2013 Book from: Personal collection To the best of my knowledge, Patricia McKillip has only written three novels of science fiction, all back in the mid-1980's - the duology beginning with Moon-Flash (1984) and ending with The Moon and the Face, and 1987's Fool's Run. All three are out of print, and hence some of
- [The Water Mirror, by Kai Meyer (2005) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-water-mirror-by-kai-meyer-2005-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 8.13.2013 Book from: Personal collection "In Venice, magic is not unusual. Merle is apprenticed to a magic mirror maker, and Serafin - a boy who was once a master thief - works for a weaver of magic cloth. Merle and Serafin are used to the mermaids who live in the canals
- [Parasite, by Mira Grant (2013) E](https://theblackletters.net/parasite-by-mira-grant-2013-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.13.2014 Book from: Library Mira Grant's Parasite is one of the 2014 Hugo novel nominees, and is a competent but bland thriller set in a near-future where, in answer to the hygiene hypothesis, nearly everyone is implanted with a genetically engineered tapeworm. The implants confer systemic health benefits and exude all necessary
- [Egg Comic](https://theblackletters.net/egg-comic/) - "Here is Egg Comic in its entirety." Kakaner, someone made a comic for you! Z. Akhmetova's Egg Comic is seven pages of woodsy textures and homey comforts, paired with thick unease and late-night misdeeds. The big-eyed, big-nosed auntie character and the way that eeriness is played off of a warmly inhabited setting had me thinking of Miyazaki
- [Two of my favorite writers meet in a bar...](https://theblackletters.net/two-of-my-favorite-writers-meet-in-a-bar/) - Helen Oyeyemi interviews Kelly Link for the LA Review of Books, about her new collection, Get in Trouble. ("The title has a lot to do with a realization I had about the underlying mechanics of narrative. Which is that trouble drives story...") Now I’d like to know what, in your opinion, is the difference between a love story
- [Her Deepness, by Livia Llewellyn (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/her-deepness-by-livia-llewellyn-2010-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.17.14 Read online at Subterranean Press. In a corner of the great southern metropolis known to its citizens as Obsidia, in a sprawling district known to its inhabitants as Marketside, a squat, hollowed-out block of a building sits at the edge of a roaring traffic circus, windows gaping like broken teeth in
- [Fashion Beast, by Alan Moore (2013) E](https://theblackletters.net/fashion-beast-by-alan-moore-2013-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 9.5.2014 Book from: Library Fashion Beast is a 10-issue comic written by Alan Moore, Malcom McLaren [yes, that Malcolm McLaren - father-of-punk Malcolm McLaren], and Antony Johnston, with art and colors by Facundo Percio. "Doll was unfulfilled in her life as a coat checker of a trendy club. But when she is fired
- ["Beach Rubble," by K. J. Bishop (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/beach-rubble-by-k-j-bishop-2003-e/) - K. J. Bishop's "Beach Rubble" was first published in Borderlands #1, and recently republished in her short story collection That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote (2012). I've been rereading the collection lately for the first time since it came out, and eventually hope to write about most, if not all, of its contents in one way or another. (I've previously written about “The Heart
- [The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories, by M. R. James (1919, 1925) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-haunted-dolls-house-and-other-ghost-stories-by-m-r-james-1919-1925-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: Oct. 18, 2014 Book from: Personal collection I went on a bit of an M. R. James rampage last winter (the most fearsome sort of rampage, clearly), but in February stopped about halfway into this, the second Penguin volume of his complete, classic ghost stories. The Haunted Dolls' House (2006, annotated by S. T. Joshi) collects the contents
- [The Moth Diaries, by Rachel Klein (2002) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-moth-diaries-by-rachel-klein-2002-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.31.13 Book from: Public library, and then personal collection. "At an exclusive girls’ boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her growing obsession is her roommate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy’s friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is an enigmatic, moody
- [Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/fun-home-by-alison-bechdel-2006-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 5.16.14 Book from: Borrowed from C. Alison Bechdel opens her tragicomic memoir by casting her closeted gay father as Daedalus, artificer of the labyrinth that enclosed their family's lives, and somehow complicit in her own, Icarian "downfall" - her eventual realization that she was a lesbian. The labyrinth was for me the
- [Angela Carter's "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"](https://theblackletters.net/angela-carters-the-courtship-of-mr-lyon-and-others/) - I've reread Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber about once a year for the past 8 or 9 years (that is, since I was 17 or so, and effectively trepanned, Emily-Dickinson-style, by my first reading of the collection), continually refining and enriching my understandings of her stories - which are not, Carter said, "retellings" of fairy tales, but attempts
- ["Portrait of Lisane de Patagnia," by Rachel Swirsky (2012) E](https://theblackletters.net/portrait-of-lisane-de-patagnia-by-rachel-swirsky-2012-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.8.2012 Read the story online at Tor.com here. This is my first time reading anything by Rachel Swirsky; I’ve had her multiply-award-winning/nominated "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window" bookmarked for a while, but got lured into this one first on the basis that it’s illustrated by Sam Weber,
- [2014 Hugo short story ballot](https://theblackletters.net/2014-hugo-short-story-ballot/) - The four 2014 Hugo short story nominees are the following (click the titles to read): “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”, Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine, Mar-2013) “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013) “Selkie Stories Are for Losers”, Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons, Jan-2013) “The Water That Falls on You from
- ["Weird; Hauntological"](https://theblackletters.net/weird-hauntological-versus-andor-and-andor-or/) - China Miéville's essay on forbears and mascots of the Weird, "M. R. James and the Quantum Vampire," was republished over at the Weird Fiction Review back in 2011; I finally got around to reading it lately. It's characteristically baroque and acrobatic. I'm putting down here some of the highlights, mostly for my own clarification and
- [Pay a call to Bertha Mason; dine with Alice, Gregor Samsa, or Nick Carraway](https://theblackletters.net/pay-a-call-to-bertha-mason-dine-with-alice-gregor-samsa-or-nick-carraway/) - The secret attic that inspired Charlotte Brontë's vision of the madwoman in the attic is now open for visits in Yorkshire. The real Thornfield, it turns out, is the manor of Norton Conyers, which dates to the Middle Ages; its present architecture is mid-18th-century. Brontë paid a visit in 1839 - 8 years prior to the
- [Sakuran: Blossoms Wild, by Moyoco Anno (2002) E](https://theblackletters.net/sakuran-blossoms-wild-by-moyoco-anno-2002-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 5.19.13 Book from: Personal collection I expected Sakuran to be fun – racy, rambunctious, ornate. Brothel life in Edo-era Japan, oh yeah. And it is fun, sort of – bubbling over with scheming, ambition, spectacle, and biting exchanges of emotional violence. But it’s also deeply, and more lastingly, sad. Kiyoha is fifty
- [A Fun Home library](https://theblackletters.net/a-fun-home-library/) - I just posted my review of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home; one of the principal features of that book is the frequency with which other books appear in it, working as signposts, ciphers, thematic echoes, and ironic commentary. I was fascinated and delighted by this internal library, and decided to go back through after my first read
- [The Summer of the Ubume, by Natsuhiko Kyogoku (1994) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-summer-of-the-ubume-by-natsuhiko-kyogoku-1994-e/) - Date read: 12.27.09 Book from: Personal collection, via Vertical, Inc. Reviewer: Emera Translated 2009 by Alexander O. Smith & Elye J. Alexander. Original title Ubume no Natsu. "Concerning the Ubume - Of all the tales told, that of the ubume is the most confounding. It is said that when a woman who is with child
- ["A Stone Woman," by A. S. Byatt (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/a-stone-woman-by-a-s-byatt/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.25.2014 Read the story online at the New Yorker. "A Stone Woman" begins in a quiet haze of sorrow. Ines' mother has died: People had thought she was a dutiful daughter. They could not imagine two intelligent women who simply understood and loved each other. As with many of A. S. Byatt's protagonists, Ines
- [Lovecraft the terrible, the ridiculous, the great](https://theblackletters.net/lovecraft-the-terrible-the-ridiculous-the-great/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.18.2012 Book from: Library. Lovecraft's works are also available online in various archives, such as hplovecraft.com. Last Halloween I realized I hadn't really read any Lovecraft since high school, and set out to rectify that by picking up a couple collections from the library. This one had a cover that I would class as
- [Are you listening closely](https://theblackletters.net/are-you-listening-closely/) - I went on a mini-binge of podcasts and radio shows this past spring while finishing up some bookbinding projects; here are readings of three dark tales that I particularly enjoyed back then. ----- Ira Sher, "The Man in the Well" (1996) Listen online: Act 2 of This American Life episode The Cruelty of Children Wells again, this
- ["Houses Under the Sea," by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/houses-under-the-sea-her-deepness/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.12.14 "When I close my eyes, I see Jacova Angevine. I close my eyes, and there she is, standing alone at the end of the breakwater, standing with the foghorn as the choppy sea shatters itself to foam against a jumble of gray boulders. The October wind is making something wild of
- [The Ballad of Sir Dinadan, by Gerald Morris (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-ballad-of-sir-dinadan-by-gerald-morris-2003-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.4.2013 Book from: Personal collection I began Gerald Morris' series of Arthurian retellings (collectively called The Squires' Tales and The Knights' Tales) back when they first started coming out in the late '90's/early 2000's. I remember starting with The Savage Damsel & the Dwarf in the yellow-lit, air-conditioned cool of the nearest public library when I
- [On the road to Saga](https://theblackletters.net/on-the-road-to-saga/) - I'm forever a concept-art junkie; for any fellow Saga fans, here are some concepty tidbits that I've enjoyed: An interview with Fiona Staples, in which she discusses how she works out designs from Brian Vaughan's descriptions (or in their absence) - since it's not always clear to what extent an artist helmed visual development, I was delighted
- [A story in twelve pictures; tributes to Miéville](https://theblackletters.net/a-story-in-twelve-pictures-tributes-to-mieville/) - Fans of Australian author-illustrator Shaun Tan, please to enjoy his very short illustrated story "Eric" (presented by the Guardian), about a peculiar foreign exchange student. (Fans of Chris Van Allsburg will likely be keen on Tan's work as well, given the resonance between their quiet, eerie, carefully rendered illustrations.) The last image made me gasp, and my skin
- [Landscapes lorn and lonely](https://theblackletters.net/landscapes-lorn-and-lonely/) - I did not know this: Tove Jansson (moomin-creator) did illustrations for the 1962 Swedish edition of The Hobbit (courtesy Babel Hobbits, a repository for international Hobbit illustrations). They range from Quentin Blake-ishly sketched storm giants, to what is now my favorite rendering of the depths of Mirkwood. I don't understand how Jansson always manages to combine qualities
- [The dark creeps in on little tentacled feet](https://theblackletters.net/the-dark-creeps-in-on-little-tentacled-feet/) - It took me a while to realize that both of these things were happening, so I hope other dark-fiction aficionados will find this helpful as well: there are two new online professional magazines for horror and dark fantasy either launched or launching this year. One is Nightmare Magazine, founded this spring as a sister publication
- [Louisa the Poisoner, by Tanith Lee (1995) E](https://theblackletters.net/louisa-the-poisoner-by-tanith-lee-1995-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.2.2013 Book from: Personal collection 'There are three things that grow in March Mire,' said the aunt, in a silly sing-song voice, her eyes half closed, 'and that grow nowhere else together, and seldom anywhere. Find them in one spot, take them and make them up. From them comes this dew.
- [Fancy; battered](https://theblackletters.net/fancy-battered/) - Sighted in September by Boing Boing, for particularly avid Bradbury fans: a very rare asbestos-bound 1953 special edition of Fahrenheit 451, somewhat worse for the wear, but, one hopes, still somewhat safer from incendiaries, conflagrations, merry bonfires, unmerry bonfires, and other forms of fiery doom. ----- On display by the Uppsala University Library: a 14th-century German book that
- [The Drowning Girl, by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2012) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-drowning-girl-by-caitlin-r-kiernan-2012-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 8.3.2013 Book from: Personal collection "Stories do not serve me. Even my own stories." Caitlín Kiernan's The Red Tree and The Drowning Girl form a diptych: red and blue, burial and drowning, the chthonic and the oceanic. They're mirror-image confessionals struggling with grief, mental illness, suicide, inexplicable loss, inexplicable hauntings. Present-day hauntings as crucibles for pain,
- [For all your emergency pedestrian reading needs](https://theblackletters.net/for-all-your-emergency-pedestrian-reading-needs/) - Sighted in the streets of Cambridge, MA - the "Little Free Library:" - E
- [The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho (1988) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-alchemist-by-paulo-coelho-1988-e/) - Date read: 1.24.06 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera A young shepherd boy in Andalusia dreams of finding treasure among the Great Pyramids, and, determined to follow his dream, makes his way towards Egypt. As he travels, he encounters (among others) a gypsy, a king, a thief, an Englishman, and finally, an alchemist, each of
- [A stony response](https://theblackletters.net/a-stony-response/) - Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson's new biographer, has written a fascinating retrospective on the angry, horrified, but mostly just bewildered mail that inundated the New Yorker following its publication of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Interviewees include a woman named Miriam Friend, who at 97 is the last living letter-writer whom Franklin was able to trace, and Ursula
- [That word for when...](https://theblackletters.net/that-word-for-when/) - ... you have an especial awareness of your literary castoffs, or any unmet little responsibilities, amassing at the borders of your life - tsundoku - noun - (informal) the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with such other unread books Etymology: tsumu, to pile up + doku, to read, punning on tsundeoku, to leave piled up Thanks to Japanese Wiktionary and my friend
- [Hellblazer vol. 1: Original Sins, by Jamie Delano, John Ridgway, Alfredo Alcala (1987-8) E](https://theblackletters.net/hellblazer-vol-1-original-sins-by-jamie-delano/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 5.11.2012 Book from: Personal collection Original Sins collects issues 1-9 of Hellblazer, written by Jamie Delano, with art by John Ridgway & Alfredo Alcala. There's a certain disadvantage to targeted reading of comics (or whatever) that are considered to be gamechangers. This is, obviously, that you don't actually appreciate what the
- [Ghostly pickings from Tor](https://theblackletters.net/ghostly-pickings-from-tor/) - Reviewer: Emera Dates read: Various, Spring 2013 I don't know about anyone else, but I always seem to crave ghost stories before bedtime. Here are some of the results of typing "ghost" into Tor's rather friendly search engine. ----- "A Ghost Story," by Mark Twain (1888): Read the story online at Tor.com. "I took a large room, far
- [Litography](https://theblackletters.net/litography/) - A fun gift idea for typography nerds, book nerds, or both: Litography sculpts the entire text of a classic book or drama into a single, soothingly graphical image. Check out their catalogue for posters of The Origin of Species, The Last Unicorn, Just So Stories... Below are two designs that I particularly enjoyed - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Dracula: -
- ["The Heart of a Mouse," by K. J. Bishop (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-heart-of-a-mouse-by-k-j-bishop-2010-e/) - Date read: 6.11.11 Read from: Subterranean Press Magazine Reviewer: Emera Assorted thoughts on K. J. Bishop's "The Heart of a Mouse," which recently won the Aurealis Award for Best SF Short Story. All the other reviews I've linked below offer good summaries of the story, if you'd like more situational context. First thought: This isn't
- [The New Deadwardians #1, by Dan Abnett & I. N. J. Culbard (2012) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-new-deadwardians-1/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 7.22.2012 Book from: Personal collection I know the universe loves me because there's a new comic called The New Deadwardians, and it's about vampires, zombies, and class conflicts in alternate Edwardian England. I saw the first issue (from March of this year; there are to be 8 issues total) still hanging around
- ["Recovering Lolita"](https://theblackletters.net/recovering-lolita/) - Recovering Lolita (via design blog Imprint) is one of the most visually/literarily fascinating and provoking posts I've seen this year. Several years ago, blogger John Bertram held a contest inviting designers to create new covers for Lolita, citing a history of coy misrepresentation of Nabokov's novel. In Bertram's words, "We are talking about a novel which has child
- [The Grand Tour, by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (2004) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-grand-tour-by-patricia-c-wrede-caroline-stevermer-2004-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.15.2012 Book from: Borrowed from cousin "...or, The Purloined Coronation Regalia: being a revelation of matters of High Confidentiality and Greatest Importance, including extracts from the intimate diary of a Noblewoman and the sworn testimony of a Lady of Quality Dear Reader, We are having the most wonderful time on our tour
- [A peopled silence](https://theblackletters.net/a-peopled-silence/) - I'm trying to remember how Walter de la Mare's 1912 poem "The Listeners" ended up in my to-read pile, and I suspect it was by way of Robert Aickman, whose cagey, elliptical, and exceedingly unsettling tales of the supernatural I'm just beginning to plumb. I haven't read enough of either yet to make any interesting
- [The Bohemian Astrobleme, by Kage Baker (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-bohemian-astrobleme-by-kage-baker-2010-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 1.26.2013 Read online at Subterranean Press, Winter 2010 edition. "The Bohemian Astrobleme" (2010) is another droll, diverting spy romp in Baker's Company universe, the second to feature the spyin', whorin', but mostly shruggin'-at-the-foibles-of-men Women of Nell Gwynne's. (After Baker's death in 2010, her sister, Kathleen Bartholomew, finished her final novel of the Women, On Land
- [Chew 1-3, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (2009-10) E](https://theblackletters.net/chew-1-3-by-john-layman-and-rob-guillory-2009-10-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Dates read: Various dates between November 2010 and spring 2011 Books from: Personal collection, or borrowed from Kakaner Reviewed here be: Chew, Volume 1: Taster's Choice (2009) Chew, Volume 2: International Flavor (2010) Chew, Volume 3: Just Desserts (2010) Chew is the story of Tony Chu, a humorless detective who has the unfortunate
- [R.I.P., E. L. Konigsburg, 1930-2013](https://theblackletters.net/r-i-p-e-l-konigsburg-1930-2013/) - "Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that
- [The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-way-of-shadows-by-brent-weeks-2008-e/) - Date read: 8.20.11 Book from: Borrowed from my cousin Reviewer: Emera For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art - and he is the city's most accomplished artist. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly -
- [The Man With the Golden Torc, by Simon R. Green (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-man-with-the-golden-torc-by-simon-r-green-2008-e/) - Date read: 9.2.11 Book from: Borrowed from my cousin Reviewer: Emera "The name's Bond. Shaman Bond. Actually, that's just my cover. I'm Eddie Drood. But when your job includes a license to kick supernatural arse on a regular basis, you find your laughs where you can. For centuries, my family has been the secret guardian
- [Vampire Stories by Women: "Turkish Delight," "Prince of Flowers"](https://theblackletters.net/vampire-stories-by-women-turkish-delight/) - Reviewer: Emera Dates read: The very end of December 2011 Read from: Vampire Stories by Women, ed. by Stephen Jones (2001). (I'll be putting together an index post for this collection once I'm done reviewing the stories I found the most interesting.) Roberta Lannes says in the introduction to her short story, "Turkish Delight" (2001),that
- ["The Golden Key," by George MacDonald (1867) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-golden-key-by-george-macdonald-1867-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.30.2012 Book from: Personal collection; the full story is available online for free here. "There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt’s stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find
- [Hellboy, Vol. 1, by Mike Mignola (1994) E](https://theblackletters.net/hellboy-vol-1-by-mike-mignola-1994-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 12.1.11 (re-read; originally read circa 2006) Book from: Personal collection Hellboy, Volume 1: Seed of Destruction Art by Mike Mignola, script by John Byrne "When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come to save it. Sent to investigate a mystery with supernatural overtones, Hellboy discovers the secrets of
- [Flight of the Dragon Kyn, by Susan Fletcher (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/flight-of-the-dragon-kyn-by-susan-fletcher-1993-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 3.25.2011 (reread) Book from: Personal collection Flight of the Dragon Kyn is the second in Susan Fletcher's Dragon Chronicles, and a prequel to the rest of the series. (At the time that I found the books, they were a trilogy; a fourth that I've yet to read came out in 2010.) The
- ["Rappacini's Daughter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1844) E](https://theblackletters.net/rappacinis-daughter-by-nathaniel-hawthorne-1844-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.9.2013 Read it online here - and don't forget the preface! I can't call myself a Hawthorne fan - I would compare the charm that his prose has for me to that of a room full of massive and hideously overcarved ancestral furniture. I can't help but succumb to the effect of
- ["Huntswoman," by Merrie Haskell (2005) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-huntswoman-by-merrie-haskell-2005-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.7.12 Read online at Strange Horizons Fiction. "Huntswoman," a Snow White retelling, is a quietly moving and thoughtfully constructed puzzle-story – the kind that invites you to read it again from the start once you’ve finished, reexamining each piece of language and dialogue for new significance. It works very effectively with dream-symbols and
- ["The Story of the Bad Egg," by Emily Ryan](https://theblackletters.net/the-story-of-the-bad-egg-by-emily-ryan/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: Summer 2012, and again this week Read the comic online here. "Once upon there lived a prince in a palace. This morning the prince was in the twelve-acre pool. He had just received a call saying that the flood in Hampshire was not as serious at it had first seemed and had in
- [Princess^2](https://theblackletters.net/princess2/) - Apologies for the utter deadness around here lately; Kakaner is fiendishly, horrendously, unspeakably busy with a very exciting new job, and I've been occupied trying to not get kicked out of wildly succeed in my graduate program. But here's another round of gender-subversive fun for fans of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and anyone whose interest was
- [Talking to Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede (1985) E](https://theblackletters.net/talking-to-dragons-by-patricia-c-wrede-1985-e/) - Date read: 3.5.11 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Words from the master (and by master, I mean Cimorene): "Being upset is no excuse. If you're going to be rude, do it for a reason and get something from it." I was down for the count with a stomach virus two weekends ago, which seemed
- [Bad Book Cover Fridays: Chapter the First](https://theblackletters.net/bad-book-cover-fridays-chapter-the-first/) - Being the inaugural post of a feature that Kakaner and I have wanted to launch, oh, for about as long as we've wanted to have a book blog on which to launch it. Bad Book Cover Fridays! A weekly injection of terrible, calculated to help us crawl that last, gasping distance to the weekend. Most
- [BBCF: Moonsinger's Friends](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-moonsingers-friends/) - Not gonna lie, this one makes me smile at the same time that it makes me wince. Some things are so awesomely dated that you can't help but love them. Rainbows. Stumpy-necked hippocampi. Mermaids riding stumpy-necked hippocampi while double rainbows explode from their backs. What could be better, or worse, or more likely to make
- [BBCF: Birth of the Firebringer](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-birth-of-the-firebringer/) - Foreign-language editions of fantasy novels tend to be particularly fertile grounds for weird book covers. And man, I love many a Scandinavian illustrator, but their covers also tend to be the loopiest among European editions that I've seen. Here's the Danish paperback cover of Meredith Ann Pierce's Birth of the Firebringer (which is the first
- [2012 Nebulae](https://theblackletters.net/2012-nebulae/) - The 2012 Nebula Award shortlists are here! As is increasingly typical for me, I've read and reviewed only one work on the list - Rachel Swirsky's "Portrait of Lisane de Patagnia." (I'm at peace with the less-than-cutting-edginess of my reading habits at this point, though.) Congratulations to all the nominees! - E
- [Blood Oranges, by Kathleen Tierney (2013) E](https://theblackletters.net/blood-oranges-by-kathleen-tierney-2013-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.8.2013 Book from: Personal collection "My name's Quinn. If you buy into my reputation, I’m the most notorious demon hunter in New England. But rumors of my badassery have been slightly exaggerated. Instead of having kung-fu skills and a closet full of medieval weapons, I’m an ex-junkie with a talent for being in the
- [Self-portrait, off the bookshelves](https://theblackletters.net/self-portrait-off-the-bookshelves/) - Andy passed on a nifty meme to Kakaner and me - pick 10 books off your bookshelves, with your eyes closed, then use them to tell a bit about yourself. Here goes! Night Shadows: Twenthieth-Century Stories of the Uncanny, ed. Joan Kessler The editor is my mother's friend, which tells you that a. my mom
- [Quizzed](https://theblackletters.net/quizzed/) - Stealing yet another fun quiz-meme from Maureen...! 1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest? Various children's books - stuff like Tommy dePaola's books, and The Weaver's Horse, of which there are apparently NO cover images available online. Agggh! Did anyone else read that book, though? 2. What is your current read, your
- [The Boneshaker, by Kate Milford (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-boneshaker-by-kate-milford-2010-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.24.2012 Book from: Personal collection "Strange things can happen at a crossroads, and the crossroads outside of Arcane, Missouri, is no exception. Thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks knows all the odd, mysterious tales about her little town – she grew up hearing her mother tell them. But even Natalie is not prepared for
- [The Women of Nell Gwynne's, by Kage Baker (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-women-of-nell-gwynnes-by-kage-baker-2009-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.1.12 Book from: Personal collection, via Subterranean Press. (N.B. The Women of Nell Gwynne's is out of print, and has since been republished as Scarlet Spy.) "In any other neighborhood, perhaps, there would have been some uncouth speculation about the inordinate number of females under one roof. The lady of the
- [The Music of Razors, by Cameron Rogers (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-music-of-razors-by-cameron-rogers-2007-e/) - Date read: 10.29.08 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera In 19th-century Boston, a brilliant medical student falls in with a group of young spiritualists, only to see his hopes and plans go terribly awry as a result of their experimentations. A century and a half later, he walks the earth weary and immortal, wielding instruments
- [“Nashvillians woke up one morning and found that we no longer had a bookstore”](https://theblackletters.net/nashvillians-woke-up-one-morning-and-found-that-we-no-longer-had-a-bookstore/) - ...and Ann Patchett’s “secret was that [she] did not much miss those mall-size Gargantuas.” So she set out, more or less on impulse, to recreate the kind of bookstore experience that she did miss: a cozy space with carefully curated shelves and employees who double as a personal recommendation system. Partnered with Karen Hayes, a
- ["The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall," by John Kendrick Bangs (1894) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-water-ghost-of-harrowby-hall-by-john-kendrick-bangs-1894-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.4.11 Story from: Read it online here "... The owners of Harrowby Hall had done their utmost to rid themselves of the damp and dewy lady who rose up out of the best bedroom floor at midnight, but without avail. They had tried stopping the clock, so that the ghost would
- [Bookstores of Boston/Cambridge: Pandemonium Books](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-bostoncambridge-pandemonium-books/) - Pandemonium Books 4 Pleasant St., Cambridge, Massachusetts (a few blocks away from the Central T stop) (Photo taken during the first of the unrelenting series of snowstorms that hit early in 2011.) Here's quick but much overdue tribute to one of my most frequent bookish haunts in Cambridge. Pandemonium is a compact sff and gaming
- [In the forests of the night readers](https://theblackletters.net/in-the-forests-of-the-night-readers/) - Lorem Ipsum Books in Cambridge, MA, previously featured in this post, has a fun new window display, featuring some scrappy owls (one of them catching up on its reading, and seeming to level a dour look at anyone interrupting) in a scrap-wood forest: - E
- [Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (1988) E](https://theblackletters.net/sorcery-and-cecelia-by-patricia-c-wrede-caroline-stevermer-1988-e/) - Date read: 10.25.11 Book from: Borrowed from a friend Reviewer: Emera "... or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: being the correspondence of two Young Ladies of Quality regarding various Magical Scandals in London and the Country. Dear Reader, A great deal is happening in London this Season. To begin with, there's the wizard who tried to
- [Madame Two Swords, by Tanith Lee (1988) E](https://theblackletters.net/madame-two-swords-by-tanith-lee-1988-e/) - Date read: 8.1.11 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera This is one of my most treasured finds from Readercon, picked up from the fantastic Somewhere in Time Books: Tanith Lee's 1988 limited-edition novella, with illustrations by Tom Canty. From the title and pastel cover I expected a tale of genteel swashbuckling, possibly YA; should have
- ["Chamber of Secrets: The Sorcery of Angela Carter"](https://theblackletters.net/chamber-of-secrets-the-sorcery-of-angela-carter/) - Marina Warner writes with beautiful force and exuberance about Angela Carter's fairy tales, sensuality, ethics of the erotic, and more, here in the Paris Review. A particularly breathtaking passage, arising from a remark on the origin of one of the stories in The Bloody Chamber as a radio play: 'Very few writers use the imperative as she
- [Vampire Stories by Women: "Rampling Gate," "Miss Massingberd"](https://theblackletters.net/vampire-stories-by-women-rampling-gate-miss-massingberd/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 12.25.2011 Read from: Vampire Stories by Women, ed. by Stephen Jones (2001) Inevitable disclaimer: I was obsessed with the first three books of Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles (and her two historical-fiction novels) in high school; haven't read her since then. Also, this summary/review is spoilery. "The Master of Rampling Gate" (1984),
- [Princess Knight, by Osamu Tezuka (1953-6) E](https://theblackletters.net/princess-knight-by-osamu-tezuka-1953-6-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2.28.2012 Book from: Personal collection, via Vertical, Inc. (Yeah, the cover design is pretty punishingly cute. And also, classy! Oh Vertical, you know how to win my heart.) The friend who egged me on in my desire to read this series, which has the proud distinction of siring the "princely girl"
- [The worst sentence I have seen](https://theblackletters.net/the-worst-sentence-i-have-seen/) - - in recent memory, courtesy who else but H. P. Lovecraft: "And yet, as I have said, vague new fears hovered menacingly over us; as if giant bat-winged gryphons looked on transcosmic gulfs." - from "The Lurking Fear" Don't you just HATE it when those giant bat-winged gryphons look on your transcosmic gulfs? (Also, the
- ["26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss," by Kij Johnson (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/26-monkeys-also-the-abyss-by-kij-johnson-2008-e/) - Date read: 11.06.09 Read From: Asimov’s, July 2008 Reviewer: Emera This post originally segued into an extremely long-winded discussion of what makes readers perceive fiction as "genre" versus "non-genre," but two hours and >1100 words later, I got uncomfortable with some/all of what I had written. So, it's been hacked back and all that's left
- ["Evil Robot Monkey," by Mary Robinette Kowal (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/evil-robot-monkey-by-mary-robinette-kowal-2009-e/) - Date read: 1.4.10 Read from: Mary Robinette Kowal's website Reviewer: Emera "Evil Robot Monkey," which was nominated for last year's Hugos, got an "mmm... eh" from me. It's a vignette framing the emotional experience of an intelligence-augmented chimpanzee who just wants to be left alone to make pottery. Though his warring destructive and creative impulses
- ["Secretary," by Mary Gaitskill (1988) E](https://theblackletters.net/secretary-by-mary-gaitskill-1988-e/) - Date read: 11.30.10 Read: Online, via Nerve Reviewer: Emera The 2002 film Secretary stars the incomparable Maggie Gyllenhaal as an emotionally fragile young woman who enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with her lizard-eyed, hypercontrolled lawyer boss (James Spader): two very unhappy people who find that they are each other's complements, emotionally and sexually. After seeing
- ["Brief Candle," by Jason K. Chapman (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/brief-candle-by-jason-k-chapman-2009-e/) - Date read: 11.15.09 Read from: Clarkesworld #38 Reviewer: Emera Jason Chapman's "Brief Candle" is a clever, winning tale of an unpreposessing sanitation robot onboard an imperiled ship. In an AI-fueled homage to Flowers for Algernon (down to the name of the protagonist), the robot finds himself taking on much more responsibility than, literally, he could
- ["Princess," "Homecoming"](https://theblackletters.net/princess-homecoming/) - Reviewer: Emera Err, couldn't think of a semi-clever conglomerate title for this string of short story reviewlets, but onwards! ----- Jeanne Desy's "The Princess Who Stood On Her Own Two Feet" (1981; read 4.19.10) is an obvious but not uncharming feminist fairy tale about a tall princess, her faithful (talking) Afghan hound, and a prince
- ["The Confessions of Prince Charming," by Kelly Barnhill (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-confessions-of-prince-charming-by-kelly-barnhill-2009-e/) - Date Read:4.4.10 Read from: Fantasy Magazine Reviewer: Emera If I wasn’t such a sap, I wouldn’t be sent on these damn errands, but some mother is sobbing for some lost daughter and a father gritting his teeth and saying “half my kingdom” and the mama saying “please” through tears and snot, and I want to
- [Wayward Girls and Wicked Women, ed. by Angela Carter (1986) E](https://theblackletters.net/wayward-girls-and-wicked-women-ed-by-angela-carter-1986-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 6.8.11 Book from: Personal collection An ironic title: Carter’s take on “waywardness” and “wickedness” is far more subtle, of course. The women in this anthology - all written by women - are canny, worldly, self-directed. They are leery of others' plans for them, and quietly attentive to their own desires –
- [Vampire Stories by Women: Venus, Outfangthief, So Runs the World...](https://theblackletters.net/vampire-stories-by-women-venus-outfangthief-so-runs-the-world/) - Reviewer: Emera Dates read: The very end of December 2011 Read from: Vampire Stories by Women, ed. by Stephen Jones (2001). "Venus Rising on Water" (1991), by Tanith Lee: "Like long hair, the weeds grew down the façades of the city, over shutters and leaden doors, into the pale green silk of the lagoon. Ten
- [The Last Unicorn comic #2, by Peter S. Beagle, art by Renae de Liz and Ray Dillon (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-last-unicorn-comic-2-by-peter-s-beagle-art-by-renae-de-liz-and-ray-dillon-2010-e/) - Date read: 8.13.10 Book from: Personal collection, via Conlan Press Reviewer: Emera This here's the manticore. Man's head, lion's body, tail of a scorpion. Captured at midnight, eating werewolves to sweeten its breath... The Last Unicorn comic adaptation #2 (review for #1) arrived at my door last week, and despite being exhausted I had to
- [The Last Unicorn comic #1, by Peter S. Beagle, art by Renae de Liz and Ray Dillon (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-last-unicorn-comic-1-by-peter-s-beagle-art-by-renae-de-liz-and-ray-dillon-2010-e/) - Date read: 7.26.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera This will be possibly one of the world's least impartial reviews, in that my love affair with The Last Unicorn started when I was about six, when I first saw the animated movie adaptation, then proceeded to sort-of forget about it in such a way that
- [The Red Tree, by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2009)](https://theblackletters.net/the-red-tree-2009-by-caitlin-r-kiernan/) - Date read: 10.31.09 (unintentional, but awesome) Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera It's raining, my socks are wet, and for these reasons I think I'd rather finish up my long-overdue review of Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Red Tree than do anything else. And as there's a red oak outside my window, I took a picture
- [I can't get enough of...](https://theblackletters.net/i-cant-get-enough-of/) - ...the superhero redesigns over at Project: Rooftop! Jemma Salume's winning entry for the Canary on the Catwalk contest was my first (and possibly still greatest) love (if I could marry an illustration...) (IT'S JUST SO PERFECT), but there's always something new to catch my eye, often accompanied by tantalizing snippets of imagined storylines. I wish Denis Medri's 1950's
- [The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-icarus-girl-by-helen-oyeyemi-2006-e/) - Date Read: 7.9?.09 Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Jessamy Harrison is eight years old, the British-born daughter of a Nigerian mother and a white British father. Extraordinarily precocious and sensitive, she spends hours by herself and often falls into inexplicable screaming fits and fevers. One summer, her mother brings her to visit
- [Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol (2011) E](https://theblackletters.net/anya’s-ghost-by-vera-brosgol-2011-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.24.11 Book from: Personal collection "Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century. Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya’s normal life might
- [Aspirational reading](https://theblackletters.net/aspirational-reading/) - From Carl Sagan's notes as an undergraduate: have a look at his list of planned "Outside Readings" for the "Autumn Quarter, 1954." It's an impressive sampling of scientific and Western thought; there's Hubble, Oppenheimer, the Bible, André Gide - and also, of course, a science fiction anthology from Ballantine's Star line. If I'm looking at the
- [Author Event: Caitlín R. Kiernan reads from The Drowning Girl](https://theblackletters.net/caitlin-r-kiernan-reads-from-the-drowning-girl/) - Only a bajillion days overdue (approximately), but here's a quick event report of Caitlín Kiernan's reading at Pandemonium Books (Cambridge, MA) in the spring of this year. The event took place on March 15th, on no less than the 75th anniversary of H. P. Lovecraft's death. Kiernan read from chapter 1 of her newest novel
- ["Vikings will work for plunder. Geeks and artists will work for a dream. But businesspeople require... other forms of motivation." ](https://theblackletters.net/vikings-will-work-for-plunder-geeks-and-artists-will-work-for-a-dream-but-businesspeople-require-other-forms-of-motivation/) - SF icon Neal Stephenson wishes video games with swords were more fun. And why the hell shouldn't we help him out with that? See: Neal Stephenson's Kickstarter for CLANG (a.k.a. "Guitar Hero with swords"). Basically: "Hi, I'm Neal Stephenson. I like hitting other people with sharp objects. I am dissatisfied with representation of this activity in existing
- [Ray Bradbury, R.I.P.](https://theblackletters.net/ray-bradbury-r-i-p/) - Ray Bradbury passed away yesterday at the age of 91, during the transit of Venus. I'm too stunned to feel right now, but I know I'm going to miss him. Some articles and remembrances (you can find a far more exhaustive list at Charles Tan's blog here): New York Times obituary Obama's tribute Caitlín
- [Legends of the Mouse Guard, by David Petersen and others (2004) E](https://theblackletters.net/legends-of-the-mouse-guard-by-david-petersen-and-others-2004-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 10.17.11 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Legends of the Mouse Guard features thirteen Mouse Guard tales by a broad spectrum of guest artists and authors. Cute, fun, mostly not really worth reading except for a few outstanding cases of either extremely beautiful art, great visual storytelling, or occasionally both. Highlights for
- [Nebulas and more farewells](https://theblackletters.net/nebulas-and-more-farewells/) - Been behind on award etc. news, I know, but that's just how we roll around here these days. ----- Congratulations to the 2011 Nebula winners!! ----- Maurice Sendak passed away on Tuesday, May 8, at the age of 83. Kakaner has a very sweet story about the importance of Where the Wild Things Are in
- [The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1, by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-umbrella-academy-vol-1-by-gerard-way-gabriel-ba-2008-e/) - Date read: 3.17.11 Book from: Library Reviewer: Emera From the back cover: "In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who had previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, 'To save the world.' These seven
- [Extremely silly photos...](https://theblackletters.net/extremely-silly-photos/) - ...of extremely serious writers. Made my day. Click for mostly deadpan photos of Sontag, Hemingway, Proust, et al. wearing animal costumes, kicking stuff, and hugging Muppets, among other august pursuits. ----- Unrelatedly - I'd seen a few of early 20th-century artist Harry Clarke's illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's tales before, but never all of them
- [The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 2: Dallas, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (2008-9) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-umbrella-academy-vol-2-dallas-by-gerard-way-and-gabriel-ba-2008-9-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 4.30.2012 Book from: Personal collection The Umbrella Academy: Dallas begins and ends with presidential assassinations; in between, a whirlpool of crises sucks in the already battered members of the Umbrella Academy superhero "family," and spits them out again even more embittered and doubtful of their humanity. In between, there's extensive time
- [The Amazing Screw-on Head, by Mike Mignola (2002) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-amazing-screw-on-head-by-mike-mignola-2002-k/) - Date Read: 1.30.09 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner This humorous, 2003 Eisner Award winning one-shot is the story of an unlikely superhero, Screwn-on Head, who researches an occult myth at the behest of Abraham Lincoln. Apparently, an evil zombie named Emperor Zombie has stolen important ancient tomes that could lead to the destruction of
- ["Coppola's Dracula," by Kim Newman (1997) E](https://theblackletters.net/coppolas-dracula-by-kim-newman-1997-e/) - Date read: 10.04.09 Read from: Infinity Plus Reviewer: Emera Will I ever tire of vampires? It seems unlikely, at this rate. Kim Newman's novella "Coppola's Dracula" was my first foray into his post-vampire-epidemic alternate history. Here he reenvisions Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Dracula-style. Protagonist Kate Reed is an Irish vampire - a contemporary of Bram Stoker, in
- [Vampire Deluxe!, by Lawrence Gullo & David Ryder Prangley (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/vampire-deluxe-by-lawrence-gullo-david-ryder-prangley-2009-e/) - Date Read: 6.19.09 Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Vampire Deluxe!, by Lawrence Gullo and David Ryder Prangley, is a profoundly silly vampire comic featuring two medieval lads who masquerade as princes of the night in order to sex (and rob) the ladies. Pretty good plan, huh? The concept is good enough to deserve a
- [MW, by Tezuka Osamu (1976-1978) E](https://theblackletters.net/mw-by-tezuka-osamu-1976-1978-e/) - Date read: 8.2.10 Book from: Borrowed from a friend Reviewer: Emera Apparently not a single unpixellated version of this image wants to let me find it. Whyyyy did I read this all in (pretty much) one sitting. Whatever the opposite of feel-good is, MW falls into that category. The whole time I was reading, I
- [White Cat, by Holly Black (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/white-cat-by-holly-black-2010-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 2011.10.16 Book from: Personal collection Cassel Sharpe is the only non-magical member of a family of curse workers, in a world where magic is illegal and hence "worker" families constitute the magical equivalent of the mafia. Despite his disappointing failure to inherit curse-working powers, Cassel somehow managed to murder his childhood
- [Wislawa Szymborska, 1923-2012](https://theblackletters.net/wislawa-szymborska-1923-2012/) - Polish poet and Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska passed away last week, on Monday, February 1, at the age of 88. The Poetry Foundation has a brief obituary and one of her poems here. Rest in peace. I spent several months last year reading a few of her poems in multiple translations (many of which I
- [News allsorts](https://theblackletters.net/news-allsorts/) - Groundbreaking poet and essayist Adrienne Rich has passed away at the age of 82. Rich wrote widely of her personal experience and on feminism, war, racism, and other issues of social and political concern; she lived and worked openly as a lesbian. Read an obituary here. R.I.P. ----- WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR's sold-out Mythology Anthology, reviewed
- [Mythology Anthology: Katabasis/Anabasis (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/mythology-anthology-katabasisanabasis-2010-e/) - Date read: 4.28.11 Book from: Personal collection. Now available as a PDF. Reviewer: Emera Home-brewed comics, yum. The is the second comic anthology published by artist collective WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR. I never got my hands on the first volume, also mythology-themed. This one is specifically themed around katabasis and anabasis - descent and ascent, most
- [Bookstores of Wellington, New Zealand: Arty Bees Books](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-wellington-new-zealand-arty-bees-books/) - Hello! It's been quite the year-long hiatus... well I'm finally returning after having most recently traveled some countries, including bunkering down in several bookstores in NZ during my stay. Honestly, I planned only two bookstore visits in Wellington according to some recommendations, and was so impressed by the selection and presentation that I proceeded to
- [The news gauntlet](https://theblackletters.net/the-news-gauntlet/) - Two bits of Caitlín Kiernan excitement: The growing gallery of Kyle Cassidy's photographic work based on Kiernan's next novel, The Drowning Girl, forthcoming in March. The documentary clarity of Cassidy's photos is unsettling in combination with the uncanniness of many of the scenes, particularly when angular, predatory Eva (as portrayed by model Sara Murphy) is
- [Undercover: Pretty Monsters](https://theblackletters.net/undercover-pretty-monsters/) - Here's a photo-feature that I've been wanting to start for a while: a series featuring the subtle design quirks that I occasionally find under the dust jackets of hardcover books. First up on the plate is Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, whose full cover design you can see here. Will Staehle's enigmatic, Victorian-funereal (with horned women)
- [White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/white-is-for-witching-by-helen-oyeyemi-2009-e/) - Date read: 1.10.11 Book from: University library Reviewer: Emera Snow White meets haunted-house melodrama meets quasi-vampire story with a decided hint of "Carmilla," by the author of The Icarus Girl? Count me in. White is for Witching is the story of a family, and a house, distorted by the loss of a mother and a
- [Requiem for a Dream, by Hubert Selby (1978) E](https://theblackletters.net/requiem-for-a-dream-by-hubert-selby-1978-e/) - Date read: 7.29.09 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera Requiem for a Dream, although probably better known to most through Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film, is one of the most acclaimed novels about addiction. It charts a few, terrible months in the lives of a small circle of friends and family in New York in
- [Alabaster, by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/alabaster-by-caitlin-r-kiernan-2006-e/) - Date read: 8.31.09 Read from: Personal collection, via Subterranean Press Reviewer: Emera Alabaster collects five works of Kiernan’s short fiction, all centered on her character Dancy Flammarion, first introduced in her novel Threshold. (Note that I'd never read any of Kiernan's work before this, so this collection clearly stands well on its own, both as
- [Nurk, by Ursula Vernon (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/nurk-by-ursula-vernon-2008-e/) - Date read: 2.18.09 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Nurk, a timid but sensible shrew, one day receives an urgent letter addressed to his famous grandmother Surka, the warrior, pirate queen, and general adventurer. Unfortunately, no one has seen Surka for seasons, and so Nurk packs Surka’s diary and some clean socks into his trusty
- [Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938) E](https://theblackletters.net/rebecca-by-daphne-du-maurier-1938-e/) - Date read: 2.8.09 Read from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera Young, unworldly, and hopelessly shy, our nameless narrator finds herself swept off of her feet by the widowed and much older Maxim DeWinter while working as the companion of a wealthy American woman on the French Riviera. Maxim takes her away to his estate in
- [Bookstores of Boston/Cambridge: Seek Books](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-bostoncambridge-seek-books/) - Seek Books 1747 Centre Street, Boston, West Roxbury, MA, 02132 Seek deserves to be called something really grandiose, like "a repository of pulp splendor." Seriously, if you're an sff fan (especially if you're the kind who has slightly off tastes and whose favorite authors are generally out of print... not that I'd know anything about
- [Beastly, by Alex Flinn (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/beastly-by-alex-flinn-2007-e/) - Date read: 12.10.10 Read: Borders piracy Reviewer: Emera Quick skim after my interest was momentarily piqued by seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation. Alex Flinn's take on Beauty and the Beast casts Kyle Kingsbury, a New York prep-school prince with daddy issues, as the Beast. After playing a cruel prank on a (token
- [Harley and Ivy, by Paul Dini, Bruce Timms, et al. (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/harley-and-ivy-by-paul-dini-bruce-timms-e/) - Date Read: 6.13.09 Book From: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera The DC collection Harley and Ivy (writing by Paul Dini & Judd Winick, art by Bruce Timms, Joe Chiodo, Shane Glines) collects three pretty mindlessly entertaining Batman story arcs starring villainesses Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, all based on episodes from Batman the animated series,
- [Violent Cases, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (1987) E](https://theblackletters.net/violent-cases-by-neil-gaiman-and-dave-mckean-1987-e/) - Date read: 2.20.09 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera In Violent Cases, an adult narrator evokes a confused patchwork of childhood memories, from his uneasy relationship with his father to the half-comprehended gangster stories of an osteopath who claims to have treated Al Capone. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s first collaboration? Too cool! McKean's
- [Shopping (or just reading) weird](https://theblackletters.net/shopping-or-just-reading-weird/) - I think I've just about expended all my book- and gift-book-buying budget at this point, but I couldn't resist poring over Ann & Jeff VanderMeer's Gifts for the Weirdie in Your Life book recommendation post - many many additions were made to my to-read list. The VanderMeers provide detailed recommendations for both classic weird and
- [Hey! Oscar Wilde!](https://theblackletters.net/hey-oscar-wilde/) - - It's Clobberin' Time!: artists (and authors) draw their favorite literary figures One of my favorite websites to check at random intervals, Hey Oscar Wilde hosts a vast compilation of art featuring favorite writers, creatures, characters, and places from across the literary spectrum. Artists include Kate Beaton, Marvel Comics legend Frank Brunner, From Hell's Eddie
- [Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, by David Petersen (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/mouse-guard-winter-1152-by-david-petersen-2009-e/) - Date read: 7.18.11 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera "After Midnight's Rebellion in the Fall of 1152, the following Winter proves to be a cold and icy season. The Guard face a food shortage threatening the lives of many a mouse in the Territories. Some of the Guard's finest - Saxon, Kenzie, Lieam, and
- [Nightcrawler: The Winding Way, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Darick Robertson (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/nightcrawler-the-winding-way-by-roberto-aguirre-sacasa-darick-robertson-2006-e/) - Date read: 11/16/09 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera (Nightcrawler: The Winding Way collects Astonishing X-Men: Nightcrawler #7-12.) After being seriously wounded in an inexplicable attack, Nightcrawler struggles to escape the nightmarish memories of his past: his youth in Germany behind the scenes of a circus, his unwilling murder of his brother, and his eventual
- [Author news](https://theblackletters.net/author-news/) - Anne McCaffrey passed away this past Wednesday, November 21, at the age of 85. Like countless other readers, I seem to have spent a good chunk of my adolescence imaginarily living in Pern, starting from when I discovered the Harper Hall trilogy at ten years old... See Charles Tan's post here for links to authors'
- [The faces of Endicott](https://theblackletters.net/the-faces-of-endicott/) - Endicott Studio is an association of writers, artists, and performers dedicated to arts based in mythological and folkloric traditions. (Wikipedia tells me that it began as a warehouse-turned-salon-space in Boston; wish I had been around for it then.) I was aware of their work on the Journal of Mythic Arts, but wasn't quite clear on
- [Bone Vol. 1, by Jeff Smith (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/bone-vol-1-by-jeff-smith-1993-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date read: 11.23.11 Book from: Personal collection Bone, Volume 1: Out From Boneville "After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins - trusty Fone Bone, grasping Phoney Bone, and obliviously cheerful Smiley Bone - are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into
- [The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin (2005) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-year-of-the-dog-by-grace-lin-2005-e/) - Date read: 8.10.11 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera "It's the Chinese Year of the Dog! When Pacy's mom tells her that this is a good year for friends, family, and 'finding herself,' Pacy begins searching right away. As the year goes on, she struggles to find her talent, deals with disappointment, makes a new
- [From the very small libraries of](https://theblackletters.net/from-the-very-small-libraries-of/) - Stuff I like: Books Tiny things Clearly Kakaner knows me well, because: [muffled screaming!] Miniature book necklace by Nico Paper Goods, sent to me by Kakaner. One more photo under the cut. - E
- [Locke and Key Volume 1, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/locke-and-key-volume-1-by-joe-hill-and-gabriel-rodriguez-2009-e/) - Date read: 1.26.10 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera (Locke and Key Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft collects Locke and Key #1-6.) After their father is murdered by a disturbed former student, the three Locke children travel with their mother to start a new life in an unlikely haven: the Keyhouse, an ancient mansion
- [The Folk Keeper, by Franny Billingsley (1999) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-folk-keeper-by-franny-billingsley-1999-e/) - Date read: 12.19.10 Book from: Public library Reviewer: Emera "Here in the cellar, I control the Folk. Here, I'm queen of the world." The Folk Keeper is much darker and stranger than I expected based on the title and cover art alone - which is awesome, since that's the way I prefer it. Corinna Stonewall
- [Fun with words, and birds](https://theblackletters.net/fun-with-werds/) - Check out the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF) to learn some new words (offerings span Pre-A- through Em- thus far; estimated date of completion is currently March 5, 2039) and broaden your appreciation of the limerick. e.g. (with unintentional ornithological theme) emu On our crest, with a roo, Aussies team you. You taste
- [Do we all like flowcharts?](https://theblackletters.net/do-we-all-like-flowcharts/) - I'm assuming we do: check out the monster that SF Signal has put together to help curious readers navigate the results of NPR's 100 Top SFF Books survey, featuring "(obviously) 100 end points and over 325 decision points," including such trenchant inquiries as "PoMo superheroes or tortured specter?", "Do the words Sword and Sorcery have
- [More from the annals of F&SF](https://theblackletters.net/more-from-the-annals-of-fsf/) - Date read: April 2011 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera This is a mostly-rant entry. From the Magazine of F & SF, April 1987: "Olida," Bob Leman: Lovecraftian romp with undercurrents of class conflict. A representative of the local (Southern?) gentry faces off against ancient, sluggish Evil in the ancestral home of an unsavory backwoods
- [Pieces of eight](https://theblackletters.net/pieces-of-eight/) - And by eight, I mean news: ----- Ah--! Art Student Hand-Illuminates, Binds a Copy of the Silmarillion; Tolkien fans across the world experience heart palpitations. Check here for an interview with the artist, and larger images of his gloriously detailed work. ----- And some incredible (belatedly posted, here) news for fans of Peter S. Beagle's
- [Bookstores of Cambridge: Lame Duck Books](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-cambridge-lame-duck-books/) - Lame Duck Books 12 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA "We are internationally known specialists buying and selling important modern books and manuscripts with an emphasis on rare literature and primary works in the history of ideas in English, German, French, Spanish, Russian and other languages. Our shop features the most significant selection of 19th and 20th
- [Assassin’s Apprentice, by Robin Hobb (1995) E](https://theblackletters.net/assassin’s-apprentice-by-robin-hobb-1995-e/) - Date read: 4.10.08 Read from: Public Library Reviewer: Emera The kingdom of the Six Duchies is stricken with shock when its beloved king-in-waiting, Chivalry, is forced to acknowledge the existence of an illegitimate child. In the wake of his abdication, his bastard son, Fitz, is delivered to the castle at Buckkeep, where he is put
- [Where sick books go to get well](https://theblackletters.net/where-sick-books-go-to-get-well/) - Book-repair station at the Strand in NYC; photo from when Kakaner and I visited together two years back. One more photo of their upper (antiquarian) floor below the fold: P.S. Kakaner is even more extremely busy than usual, and I'm supposed to be concentrating on a few other projects, so continue to expect relatively image-heavy,
- [Readercon 22, a week later](https://theblackletters.net/readercon-22-a-week-later/) - Readercon 22 took place Thursday - Sunday, July 14 - July 17, 2011; Kakaner and I made it to the associated reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge on Thursday night, and Friday and Saturday of the con proper. This was her first literary con, and my first con of any sort, so needless to
- [BBCF: What a stallion](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-what-a-stallion/) - "Stay back, horse! She's mine." Go to: Bad Book Covers Friday Archive BBCF: MF&SF, June 1983 Time Warp 1987: F&SF and a couple of soggy old men
- [The long good-bye](https://theblackletters.net/the-long-good-bye/) - Say farewell to Borders: "Borders to shut down for good after deal collapses." In a twist or knell or something or other, I received what will theoretically be my last-ever package from Borders yesterday, too. Any Borders reminiscences to share? I just remembered that Borders was the first legit bookstore in my vicinity to stock
- [BBCF: MF&SF, June 1983](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-mfsf-june-1983/) - What's that, you say? It's Friday? Indeed it is, and for once I have something to show for it. Although it's only sorta a Bad Book Cover Friday, as this June 1983 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction cover isn't astoundingly bad. I mean, it's bad, but it's bad simply in that there's nothing good
- ["Descending," by Thomas M. Disch (1964) E](https://theblackletters.net/descending-by-thomas-m-disch-1964-e/) - Date read: 2.17.10 Read from: The now-defunct scifi.com, or listen online at MindWebs Reviewer: Emera I originally found "Descending" through Ellen Datlow's wonderful online selection of classic sci-fi short fiction, and was aggrieved to discover that with the passing of the original scifi.com, it's now only available online with the help of the Wayback Machine.
- [The Faery Reel, ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (2004) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-faery-reel-ed-ellen-datlow-terri-windling-2004-e/) - Date read: 3.23.08 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera The Faery Reel is a collection of “tales from the twilight realm” by 25 notable authors of fantasy, including Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, Tanith Lee, Gregory Maguire, and Patricia McKillip. I picked this out not actually expecting to be all that impressed, since
- [Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/mouse-guard-fall-1152-by-david-petersen-2007-e/) - [Pssst - Readercon 22 reports are in the works. Thanks to some sitey issues, we're holding off on really image-heavy posts for the moment; have an only moderately image-heavy post in the meantime.] --- Date read: 7.18.11 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera "Mice struggle to live safely and prosper among the world's harsh
- [Wringer, by Jerry Spinelli (1997) E](https://theblackletters.net/wringer-by-jerry-spinelli-1997-e/) - Date read: 10.11.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Adapted from the back cover: "In Palmer LaRue's hometown of Waymer, turning ten is the biggest event of a boy's life. It marks the day when a boy is ready to take his place as a wringer - the boys who wring the necks of wounded
- [Lorem Ipsum, Lorem Ipsum](https://theblackletters.net/lorem-ipsum-lorem-ipsum/) - Lorem Ipsum Books 1299 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA (Inman Square) Really nice space, complete with small couch-y area and prints etc. by local artists. Decent selection of sff, great selection of YA. I forgot to check out the poetry section, which gives me a good excuse to go back ASAP. In general, really carefully organized
- [The Honor System](https://theblackletters.net/the-honor-system/) - Something that made me happy to see: "Books are priced as marked by the sticker on the front cover. If you find a book that you want, please pay for it by putting the money in the locked box. Honor System Books has been a part of Cambridge for over 5 years now. Thanks so
- [The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (2006) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-road-by-cormac-mccarthy-2006-k/) - Date Read: 11.11.10 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Ugh. Father and son try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that is apparently strewn with limbs, covered with ash, and-- just in case we didn't catch it the first 50 times on the first page-- one that is repeatedly described as "bleak" and "gray". The
- [Beauty, by Robin McKinley (1978) E](https://theblackletters.net/beauty-by-robin-mckinley-1978-e/) - Date Read: 5.27.09 Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera McKinley’s first published novel is actually one of the last of hers that I read, when in high school I belatedly rediscovered her books and went on a rampage through nearly all of her work – when much younger, I had tried and failed to get
- ["How To Buy a Book," and authorial fisticuffs](https://theblackletters.net/how-to-buy-a-book-and-authorial-fisticuffs/) - For anyone who's ever fussed over conscientious book-buying and the care and keeping of indigent authors, Nick Mamatas advises on How To Buy a Book (or where, really). Much of it seems to come down to whether a retailer feeds into BookScan, a book-sale data compiler that informs many publishers' decisions. More interesting details with
- [Booklish #5: Matilda Honey Oatmeal Scones](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-5-matilda-honey-oatmeal-scones/) - View Recipe: Matilda Honey Oatmeal Scones In case you can't tell from the title, giant slice of honeydew, or honeycomb in the picture, this Booklish is for a humble little children's book, Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988). Specifically, Miss Honey and Matilda are at the center of this feature today and this Booklish is an
- [The Etched City, by K. J. Bishop (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-etched-city-by-k-j-bishop-2003-e/) - Date Read: 5.24.09 Book From: Borrowed from kakaner Reviewer: Emera The Etched City is one of the most memorable books I’ve read this year, and certainly one of the best and most memorable fantasy books I have ever read. I hate to make hand-waving pronouncements like that, but I really can’t think of any other
- [The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill (1983) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-woman-in-black-by-susan-hill-1983-e/) - Date read: 12.21.10 Book from: Public library Reviewer: Emera The cover-flap copy for this book is so absurdly, inveiglingly charming that I just have to post the whole thing: What real reader does not yearn, somewhere in the recesses of his or her heart, for a really literate, first-class thriller - one that chills the
- [Author Event: Cat Valente reads from Deathless (April 2011)](https://theblackletters.net/author-event-cat-valente-reads-from-deathless-april-2011/) - (Juibilatory pre-script, appended 5.11: Valente's celebrated The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making has finally been released in bookity form! We covet, and so should you - just check out the reviews if you don't feel convinced by the title alone. [That might be 'coveted,' past tense, in Kakaner's case
- [Chalice, by Robin McKinley (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/chalice-by-robin-mckinley-2008-e/) - Date read: 1.2.11 Book from: Public library Reviewer: Emera "The story I tell over and over and over and over is Beauty and the Beast. It all comes from there. There are variations on the theme–and it’s inside out or upside down sometimes–but the communication gap between one living being and another is pretty much
- [All-new and unexpurgated](https://theblackletters.net/all-new-and-unexpurgated/) - My favorite book-news of late! An uncensored edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray has been published, based on Wilde's original typescript. Some previously snipped and pruned bits: Basil Hallward's more explicit effusions towards Dorian ("It is quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give
- [We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson (1962) E](https://theblackletters.net/we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-by-shirley-jackson-1962-e/) - Date read: 1.24.11 Book from: University library Reviewer: Emera Penguin Ink editions, when will you stop being awesome? Cover art by Thomas Ott. Shirley Jackson is the queen of opening lines: "My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with
- [SJ 2010](https://theblackletters.net/sj-2010/) - 2010 Shirley Jackson award nominees are out - which I'm selfishly extra-excited to see this year because Kakaner and I have scheduled a week this summer to go gallivanting off to Readercon, where the awards are presented. Awwww yeah. (This will be my first-ever con, for the record.) Dribs and drabs of thought - More
- [Time Warp 1987: F&SF and a couple of soggy old men](https://theblackletters.net/time-warp-1987-fsf-and-a-couple-of-soggy-old-men/) - I picked up a few old copies of Fantasy & Science Fiction for free this past fall, and should be posting a couple of reviews from them at intervals. Reading this issue, April 1987, meant a number of firsts for me - namely, my first time actually reading F&SF, my first time reading any non-electronic
- [Thirteenth Child, by Patricia Wrede (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/thirteenth-child-by-patricia-wrede-2009-k/) - Date Read: 3.31.11 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Thirteenth Child is set against the backdrop of an alternate universe that reads like turn of the 18th century America with magic-- a relatively developed and civilized East Coast and people applying for settlements and moving out West to pioneer the land. Magic is the center
- [Anna, by Isaac Marion and Sarah Musi (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/anna-by-isaac-marion-and-sarah-musi-2008-e/) - Date Read: 2.2.09 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Anna is the wistful tale of a young ghost who falls in love with a human boy. When I first stumbled upon Isaac Marion's short fiction online, it was one of the stories that most enchanted both Kakaner and me. In 2008, Marion self-published a 50-edition
- [A few things Gaiman, one thing not](https://theblackletters.net/a-few-things-gaiman-one-thing-not/) - Neil Gaiman will be writing the script for an English-language film adaptation of Journey to the West. This sounds like it should be very fun, indeed. There might also be some Guillermo del Toro in the mix, hurrah. At first when I read the news I also thought that this might be the project that
- [Another sad farewell](https://theblackletters.net/another-sad-farewell/) - Diana Wynne Jones has passed away at the age of 76. I had had no idea that she was ill. Apparently, at least as late as last summer she was still working on two books, which makes me think yet again how much I love authors as people, how much I admire their devotion to
- [Three appreciations for comics on the web](https://theblackletters.net/three-appreciations-for-comics-on-the-web/) - Two very short, one very long. (The comics themselves, I mean.) (Considering everything else going on in the world in these past weeks, it seems unreal that I can sit down to write a blog post about comics.) --- His Face All Red was Emily Carroll's comic offering for this past Halloween, and is one
- [B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth & Other Stories, by Mike Mignola (1998-2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/bprd-hollow-earth-other-stories-by-mike-mignola-1998-2003-e/) - Date read: 5/31/08 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth and Other Stories collects side stories of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, from the Hellboy universe, though all (deliberately) absent the eponymous hero. “Hollow Earth” (written by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Tom Sniegoski; art by Ryan Sook and Curtis Arnold):
- [Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede (1990) E](https://theblackletters.net/dealing-with-dragons-by-patricia-c-wrede-1990-e/) - Date read: 6.8.10; umpteenth re-read Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera I feel like I shouldn't need to introduce this book or this series. If you've never read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, what have you been doing with your life? Before Catherine, Called Birdy, before Ella Enchanted, before Robin McKinley's heroines, Cimorene rocked my life.
- [FreakAngels, by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield (2008-200*)](https://theblackletters.net/freakangels-by-warren-ellis-paul-duffield-2008-200/) - FreakAngels is an ongoing sci-fi/steampunk comic by Warren Ellis, syndicated online for free in weekly, six-page installments. It was begun in February of 2008, and I've been following it since then (I think I first saw it publicized on Coilhouse, my favorite blog). It follows the adventures of a group of young psychics who've dubbed
- ["Other times he'll hold me by the neck in front of the pyramids."](https://theblackletters.net/other-times-hell-hold-my-by-the-neck-in-front-of-the-pyramids/) - In the spirit of Bad Book Cover Fridays, may we suggest viewing these loving photographic recreations of Mills & Boon romance novel covers? Turtlenecks and teased blondes ahoy! (Link via an anonymous but appreciated benefactor.) - E
- [Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/where-the-mountain-meets-the-moon-by-grace-lin-2009-e/) - Date read: 12.16.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is as much a joy to hold (literally - it's the nicest size for a hardback) and look at as it is to read: The insides are just as beautiful, with colored text and chapter headers, and more of Grace
- [Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke (1972) K](https://theblackletters.net/rendezvous-with-rama-by-arthur-c-clarke-1972-k/) - Date Read: 08.28.10 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary A massive 50 km-long metal cylinder (later named Rama) is hurtling towards earth at an awesome speed. The discovery stirs the world into motion, culminating in the launch of a select few for an exploration mission. The chosen members immediately leave Earth to begin their
- [Picture Book Report comes to an end](https://theblackletters.net/picture-book-report-comes-to-an-end/) - I was too scatterbrained to link to this while it was running, but I recently saw the sad news that Picture Book Report, a blog bringing together 15 extremely talented illustrators to create an "extended love-song to books," is retiring after one year of operation. Check out the blog for varied illustrations and associated commentary
- [Congratulations to this year's Nebula nominees!](https://theblackletters.net/congratulations-to-this-years-nebula-nominees/) - Click to see the list And I have read... exactly none of the things on the list, sigh, though there are familiar names and familiar "I want to read this! when I have time! in my next life!" titles a-plenty. Kakaner and I have both been mostly swamped with work these days, if it's not
- [The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1921) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button-by-f-scott-fitzgerald-k/) - Date Read: 12.27.08 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary A look at the life of Benjamin Button who was born old and died young. Review I have never been a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, my only experience having been The Great Gatsby. I feel horrible saying that I didn't enjoy it in the
- [Farewell to Brian Jacques.](https://theblackletters.net/farewell-to-brian-jacques/) - Brian Jacques has passed away at the age of 71. I don't really know what to say right now.
- [Booklish #2: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Black Forest Raven Cake](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-2-jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell-black-forest-raven-cake/) - View Recipe: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Black Forest Raven Cake Today we celebrate Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004), a fantastical alternate history of gentlemen and magic, and an utmost obsession of Kakaner and Emera. We decided to honor this richly wrought tale of fairies, otherworlds, and scholarly magic with an appropriately
- [Booklish #4: Gone With the Wind Tara Cake](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-4-gone-with-the-wind-tara-cake/) - View Recipe: Gone With the Wind Tara Cake I envisioned nothing less than a grand, massive tiered cake for Margaret Mitchell's sweeping 1936 romantic epic, Gone With the Wind. This famous and controversial novel has all the good bits-- war, betrayal, unrequited love, mis-timed requited love-- and a spoiled southern belle forced to experience the
- [The Millenium, by Upton Sinclair (1924) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-millenium-by-upton-sinclair-1924-k/) - Date read: 12.24.08 Book from: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary (Copied from the back of the book). The year, 2000; the place, Central Park's 100-story Pleasure Palace, built expressly for the "pleasure of the ruling class." Shortly before the opening ceremony a radiumite explosion kills everyone in the world ... except for the eleven people
- [Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid (1990) K ](https://theblackletters.net/lucy-by-jamaica-kincaid-1990-k/) - Date read: 11.17.07 Book from: Borrowed from Stephane Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Lucy is 19 when she comes to America from the West Indies to be an au pair and escape her restrictive life. Her employers are the picture-perfect family-- the parents are in love, they are rich, and they have perfect children. However, Lucy soon
- [Pompeii, by Robert Harris (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/pompeii-by-robert-harris-e/) - Date read: 1.22.06 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera Attilius, newly appointed aquarius (engineer) to the great aqueduct Augusta after the disappearance of the previous aquarius, is charged by the scholar and general Pliny to repair the disrupted aqueduct. With the water supplies of nine cities at risk, Attilius travels to the corrupt and vice-filled
- [The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-remains-of-the-day-by-kazuo-ishiguro-1989-e/) - Date read: 1.4.06 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Stevens is the quintessential English butler: dignified, humorless, and obsessively devoted to his work, he defines his life through his service to the late Lord Darlington. Convinced for decades that he has contributed to humanity by serving a great man, Stevens begins to reevaluate his experiences
- [Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko (1998) E](https://theblackletters.net/night-watch-by-sergei-lukyanenko-1998-e/) - Date read: (incomplete) 10.17.10 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera Adapted from the back cover: "Set in contemporary Moscow, where shapeshifters, vampires, and streets-sorcerers linger in the shadows, Night Watch is the first book in an epic saga chronicling the eternal war of the 'Others,' an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who
- [Stalking Tender Prey, by Storm Constantine (1995) K](https://theblackletters.net/stalking-tender-prey-by-storm-constantine-1995-k/) - Date Read: 9.24.07 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Stalking Tender Prey sets the stage for an epic trilogy by introducing the intertwining stories of the Grigori (fallen angels) family line which begin in a little countryside town, Lil Moor. Certain people in Lil Moor discover latent psychic abilities and the arrival of a
- ["Spar," by Kij Johnson (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/spar-by-kij-johnson-2009-k/) - Date Read: 10.28.09 Read From: Clarkesworld Magazine Reviewer: Kakaner "Spar" is a grim, vulgar, unrelenting torrent of images and words that will leave you mouth agape and reeling. It is the horrifying tale of neverending rape and an examination of the human psyche under a most extreme duress. The storytelling definitely fits the actions and
- [Guess that children's book!](https://theblackletters.net/guess-that-childrens-book/) - One of my roommates and I work part-time for a children's library, and one of the activities this past fall was teaching kids how to interpret stained-glass windows - so in between midterm cramming, we ended up painting eight huge faux-stained-glass windows of popular children's (and a couple YA) books for the kids to guess.
- [The Woman Who Loved Reindeer, by Meredith Ann Pierce (1985) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-woman-who-loved-reindeer-by-meredith-ann-pierce-1985-e/) - Date Read: 6.10.09 (fourth[?] reread) Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Caribou is a dreamer of dreams, a solitary figure isolated from her tribe ever since the death of her father. One day her sister-in-law comes to her, bearing a strange golden child whom she begs Cari to conceal and raise. At first unwilling, Cari
- [Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett (2001) E](https://theblackletters.net/bel-canto-by-ann-patchett-2001-e/) - Date read: 6.8.10 Book from: Borrowed from my brother Reviewer: Emera Since I've been wasting too much time trying to write summaries and not enough actually reviewing, I'm deploying a back-cover summary here: Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country’s vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of
- ["Where is Rowan Morrison?"](https://theblackletters.net/where-is-rowan-morrison/) - I've always wanted to see the 1973 drama/thriller/sorta-horror classic The Wicker Man, and it ended up being a rollickingly fun watch for last week's summer solstice. In the film, straight-laced Sergeant Howie is dispatched to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Rowan Morrison on Summer Isle, a remote Scottish island, only to find
- [Beautiful Children, by Charles Bock (2008) K](https://theblackletters.net/beautiful-children-by-charles-bock-2008-k/) - Date Read: 9.07.10 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Beautiful Children brings together several perspectives of Las Vegas life-- a lower middle class suburban family, a couple involved in the sex industry, a barely-capable artist, and a pack teenage runaways -- unified by the themes of depravity, exploitation, and failure. One day, 12-year-old Newell,
- [Bear and His Daughter, by Robert Stone (1997) E](https://theblackletters.net/bear-and-his-daughter-by-robert-stone-1997-e/) - Date read: 2.13.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Bear and His Daughter is a collection of enormously depressing short stories about unhappy people with unhappy pasts and, frequently, drug dependencies. There's a washed-up poet in Mexico trying to escape his need for the validation of his strung-out friends as they hustle him up the
- [Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/water-for-elephants-by-sara-gruen-2006-e/) - Date read: 11.1.09 Read from: Borrowed from my brother Reviewer: Emera In the midst of the Great Depression, Jacob Jankowski receives news that an automobile accident has killed both of his parents. On top of that, he’s now penniless, as his parents secretly mortgaged their house and his father’s veterinary practice in order to pay
- [Filthy lucre](https://theblackletters.net/filthy-lucre/) - I've always been curious about the logistics of actually trying to make a living off of being an author (a sci-fi/fantasy author in particular, of course), so a couple of blog posts, both recent and older, have been particularly interesting and informative in this respect: John Scalzi talks about why he doesn't try to make
- [Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2004) E](https://theblackletters.net/let-the-right-one-in-by-john-ajvide-lindqvist-2004-e/) - Date Read: 6.13.09 Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Oskar is an alienated twelve-year-old living in a decaying Swedish suburb in the 1980's. He is brutally bullied at school, and fantasizes often about striking back at his tormentors, keeping a scrapbook of newspaper articles about murders as his inspiration. Two new neighbors move into Oskar's
- [The Book of the Damned, by Tanith Lee (1988) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-book-of-the-damned-by-tanith-lee-1988-e/) - Date read: 11.1.07; reread once or twice since Book from: Library originally; now personal collection Reviewer: Emera (There is nothing about this cover that does not amuse and please me. Consider it an honorary Bad Book Cover Friday?) Tanith Lee's The Secret Books of Paradys are among the most exquisitely aestheticized and unabashedly Gothic works
- [Bookstores of New York: Books of Wonder](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-new-york-books-of-wonder/) - Books of Wonder 18 West 18th Street, New York, New York Date visited: 07.31.09 This past summer, Kakaner and I, plus another friend, went on a mini-tour of several independent bookstores in New York City. Chief among our destinations was Books of Wonder, which specializes in children's and fantasy books, both new and collectible. I'd
- [Raise your hand...](https://theblackletters.net/raise-your-hand/) - ...if you love the feeling of going into a library and coming out again with more books than you know you can read in the time available. Ohhhhhhh yeah. (I've been working hard on whittling down the ratio of unread to read books in my collection, but for the holidays I decided to indulge and
- [Dystopia in YA](https://theblackletters.net/dystopia-in-ya/) - The New York Times interviews a bunch of notable YA/sff authors (and one academic) on what they think is driving the "dystopian trend" in current YA fiction. It struck me as being a little bit silly that they didn't interview any actual young adult readers, but it's still interesting to see the varieties of cynicism
- [The Inside, by Isaac Marion (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-inside-by-isaac-marion-2008-e/) - Date read: 2.6.09 Read from: Originally borrowed from Kakaner; now in personal collection, via Burning Building Reviewer: Emera At twelve, David falls asleep on a schoolbus, and meets, literally, the girl of his dreams. In real life, he grows up, marries a woman he thinks he loves, and proceeds to destroy both of their lives.
- [Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See (2005) K](https://theblackletters.net/snow-flower-and-the-secret-fan-by-lisa-see-2005-k/) - Date Read: 7.28.07 Book From: Borders Piracy Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Lily is born to a poor village family, but a prominent matchmaker notices Lily at a young age and informs her that her physical beauty may promise a prosperous marriage. To help the process, Lily is paired with a laotong (Chinese companion for life), Snow
- [M is for Magic, by Neil Gaiman (2007) K](https://theblackletters.net/m-is-for-magic-by-neil-gaiman-2007-k/) - Date Read: 7.4.07 Book From: Borders piracy Reviewer: Kakaner M is for Magic is a collection of short stories written for children. I had been eagerly anticipating the publication of this collection because I find Gaiman's writing tends to come across warmer and his characters more relatable in his children works (Coraline, Wolves in the
- [The Great Cambridge-Boston bookshop tour](https://theblackletters.net/the-great-cambridge-boston-bookshop-tour/) - In May of 2008, Kakaner and I undertook an epic walking tour of Cambridge and Boston bookshops - our goal was to walk from Central to Harvard Square and stop at every bookstore along the way, all in one morning and afternoon. Our first stop was the Cambridge Salvation Army bookstore, where, if I recall
- [Visual, aural, other?](https://theblackletters.net/visual-aural-other/) - Two blog posts on reading that piqued my interest lately: Ari Marmell talks about being "Blind in the Mind's Eye." That is, when reading or writing descriptions, he does not visualize them, and if he takes the conscious effort to do so, "it doesn't seem to add much value." I would have loved to know
- [The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16, ed. Stephen Jones (2005) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-mammoth-book-of-best-new-horror-16-ed-stephen-jones-2005-e/) - Date read: 8.3.09 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera I picked this and #15 up at a used book sale, partly out of a fit of pique that I couldn't find anything else to my taste - even though I didn't know anything about the actual quality of the anthology series. Luckily, every story in
- [Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/warm-bodies-by-isaac-marion-2009-e/) - Reviewer: Emera Date Read: 3.31.09 Book From: Personal Collection Warm Bodies is the tale of a zombie in a society of zombies. R (he can't remember the rest of his name), originally the entirely nameless protagonist of Marion's beautiful "I Am a Zombie Filled With Love," here has his story extended: during a raid on
- [100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, ed. Robert Weinberg (1995) E](https://theblackletters.net/100-vicious-little-vampire-stories-ed-robert-weinberg-1995-e/) - Date Read: 6.1.09 Book From: Personal collection (purchased via BetterWorld Books) Reviewer: Emera 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories (ed. Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, & Martin Greenberg) and I have a history that, like its title, is long and sordid. I first found a battered paperback copy on my fifth-grade teacher’s bookshelf and brought it home
- [New X-Men: Hellions (2005) E](https://theblackletters.net/new-x-men-hellions-2005-e/) - Date read: 12.23.07 Read from: Digital collection Reviewer: Emera A four-issue side-series off of the most recent New X-Men storyline, featuring, obviously, the current crop of Hellions, Emma Frost's protégés and the New X-Men's bestest rivals within the Xavier Institute. Written by Nunzio deFilippis and Christina Weir, pencils by Clayton Henry. At the end of
- [Favorites from the stash: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam](https://theblackletters.net/favorites-from-the-stash-the-rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/) - One of many books of which I'm really fond, despite it not being exceptionally attractive or at all rare. It's a bargain hardcover edition (Peter Pauper Press) of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam from the 1950's or '60's, and it's really kind of cheesy-looking (rather like Edward Fitzgerald's occasionally back-of-hand-pressed-to-brow maudlin*, very loose translations), yet
- [Well hello there, sweet thing.](https://theblackletters.net/well-hello-there-sweet-thing/) - Harlan Ellison is selling his first typewriter. - E
- [Sebastian O, by Grant Morrison, art by Steve Yeowell (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/sebastian-o-by-grant-morrison-art-by-steve-yeowell-1993-e/) - Date read: 6.11.08 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera "One must commit acts of the highest treason only when dressed in the most resplendent finery..." After over four years of squalid captivity, the infamous dandy Sebastian O escapes from Bedlam Asylum, determined to seek revenge for the treacherous destruction of his Club de Paradis Artificiel,
- ["Urchins, While Swimming," by Catherynne M. Valente (2006) E](https://theblackletters.net/urchins-while-swimming-by-catherynne-m-valente-2006-e/) - Date read: 8.5.09 Read in: Clarkesworld, Issue 3 Reviewer: Emera Catherynne Valente's short story "Urchins, While Swimming" left me wide-eyed and breathless. It's a simple, sorrowful, beautiful story, filled with unforgettable imagery and lyrical language. It's about love between mothers and daughters, and falling in love, and the Russian rusalka myth. (Unless you already know
- [King Solomon's Ring, by Konrad Lorenz (1949) E](https://theblackletters.net/king-solomons-ring-by-konrad-lorenz-1949-e/) - Date read: 3.20.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera In the chimney the autumn wind sings the song of the elements, and the old firs before my study window wave excitedly with their arms and sing so loudly in chorus that I can hear their sighing melody through the double panes. Suddenly from above, a
- [Not a re-read, but close enough](https://theblackletters.net/not-a-re-read-but-close-enough/) - Re-reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman in its entirety is one of those things that I've wanted to do for a while, but that looks increasingly unlikely to happen soon as the summer winds to a close. (nooooo....) Luckily, Matthew Cheney (of The Mumpsimus) provides an alternative, in his Sandman Meditations over at heady comic-book blog Gestalt
- [Deerskin, Robin McKinley (1993) K](https://theblackletters.net/deerskin-robin-mckinley-1993-k/) - Date Read: 09.01.2010 Book From: Dearest Emera Reviewer: Kakaner Summary (Shamelessly stolen from Emera's review-- if it ain't broke, why rewrite it?) Princess Lissla Lissar lives quietly and invisibly in the shadows of her father and mother, who are worshiped by the people, and whose love for each other is all-consuming. When Lissar’s mother mysteriously
- [The Midwife's Apprentice, by Karen Cushman (1995) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-midwifes-apprentice-by-karen-cushman-1995-e/) - Date Read: 6.11.09 (reread) Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera I must have picked this up at a used book sale a little while ago and forgotten that I had done so, because I found it on my shelf with no distinct memory of having acquired it - something that has been occurring with increasing
- [A very happy October to all](https://theblackletters.net/a-very-happy-october-to-all/) - On a very blustery, ashen autumn day indeed - "The skies they were ashen and sober; The leaves they were crisped and sere - The leaves they were withering and sere; It was night in the lonesome October Of my most immemorial year: It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, In the misty
- [Books within dreams within books within dreams...](https://theblackletters.net/books-within-dreams-within-books-within-dreams/) - (It didn't get that far, but maybe it will eventually, if I ever edge over some critical tipping point between "this is the part of my brain that is not filled with books" and "ALL IS BOOK HERE"...) I suddenly remembered just now that I had a dream last night about reading a book by
- [The Unicorn Sonata, by Peter S. Beagle (1996) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-unicorn-sonata-by-peter-s-beagle-1996-e/) - Date read: 8.1.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera (Photos originally featured in New books for August last year.) After being left with distinctly mixed feelings for China Miéville's Un Lun Dun (review), I experienced a bout of paranoia that maybe I was just getting too old for YA books. Cue further wibbling and visions
- [Everything's Eventual, by Stephen King (2002) E](https://theblackletters.net/everythings-eventual-by-stephen-king-2002-e/) - Date read: 4.27.08 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera A horror review for belated Halloween wishes, maybe? I have a weird love-hate relationship with King's fiction, characterized of late by a growing tolerance and respect for his work. About half of the time I find his work screechy, self-important, and overburdened with stylistic tics, but
- ["The Cull", by Robert Reed (2010) K](https://theblackletters.net/cull-by-robert-reed-2010-k/) - Date read: 9.8.10 Read from: Clarkesworld Magazine Reviewer: Kakaner Every station must have its doctor. The first doctor was a collection of wetware and delicate machinery designed to serve deep-space astronauts. He was built because human doctors were too expensive, doing little most of the time while demanding space and oxygen and food. The modern
- [Hugo winners, 2010](https://theblackletters.net/hugo-winners-2010/) - Sometime soon I hope to find enough brain to post something other than news, but in the meantime: 2010 Hugo Award winners announced! I'm excited to see a Bacigalupi/Miéville tie for best novel, and possibly even more excited to see that Clarkesworld won for best semi-prozine. Also, Moon for best dramatic presentation, long form, over
- [Varied links and sundry](https://theblackletters.net/varied-links-and-sundry/) - Jeff VanderMeer recently posted an extract from his introduction to Caitlín R. Kiernan's newest and tantalizingly awesome-sounding collection, The Ammonite Violin, of which a shiny and as-of-yet untouched copy is sitting on my shelf... "... [Kiernan's] is a kind of dirty, modern lyricism. Like many of the Decadents, her prose is, yes, lush, but it’s
- [Book title trends: The [Adjective/s] [Life/Time Period] of [Full Name]](https://theblackletters.net/book-title-trends-the-adjectives-lifetime-period-of-full-name/) - A worthy successor to the [Profession/Status/etc.]’s [Female Relation] trend? Just spotted from Librarything's* "Popular this month" list: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Stephanie Meyer The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot Pretty good sampling of genres there, too - one literary/historical fiction, one...
- [20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne (1870) K](https://theblackletters.net/20000-leagues-under-the-sea-by-jules-verne-1870-k/) - Date Read: 8.13.10 (reread) Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Review I recently made the perilous trek through Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier, which was a constant reminder that I should reread some Jules Verne. There have also just been a smattering of references here and there so I thought
- [2009 World Fantasy Award nominees announced](https://theblackletters.net/2009-world-fantasy-award-nominees-announced/) - Here they are! As usual, I've read a depressingly minute fraction of the list, but it does include a good chunk of Black Letters favorites - notably, Caitlín Kiernan's The Red Tree (my review here), one of our favorite reads of 2009. Congratulations to all the nominees! - E
- [Favorites from the stash: Orlando](https://theblackletters.net/favorites-from-the-stash-orlando/) - Mentioning Virginia Woolf's Orlando in the Argosy Books post made me remember that I had taken a couple of photos this past winter to show off my copy, just after I'd finished reading it. Of course I meant to review it, too, but my mind was so thoroughly blown that I still haven't been able
- [New books for August](https://theblackletters.net/new-books-for-august/) - In an effort to stave off our ridiculous acquisitions rates, Kakaner and I have undertaken a pact not to buy any more new books until... well, for as long as we can possibly restrain ourselves, and hopefully we've actually read the greater part of the books we've bought but haven't yet read. But prior to
- [Miéville and Moore in the New York Times](https://theblackletters.net/mieville-and-moore-in-the-new-york-times/) - Sending me into fangirl ecstasies, the New York Times featured two substantial pieces on speculative-fiction luminaries, this week and the last: In "Making Squid The Meat of the Story," China Miéville talks about his preferences in cephalopods; his newest novel, Kraken (speaking of which, I covergasmed recently over the art for Subterranean Press' limited edition); why
- [The Arcanum, by Thomas Wheeler (2004) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-arcanum-by-thomas-wheeler-2004-e/) - Date read: 7.26.10 Book from: Borrowed from a cousin Reviewer: Emera Incomplete read - one of those books that you start to get a bad feeling about as soon as you notice the back-cover blurbs are all by third-rate authors and obscure newspapers. The Arcanum is a supernatural thriller that attempts to gather together Sir
- [Bookstores of New York: Argosy Books](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-new-york-argosy-books/) - Argosy Books 116 East 59th Street, New York, New York Date visited: 07.16.10 You might remember that back in January, I attempted a visit to Argosy (Old and Rare Books, Prints and Maps) in New York, only to find that it was unexpectedly closed for most of the month. Two weeks ago, Kakaner and I
- [Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/un-lun-dun-by-china-mieville-2007-e/) - Date read: 7.17.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera What is Un Lun Dun? It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up... and some of its people, too - including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas; Obaday Fing, a
- [Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville (2007) K](https://theblackletters.net/un-lun-dun-by-china-mieville-2007-k/) - Date Read: 3.31.07 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Deeba and Zanna begin to experience strange phenomena until suddenly, one day, they find themselves in the alternate universe of Unlondon. Here they find that Unlondon has been waiting for a long time for Zanna, the "Shwazzy," to fight the evil Smog, an evil cloud
- [The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (2000) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-tipping-point-malcolm-gladwell-2000-k/) - Date Read: 6.27.10 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Malcolm Gladwell is a seasoned journalist and a staff writer for the The New Yorker, as evidenced by his tight, logical, and compelling writing. The Tipping Point explores the socioeconomic phenomenon of its namesake, "The Tipping Point," or the point at which some product, behavior, or
- [Astrological Angela Carter](https://theblackletters.net/astrological-angela-carter/) - Expect to see a lot of random posts about Angela Carter these days, because as part of my academic-year-end cool-down I've been indulging in a lot of re-reads of The Bloody Chamber, accompanied by munching of whatever academic essays I've been able to find for free through Jstor. wheee. (If you are not, like me,
- [Welcome to the Jungle, by Jim Butcher & Ardian Syaf (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/welcome-to-the-jungle-by-jim-butcher-ardian-syraf-2008-e/) - Date Read: 6.3.09 Book From: Library Reviewer: Emera A prequel to the first Dresden Files novel, “Welcome to the Jungle” is the first graphic novel addition to the series – a full adaptation of the first novel (Storm Front) is to come, apparently. The four-issue comic’s plot is boilerplate Dresden Files: a gruesome murder, this
- ["Summers at Blue Creek, North Carolina"](https://theblackletters.net/summers-at-blue-creek-north-carolina/) - Apologies from both of us for the long hiatus in posting - I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but there's always so much to do... I'm still toiling away on a huge review backlog, but in the meantime, here's a seasonally appropriate poem that's been my most re-read poem for the
- [Tales of madness and depravity](https://theblackletters.net/tales-of-madness-and-depravity/) - Reviewer: Emera I liiiiive! Somewhat. There are still exams to come, but I have a comfortable breathing space at the moment, so I'm going to work on whittling down my absurd backlog of short story reviews. To start, here are two helpings of dark fantasy/sci-fi. ---- The nurse said that when I’m moved to my
- [Nebulous destiny](https://theblackletters.net/nebulous-destiny/) - And the 2010 Nebula winners have been announced! I think I never got around to posting about the nominations here, but there was, of course, a lot of overlap with the 2010 Hugo nominees, and the winners included some familiar faces. Kij Johnson's "Spar" won for Best Short Story, and Catherynne Valente's The Girl Who
- ["Song of Wandering Aengus"](https://theblackletters.net/song-of-wandering-aengus/) - Song of Wandering Aengus I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught
- ["The Story of the Hinge"](https://theblackletters.net/the-story-of-the-hinge/) - A snippet of a larger (but still very short) prose piece, "Nothing Began as It Is," from Merwin's The Book of Fables: The story of the hinge is that it is learning to fly. "No hinge has ever flown," the locks tell it again and again. "That is why were are learning," it answers, "and
- ["Undertow"](https://theblackletters.net/undertow/) - This has been my generally favorite thing since I found it last week. I've been reading it a couple times a day since, and it still hits me every time - it's like being grabbed by the sternum and then having the rug pulled out from under my innards. whaaaaaat. But no, seriously, I love
- ["Where Laughter Came From"](https://theblackletters.net/where-laughter-came-from/) - As this is still in copyright, I am figuratively glancing about surreptitiously and wondering if I'm allowed to post this - but I can't resist. Where Laughter Came From Laughter was the shape the darkness took around the first appearance of the light. That was its name then: The Shape The Darkness Took Around The
- [What's weighing on your shelf?](https://theblackletters.net/whats-weighing-on-your-shelf/) - ...and hard on the heels of authorial astrology, comes bookshelf psychoanalysis! The New Yorker's book blog feature "The Subconscious Shelf" taps into that singular pleasure of scoping out other people's bookshelves: readers submit photos of their libraries, and the blog's contributors offer up lighthearted analyses of their tastes, concerns, aesthetics, and whatever else they can
- ["An Old-Fashioned Unicorn's Guide to Courtship," by Sarah Rees Brennan (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/an-old-fashioned-unicorns-guide-to-courtship-by-sarah-rees-brennan-2008-e/) - Date read: 10.29.2009 Read from: Coyote Wild (Aug. 2008 issue) Reviewer: Emera Very vaguely following in our theme of fairy tales for December, "An Old-Fashioned Unicorn's Guide..." is a dryly funny parody of fantasy romance and quest tropes, both old and new. Call it a PG-13 offering for fans of Patricia C. Wrede and Gail
- [The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart (2007) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-mysterious-benedict-society-by-trenton-lee-stewart-2007-k/) - Date Read:4.27.10 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary A newspaper runs a peculiar advertisement calling all "gifted children looking for special opportunities " to audition for a most prestigious and mysterious institution. Many respond to the ad, most of whom are goaded by their parents, but in particular, it is four family-less children who
- [Towering giants of literature](https://theblackletters.net/towering-giants-of-literature/) - Check out the Kansas City Public Library's 25-foot-tall "Community Bookshelf," which is apparently just one side of their parking garage. Wow. There's a full list of the bookshelf's contents here, along with a couple more photos. - E
- [20 of the world's most beautiful libraries](https://theblackletters.net/20-of-the-worlds-most-beautiful-libraries/) - Up for a visit? via Oddee. What does your dream library look like? Circular nooks or long galleries? Glass-fronted bookcases or open ones? Lush carpeting or hard-wood floors? Sliding ladders and secret passageways? Beds built into the bookcases so you don't even have to get up to reach your favorites?
- ["Hi Bugan ya Hi Kinggawan," by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (2010) E](https://theblackletters.net/hi-bugan-ya-hi-kinggawan-by-rochita-loenen-ruiz-2010-e/) - Date read: 4.4.08 Read from: Fantasy Magazine Reviewer: Emera ... The Mumbaki came, as did the elder warriors, and they sang of Bugan the sky goddess who descended to earth to marry the warrior Kinggawan. They sang of how the lovers lost each other and how Kinggawan seeks his Bugan to this day. When the
- [Wonder, bleakness, and beyond](https://theblackletters.net/wonder-bleakness-and-beyond/) - PSA - just in case it wasn't already sort of obvious, Bad Book Cover Fridays are on hiatus while I plumb new depths of procrastination finish my theses (holycrap). In the meantime, please enjoy the ever-encyclopedic David Forbes' mind-blowing essay, "Sovereign Bleak" (via Coilhouse) on sci-fi landmarks and the philosophical trends that shaped them. -
- [The Cat in the Coffin, by Mariko Koike (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-cat-in-the-coffin-by-mariko-koike-2009-k/) - Translated 2009 by Deborah Boliver Boehm. Date Read: 4.11.10 Book From: Personal Collection, from Vertical, Inc. Reviewer: Kakaner Summary The Cat in the Coffin is a romance/suspense (rather than a romance/mystery as the back cover claims) novel set in Japan that revolves around three lives: Masayo, an aspiring painter who is simultaneously a casual student
- [Crystal Singer, by Anne McCaffrey (1982) E](https://theblackletters.net/crystal-singer-by-anne-mccaffrey-1982-e/) - Date read: 4.8.10 Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Blast from the past! Between the ages of about ten and thirteen, I made my way through most of Anne McCaffrey's major series*, starting with (of course) the Dragonriders of Pern books. The Crystal Singer trilogy was always my favorite guilty pleasure, though, at least in
- [Oh, and](https://theblackletters.net/oh-and/) - 2010 Hugo nominations are out! Whoo! ...and yet again, remind me of the extent to which I don't have time to keep up with current reading. Boo. Between the two of us, I think Kakaner and I have read 5 things on the ballot (Boneshaker, The City & The City, Palimpsest, "Spar," and Batman: Whatever
- [Booklish #3: Rorschach Cheesecake](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-3-rorschach-cheesecake/) - View Recipe Featured here is a gnarly wrought-chocolate cheesecake to commemorate Alan Moore's vengeful vigilante, Rorschach. Pardon the craftsmanship-- Rorschach blots are definitely supposed to be more symmetrical, but with only a wooden spoon and various other home tools, this was the best I could manage. This creation is rather straightforward, but there are some
- [BBCF: I Will Fear No Evil](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-i-will-fear-no-evil/) - So when it comes to book covers, there's overly literal, and then there's this kind of thing, courtesy the mass-market paperback cover of Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil: Allegorical representation of Something Profound About America, With Purple Pixie Dust? Thinly veiled excuse for female nudity? Who knows? Go to: Bad Book Covers Friday
- [The reader-writer "contract"](https://theblackletters.net/the-reader-writer-contract/) - I've been thinking lately about how readers interact with the books that they read, and I have a few questions that I'd be interested in seeing others' opinions on. I'm interested in the idea of the reader-writer contract - the idea that some type of mutual obligation exists between readers and writers. At the most
- [BBCF: The Technic Civilization Saga](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-technic-civilization-saga/) - So this week's BBCF stars are tasteless enough that I'm putting them both under a cut. Very much borderline NSFW/NSFpeaceofmind/Ican'tbelievethisactuallyexistsandwasapproved. "In three full-length novels, [Flandry] will rise from young ensign to lieutenant commander as he outthinks rivals and thwarts adversaries, blazing a trail across the galaxy in defense of an Empire which barely appreciates him
- [BBCF: Relationships II](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-relationships-ii/) - [Sorry for the lateness - apparently I specialize in redefining "Friday."] Oh small presses, sometimes (frequently) I just don't know what you were thinking. So far I've tried to stay away from small-small-press covers because they do what they do under so many constraints, but sometimes - yeah, I just really don't know what they
- [Author Event: Joe Hill reads from Horns (February 2010)](https://theblackletters.net/author-event-joe-hill-reads-from-horns-february-2010/) - Author: Joe Hill Date: 2.22.10 Book: Horns Venue: Porter Square Books Reviewer: Kakaner Porter Square Books is a quaint bookstore tucked away in Porter Square, Cambridge and features a popular fair-trade cafe. We arrived early for front row seats, and discovered while waiting that we had been seated in the... SAT prep and pregnancy help
- [Author Event: China Mieville overlays The City & The City (June 2009)](https://theblackletters.net/author-event-china-mieville-overlays-the-city-the-city-june-2009/) - Author: China Mieville Date: 6.03.09 Book: The City & The City Sponsor: Harvard Book Store Venue: First Parish Church; Cambridge, MA Reviewer: Kakaner China Mieville is a master. Until you meet him or hear him speak, he is the demigod, the big black ominous fog of Un Lun Dun, the dark force that lurks behind
- [BBCF: The Saga of Recluce](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-saga-of-recluce/) - Apologies for actually missing Friday - it's been a long week. To make up for it, for this week's Bad Book Cover Friday, I'm covering (har [?]) a series that Kakaner has been begging me to do pretty much since the beginning - L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s The Saga of Recluce. These covers actually work
- ["26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss," by Kij Johnson (2008) K](https://theblackletters.net/26-monkeys-also-the-abyss-by-kij-johnson-2008-k/) - Date Read: 11.03.09 Read From: Asimov's July 2008 Reviewer: Kakaner Well, after reading "Spar", I was mighty curious to see what all the fuss with Kij Johnson was about so I searched up her most famous story. "26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss" won the 2009 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and is currently
- ["Her Mother's Ghosts," by Theodora Goss (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/her-mothers-ghosts-by-theodora-goss-2008-e/) - Date read: 11.6.09 Read from: Clarkesworld #23 Reviewer: Emera Theodora Goss' "Her Mother's Ghosts," recommended to me an age ago by Maureen, is a brief, achingly beautiful meditation on family and heritage. The language is simple, rhythmical, and carefully chosen, and the strength and purity of the emotion that it evokes hit me particularly hard
- [Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/remarkable-creatures-by-tracy-chevalier-2009-k/) - Date Read: 1.29.10 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary When Elizabeth Philpot and her sisters move to Lyme Regis, resigned to a life of spinstershood tucked away in a modest English seaside village, she finds herself befriending a queer fossil hunter, Mary Anning. Through Elizabeth's education and readings, and Mary's instinctive knowledge of the
- [BBCF: The Alphabet Mysteries](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-alphabet-mysteries/) - For this week's Bad Book Cover Friday, we have the covers of Sue Grafton's alphabet mystery series, a.k.a. the Kinsey Millhone novels. Kakaner referred me to these for the purposes of BBCF, and ever since then I can't stop seeing them in used book sale piles everywhere. Deeply mediocre, in a "we had no budget
- [BBCF: Diamond Star](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-diamond-star/) - For this week's Bad Book Cover Friday, I present the cover of Catherine Asaro's Diamond Star: Yet again. Yes, the book is actually about rock stars in space (rather, a rock star in space). And it actually sounds like a very entertaining, cleverly conceived book, too. Unfortunately, when the cover artist was told "futuristic," s/he
- [The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-city-of-ember-by-jeanne-duprau-2003-e/) - Date read: 1.26.10 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera "The city of Ember was made for us long ago by the Builders. It is the only light in the dark world. Beyond Ember, the darkness goes on forever in all directions." At the age of twelve, every child in Ember is assigned a job.
- [Dodgy business at Amazon, part three hundred and two](https://theblackletters.net/dodgy-business-at-amazon-part-three-hundred-and-two/) - And this would be why Amazon tends to make me uncomfortable: Amazon removes all Macmillan books from its store listings, in retaliation for pricing disputes. (via the New York Times) Cory Doctorow provides useful perspective on the matter here, with a general consideration of the problems of market concentration and Amazon's DRM policy. (You may
- [BBCF: The God Engines](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-god-engines/) - By request of Kakaner, the star of this week's Bad Book Covers Friday (an hour and a bit late by my timezone; whoops) is the unreleased* version of the cover of John Scalzi's The God Engines, released by Subterranean Press: Missing the baby-fresh complexion, the rosy glow that once graced your youth? Just try stripping
- [BBCF: The Gathering Storm](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-gathering-storm/) - Friday again already? How time flies when you're not sleeping regularly... but I wouldn't know anything about that, not with my stupendous skills of time management. Anyway, per Anda's request, here's our second installment of Bad Book Cover Fridays - from Robert Jordan's notoriously lengthy Wheel of Time saga, it's the cover of the twelfth
- [BBCF: The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-the-mammoth-book-of-best-new-horror-16/) - Stephen Jones' Mammoth Book of Best New Horror is a wonderfully edited series of collections (I reviewed #16 here), but 1. the title blows and 2. the covers are, predictably, hit or very, very, very miss. The following cover fails both at having taste, and at being any kind of horrrifying other than the "I
- [Roosterguarded](https://theblackletters.net/roosterguarded/) - is the euphemism that Kakaner and another friend helped me come up with for how I felt after I walked a fair distance under rather chilly conditions, only to find that the target of my latest and much-anticipated awesome-bookstore visit, Argosy Books (116 East 59th Street, New York, New York) was CLOSED. Approaching the target
- [Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/warm-bodies-by-isaac-marion-2009-k/) - Reviewer: Kakaner Date Read: 3.15.09 Book From: Personal Collection Summary A zombie in a post-apocalyptic desolate landscape befriends a rare living girl and finds himself being transformed by his relationship with her. An extension of a short story by the same author: I am a Zombie Filled with Love. Review This was... sadly underwhelming and
- [The Woman in the Wall, by Patrice Kindl (1998) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-woman-in-the-wall-by-patrice-kindl-1998-e/) - Date read: 3.22.06 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera Rendered nearly invisible by her painful shyness, Anna is the middle girl of three sisters living with their mother in a rambling Victorian home. At seven years old, terrified by the impending threat of school, she retreats into passageways and secret rooms of her own
- ["A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica," by Catherynne M. Valente (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/a-buyers-guide-to-maps-of-antarctica-by-catherynne-m-valente-2008-e/) - Date read: 8?.09 Read from: Clarkesworld #20 Reviewer: Emera I had previously mentioned "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica" as being one of my favorite short stories read in 2009, yet had never gotten around to posting a review. I don't want to spoil a single bit of it, so I'll just say that
- ["Lover and long-legged girl" ](https://theblackletters.net/lover-and-long-legged-girl/) - Maxine Kumin reads "Looking Back in My Eighty-first Year" (via Poems Out Loud) I got to hear Maxine Kumin read this past autumn, and enjoyed the clarity and directness of her language - qualities particularly appreciated during a reading, I'm not gonna lie. I've been zigzagging through her Selected Poems, 1960-1990 since then, and have
- [Winter is for fairy tales](https://theblackletters.net/winter-is-for-fairy-tales/) - Reviewer: Emera Actually, every season is for fairy tales, but fairy tales are particularly wonderful when the weather is miserable, I find. Below, quick reviews of two stories that I read within the past few months, both spun from fairy tales. With any luck, I should be able to post a few more later in
- ["Half Flight," by Shweta Narayan (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/half-flight-by-shweta-narayan-2008-e/) - Date read: 1.7.09 Read from: The Journal of Mythic Arts Reviewer: Emera More fairy tales, finally! I'm backed up on reviews to the point of - well, I'm always backed up on reviews, but I'm feeling particularly guilty about not getting to reviews of all the nifty short stories, fairy-tale-inspired and otherwise, that I've been
- [Anna, by Isaac Marion and Sarah Musi (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/anna-by-isaac-marion-2009-k/) - Date Read: 6.11.08 Book From: BurningBuilding, now Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner The summer I discovered Isaac Marion's fiction (or more correctly, Emera discovered and I piggybacked on that), I ran around my friends group trying to get everyone to read his stories. I basically spent all of a work day on BurningBuilding engrossed in his
- [In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant (2006) K](https://theblackletters.net/in-the-company-of-the-courtesan-by-sarah-dunant-2006-k/) - Date Read: 12.14.06 Book From: Boston Public Library Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Bucino is a dwarf who serves one of the most beautiful and successful courtesans in Rome. However, the war forces them to flee to the courtesan's birthplace, Venice, where she is forced to build her career and reputation again out of nothing. Review In
- [Antibodies, by David Skal (1988) K](https://theblackletters.net/antibodies-by-david-skal-1988-k/) - Date Read: 6.27.09 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner I have finally waded out of a merciless sea of deadlines, grad apps, visiting parents, and other such nonsense to bring you a review of scifi crack in book form. So I apologize for my contribution to any recent TBL droughts. Antibodies is the story of
- [Booklish Inauguration- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Lemon Brick Cake](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-inauguration-the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz-lemon-brick-cake/) - Introducing... Booklish! A new, biweekly feature showcasing culinary creations (with accompanying recipes) inspired by books or fictional characters. Read more about this feature here. This inaugural installment is devoted to L. Frank Baum's 1900 classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. View Recipe: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Lemon Brick Cake Today, we have brick-layered lemon
- [Sandman, 10 (and maybe 5) years later](https://theblackletters.net/sandman-10-and-maybe-5-years-later/) - "Change, change, change: Sandman and the ’90s" I've had this link in my bookmarks-to-follow-up-on forever, but didn't get around to checking it out till now, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's an essay about Neil Gaiman's The Sandman by the (unnamed?) blogger of Grand Hotel Abyss, and it does a number of wonderful things. One, it elegantly
- [Some words (and exploding high-fives) with Isaac Marion](https://theblackletters.net/some-words-and-exploding-high-fives-with-isaac-marion/) - If you've been following us for a while, you've probably noticed our mild obsession with the works of one Isaac Marion, a mysterious and sardonic Northwesterner who has independently published two novels and, on his website, many short stories - all horrifying, hilarious, and heartwarming in various measures. I first stumbled on his signature story
- [Most memorable reads of 2009](https://theblackletters.net/most-memorable-reads-of-2009/) - Plain and simple, our favorite reads of the year. What were yours? Emera's most memorable reads In the order in which I read them, with review links where available, and blurbs where not. First, novels and graphic novels (with one manga series snuck in): The Inside, by Isaac Marion (2008) The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin
- [Freakonomics, by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt (2005) K](https://theblackletters.net/freakonomics-by-stephen-dubner-and-steven-levitt-2005-k/) - Date Read: 1.7.07 Book from: Boston Public Library Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Levitt and Dubner explore several unorthodox theories behind crime and parenthood using their own statistics. Review I started reading Freakonomics with *a lot* of expectation from all the hype and word of mouth. It was an incredibly short read, and in the end, I
- [Solar Storms, Energy Shortages, and an Overloaded Internet...](https://theblackletters.net/solar-storms-energy-shortages-and-an-overloaded-internet/) - ... are three reasons why Margaret Atwood believes we should keep the paper book. There's a little bit of a spat going on in the comments of Margaret Atwood's blog concerning the digitalization of books. While many people do fervently agree with Atwood's reasoning (well, if they're reading the blog they probably enjoy reading good
- ["New Envoy’s Old Advice for Children: Read More"](https://theblackletters.net/new-envoy’s-old-advice-for-children-read-more/) - Katherine Paterson has been appointed the Library of Congress's National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature: "New Envoy’s Old Advice for Children: Read More" (via the New York Times) Hooray! And a lovely, Matilda-ish quotation from Paterson: As the daughter of missionary parents in China, she read her way through her parents' library of children's classics
- [In Which Emera and Kakaner Try to Memorize Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, K](https://theblackletters.net/in-which-emera-and-kakaner-try-to-memorize-jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell-k/) - Once upon a time, Emera and Kakaner were high school students who shared roughly half their classes and more importantly, were badminton partners in gym. I am writing to tell you all about a peculiar period of time in our senior year of high school during which we tried to memorize the hulking blaring entirety
- [Additions to the horde](https://theblackletters.net/additions-to-the-horde/) - Since gifts inevitably and wonderfully mean new books. (Also, when it comes to books, I feel like there's not that much of a difference between a horde and a hoard.) Two pocket-sized, appropriately wintry, deliciously fully-cloth-bound-with-color-plate volumes of adorable. (Am I gushing too obviously? They really are that adorable, though.) Neil Gaiman's Odd and the
- [An unexpected holiday present for publishing](https://theblackletters.net/an-unexpected-holiday-present-for-publishing/) - "Dreamy Sales of Jung Book Stir Analysis" (har) Absolutely fascinating NYTimes article about how a hefty, pricy (list price $195), luxuriously crafted ("the book is partly hand-bound, uses two different kinds of custom-made paper and is printed in Italy") reproduction of Carl Jung's illustrated, hand-written The Red Book has been selling astoundingly well. It's sold
- [The Red Tree and false memories: a neurological addendum](https://theblackletters.net/the-red-tree-and-false-memories-a-neurological-addendum/) - After going on for so long about subjective truth and retrospective reconstruction of experience in my review of The Red Tree, I was highly amused when what I picked up to read after finishing the review turned out to have some highly relevant passages. From Michael S. Gazzaniga's "The Split Brain Revisited" (Scientific American, 1998),
- [The Alleluia Files, by Sharon Shinn (1999) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-alleluia-files-by-sharon-shinn-1999-e/) - Date read: 2/20/06 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera [Warning: Summary contains spoilers for the last two books of the Samaria trilogy, though the back-cover summary of the very first book spoils it all anyway (wtf).] On the angel-governed planet of Samaria, Tamar is a member of the Jacobites, a cult persecuted and nearly destroyed
- [The Shape-Changer's Wife, by Sharon Shinn (1995) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-shape-changers-wife-by-sharon-shinn-e/) - Date read: 1.6.06 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera Always hungry for new knowledge, the magician Aubrey leaves his master to become the apprentice of the famed and reclusive shape-changer Glyrenden. Surrounded by a forest in Glyrenden’s decaying mansion, with only two eccentric servants for company, Aubrey becomes increasingly mesmerized by Glyrenden’s aloof and otherworldly
- [Archangel, by Sharon Shinn (1997) E](https://theblackletters.net/archangel-by-sharon-shinn-1997-e/) - Date read: 9/15/05 Read from: Public library Reviewer: Emera Samaria is a utopian, hierarchical world, its people divided into strict social castes, from the wealthy, land-holding Manadavvi to the nomadic Edori. All are guided by the winged angels, who arbitrate mortal disputes and pray directly to the god Jovah through their music. Gabriel is an
- ["Denise Jones, Super Booker," by John Scalzi (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/denise-jones-super-booker-by-john-scalzi-2008-e/) - Date read: 8.14.09 Read from: Subterranean Press Reviewer: Emera John Scalzi's "Denise Jones, Super Booker" is a superhero satire that makes me not tired of the superhero satire trend. It's a wry sketch in the form of an interview with an agent who books superheroes for employment opportunities ranging from contracts with cities in need
- [Bookstores of New York: Skyline Books](https://theblackletters.net/bookstores-of-new-york-skyline-books/) - Skyline Books 13 West 18th Street, New York, New York Date visited: 07.31.09 Just across the street from Books of Wonder is Skyline Books. We ducked in because a. it was raining and b. it was just across the street from Books of Wonder (duh). It proved to be kind of dingy and smelled strongly
- [Shadow of the Giant, by Orson Scott Card (2005)](https://theblackletters.net/shadow-of-the-giant-by-orson-scott-card-2005/) - Date read: 10.28.09 Book from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera Aaaand approximately 11 years after I first read Ender's Game, I've finally finished the last book of the original two Ender series. (Nope, still haven't read Ender in Exile, though Kakaner has already hit it up.) I feel as though I should get some kind
- [Deerskin, by Robin McKinley (1993) E](https://theblackletters.net/deerskin-by-robin-mckinley-1993-e/) - Date read: 8.31.09 (second re-read - first read sometime in 2005) Book from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Princess Lissla Lissar lives quietly and invisibly in the shadows of her father and mother, who are worshiped by the people, and whose love for each other is all-consuming. When Lissar’s mother mysteriously wastes away, she forces her
- [The Man in the Ceiling, by Jules Feiffer (1995) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-man-in-the-ceiling-by-jules-feiffer-1995-k/) - Date Read: 10.12.09 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Jimmy Jibbett is a boy who dreams of becoming a comic book artist and spends his days in the basement making his stories come to life on paper. His mother is also an artist, but his father is a humorless businessman and his two sisters
- [Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card (2002) E](https://theblackletters.net/shadow-puppets-by-orson-scott-card-2002-e/) - Date read: 8.22.09 (re-read; originally read in about 2004 or 2005) Read from: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera N.B. This review is probably not very accessible to anyone who hasn't read any of the Shadow Saga sequels to Ender's Game, as this comes nearly at the tail end of the series. If you haven't read
- ["The perverse allure of a damaged woman"](https://theblackletters.net/the-perverse-allure-of-a-damaged-woman/) - How Ayn Rand became an American woman (via Slate) Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the
- ["100 Best Fictional Characters Since 1900"](https://theblackletters.net/100-best-fictional-characters-since-1900/) - ...at least according to Book magazine in 2002. "Best of" lists are overdone and hopelessly subjective (which is half of the fun of them, I guess*), and neither Kakaner nor I can ever get enough of them. I don't even know what the criteria for "best" are here - though I assume it orbits somewhere
- [The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-little-stranger-by-sarah-waters-2009-k/) - Date Read: 9.26.09 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary The story follows Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor who calls upon the residents of the once glorious Hundreds Hall and begins to form a friendship with the remaining family and staff that reside there. His friendship to the family becomes a crux on which they
- ["Advection," by Genevieve Valentine (2009) E](https://theblackletters.net/advection-by-genevieve-valentine-2009-e/) - Date read: 8.14.09 Read from: Clarkesworld Magazine Reviewer: Emera Genevieve Valentine's "Advection" is a wistful, elegiac, soft science fiction story, set amid the elite children of an Earth that has lost its oceans and rain. Though light on character development, it's full of runs of understated lyricism, and beautifully sustains a mood of distant yearning.
- [Galápagos, by Kurt Vonnegut (1985) E](https://theblackletters.net/galapagos-by-kurt-vonnegut-1985-e/) - Date read: 4.29.08 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera As the world economy crashes and the majority of the human race begins to plunge to its end, half a dozen oblivious individuals make their way aboard a luxury cruise liner. The ship will indeed reach its ultimate destination - the Galápagos Islands - but rather
- [The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova (2005) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-historian-by-elizabeth-kostova-2005-e/) - Date read: 12.30.07 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera In The Historian, the titular scholar reminisces about the quest that she, her father, and her father’s mentor pursued several decades ago. All three became determined to discover the origins, deeds, and whereabouts of the true Dracula, the now-immortal Romanian warlord Vlad Tepes. It should probably
- [Introducing Paige M. Gutenborg](https://theblackletters.net/introducing-paige-m-gutenborg/) - Recently, the Harvard Book Store unveiled a machine that has been many years in the making... Paige M. Gutenborg! Basically, Paige runs on a hugeeeeeee printer.And there's clear casing around the portion that actually holds the printouts and binds the book so you can watch! Some printed books! Notice the chadding on the edges from
- [Isaac Marion Stash and a Story](https://theblackletters.net/isaac-marion-stash-and-cool-story/) - By now, I'm sure you've seen Emera's and my numerous reviews of Isaac Marion's works, namely The Inside, Warm Bodies, and Anna. These works are pretty much all highly recommended, and are self-published by Marion (links provided at the bottom of this post). Marion is noted for his strange genre niche that is, for the
- [Two reviews of reviews (sort of)](https://theblackletters.net/two-reviews-of-reviews-sort-of/) - Ursula LeGuin wrote a very useful review of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood that I just finished reading, in which she touches on one of my favorite conundrums: what does it mean to call oneself "genre" versus "literary"? Atwood apparently likes rejecting the sci-fi designation, based on an arbitrary definition that I frankly
- [Awards season](https://theblackletters.net/awards-season/) - I can't say I'm qualified to blog about genre fiction awards season, given that I generally straggle at least one year behind current offerings in the field, but I'm still having fun following the buzz surrounding the 2009 Hugo Awards and World Fantasy Awards, the shortlists for which have been released. SF Signal has an
- [Valente on The Red Tree and horror](https://theblackletters.net/valente-on-the-red-tree-and-horror/) - Author Catherynne M. Valente made a beautiful blog post yesterday on her reaction to reading Caitlin R. Kiernan's newest release, The Red Tree. She discusses how she read the book, her early relationship (read: obsession) with horror novels, New England's unique signficance in the horror genre, and what really lies at the center (or bottom)
- [Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom (1997) ](https://theblackletters.net/tuesdays-with-morrie-by-mitch-albom-1997/) - Date Read: 9.24.09 Book From: Neha Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Morris Schwartz, a professor of sociology at Brandeis, discovers he has ALS and begins his journey to death. Mitch Albom, the author, learns of his professor's condition and begins to visit him regularly on Tuesdays for his "one last class". Tuesdays with Morrie chronicles Morrie's last
- [Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay (2004) K](https://theblackletters.net/darkly-dreaming-dexter-by-jeff-lindsay-2004-k/) - Date Read: 11.26.08 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Short version: Dexter S1. Long version: Dexter, a serial killer of serial killers, works in the Miami Metro Police as a blood spatter analyst alongside with his foster sister Deb. We learn that Dexter was taken from a violent crime scene and raised by a
- [Slam, by Nick Hornby (2008) K](https://theblackletters.net/slam-by-nick-hornby-2008-k/) - Date Read: 6.14.09 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Well. Sam is a normal teenager obsessed with skateboarding and sports crushes here and there. He gets his girlfriend pregnant, and suddenly, he has a world of responsibility and decisions to face. Review Overall it was meh. Straight off I'm going to say I don't
- [Affinity, by Sarah Waters (1999) K](https://theblackletters.net/affinity-by-sarah-waters-1999-k/) - Date Read: 12.26.07 Book From: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Margaret Prior becomes a "Lady Visitor" at the Millbank prison. There, she takes in the prison experience, from the food to the garb to the treatment of the prisoners and takes steps to befriend and be a source of comfort for many of the inmates.
- [Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk (2002) K](https://theblackletters.net/lullaby-by-chuck-palahniuk-2002-k/) - Date Read: 7.05.06 Book From: Borrowed from Kathy Reviewer: Kakaner Summary A culling song is a song Africans used to sing to people about to die to ease the suffering of passing. However, one particular culling song is able to kill instantly upon being heard. A reporter investigating infant deaths discovers that by each infant's
- [King Rat, by China Miéville (1998) E](https://theblackletters.net/king-rat-by-china-mieville-1998-e/) - Date read: 10.10.08 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera The day after stumbling drunk into his father’s flat, Saul Garamond wakes to find that he is the chief suspect in his father’s killing – which occurred as he slept one room over. Sprung from jail by a raggedly pompous, sinuously sinister figure who calls himself
- [Ender in Exile, by Orson Scott Card (2008) K](https://theblackletters.net/ender-in-exile-by-orson-scott-card-2008-k/) - Date Read: 12.28.08 Book From: BNN Piracy now Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner After Emera posted her Shadow Puppets review, I was inspired to dig this up, so here it is. Summary After the Bugger Wars, Ender is caught in social crossfire and a political tug-of-war on Earth; as a result, he ultimately decides to embark
- [The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (2003) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-time-travelers-wife-by-audrey-niffenegger-2003-e/) - Date read: 8.27.09 Read from: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera Henry DeTamble travels, involuntarily, in time; Clare Abshire is the woman who has loved him since she was 6 years old, and he, displaced in time - but in his own timeline already married to her - introduces himself to her in a meadow. The Time Traveler's
- [If you've ever felt inadequate about your bookshelves...](https://theblackletters.net/if-you-ever-felt-inadequate-about-your-bookshelves/) - ...take a look at Neil Gaiman's library. As featured in Shelfari, which appears to be a sort of Facebook for people obsessed with books. The only other time I've seen that many (predominantly) genre books in one place is, well, never. (Maybe Kakaner has seen more, given that she's personally ransacked the catacombs of the
- [Unveiling our Top 10 YA Books List](https://theblackletters.net/unveiling-our-top-10-ya-books-list/) - The time has come for another list! As you will all soon come to realize, Emera and Kakaner have a dire weaknesses for creating and maintaining lists. We are also both fanatic collectors and readers of YA books, even in our post-teenage years The list is reproduced below, but its permanent home is on our
- [We don't sparkle...](https://theblackletters.net/we-dont-sparkle/) - ...but we do hunger immortally. And if we could stalk books and watch them sleep, we probably would. Below, find some of our most yearned-after books, over which sighs have been heaved and wallets have been fingered. Emera's delicious unattainables Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Signed, limited, $200 (HarperCollins, 2009) - The first Neil Gaiman novel I
- [Robot Dreams, by Isaac Asimov (1986) K](https://theblackletters.net/robot-dreams-by-isaac-asimov-1986-k/) - Date Read: 11.22.07 Book From: MITSFS, now Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Robot Dreams is simply an amazing work of art. I've always believed there really is no other science fiction author who has managed to capture the emotional and ethical plights of robotics, and indeed, Asimov was the first to invent the concepts themselves. Robot
- [Hugos a go-go](https://theblackletters.net/hugos-a-go-go/) - The winning Hugos have been declared, and I suspect that no one was too surprised by the results. For one, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book did indeed take best novel, making this Gaiman's fourth Hugo win, out of six nominations - one of which, for Anansi Boys, Gaiman actually turned down. Not a bad record,
- ["Exhalation", by Ted Chiang (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/exhalation-by-ted-chiang-2009-k/) - Date Read: 8.11.09 Read In: Night Shade Download Reviewer: Kakaner Exhalation is one of those special gems of short fiction that comes along only once in a while. The story belongs in a pocket of science fiction that not many people write in, and really stands out from the usual space fiction, sci-fi/fantasy meld, dystopia,
- ["Behind the Mirror," by Yoon Ha Lee (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/behind-the-mirror-by-yoon-ha-lee-2007-e/) - Date read: 8.10.09 Read in: Coyote Wild Reviewer: Emera Yoon Ha Lee's flash fiction (I did a word count out of curiosity - 223) "Behind the Mirror" is lovely, sad, and unsettling, and has one of the most memorable single lines I've read, that could be a poem all by itself. The story has an
- [Tell us a little bit about yourself...](https://theblackletters.net/tell-us-a-little-bit-about-yourself/) - In an attempt to get to know our readership better, we'd like to hear from you guys! So if you see this post or follow this blog, please comment and respond to the following: 1) Where do you live? 2) What's your favorite genre? 3) What one book do you think WE should read? Thanks
- ["The most frightening American poet ever"](https://theblackletters.net/the-most-frightening-american-poet-ever/) - My knowledge of poets tends to be acquired in a desultory fashion, so I'd never heard of Frederick Seidel until I read "The Edge of Night," an entertaining and well-written review of Seidel's collected poems by David Orr of the New York Times. Seidel is an anomaly as a professional poet, in that he's rich
- [The Scandal of the Season, by Sophie Gee (2007) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-scandal-of-the-season-by-sophie-gee-2007-e/) - Date Read: 12.17.08 Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Emera English poet Alexander Pope achieved his fame and success when in 1712 he published his mock-epic poem, “The Rape of the Lock,” satirizing the public disgrace of the renowned beauty Arabella Fermor. This novel follows Pope’s rise to fame, as he departs his country home to
- [Coolest random tidbit from a random book of the week](https://theblackletters.net/coolest-random-tidbit-from-a-random-book-of-the-week/) - From Arika Okrent's In the Land of Invented Languages: of the 500 invented languages that Okrent profiles, the two most commonly spoken today are Esperanto and Klingon. This is probably one of those things that everyone [in nerd land] already knew but me, but still. Wow, Trekkies. I was always a Star Wars girl, but
- [The City & The City, by China Mieville (2009) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-city-the-city-by-china-mieville-2009-k/) - Date read: 6.03.09 Book from: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary The City & The City is dark, brooding, and meticulous. It is the story of Inspector Tyador Borlu who investigates a mysterious and highly delicate murder case. "Highly delicate" for Borlu soon discovers that he must invoke Breach, a mysterious judicial force that governs disputes
- [The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (2008) K](https://theblackletters.net/the-graveyard-book-by-neil-gaiman-2008-k/) - Date read: 11.8.08 Book from: Personal Collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Nobody Owens (Bod) lives in a graveyard, has ghosts for friends and family, and a mysterious neither-living-nor-dead guardian. As he grows up, he has to learn both the ways and secrets of the large graveyard as well as deal with the outside world. This foreign
- [The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Book Two, by Chris Hastings & Kent Archer (2008) E](https://theblackletters.net/the-adventures-of-dr-mcninja-book-two-by-chris-hastings-kent-archer-2008-e/) - Date Read: 6.12.09 Book From: Borrowed from Kakaner Reviewer: Emera The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is an ongoing webcomic about a doctor who is also a ninja; duh. Chris Hastings writes and draws, and Kent Archer inks. They used to be roommates, and you can kind of tell. In the second volume of the Doctor's
- [Paper as art](https://theblackletters.net/paper-as-art/) - "In Spain, Paper Too Beautiful to Use" (New York Times) Lovely little article about the tradition of fine, handmade papers in Spain, particularly the work of the artisan/artist Montse Buxó i Marsá - since of course paperies, bookbinding, and printing all go hand-in-hand. The article is fascinating to me for a number of reasons. I
- [Looking for Jake, by China Mieville (2005) K](https://theblackletters.net/looking-for-jake-by-china-mieville-2005-k/) - Date Read: 2.17.06 Book From: Personal collection Reviewer: Kakaner Summary Looking for Jake is Mieville's first published short story collection, containing tidbits of every lustworthy genre-- weird and urban fantasy, sci-fi, noird, horror, and of course, baslag. The collection is an extremely welcome contrast to Mieville's previous works-- one, his first novel, and the other
- [An ode to the art of bookbinding](https://theblackletters.net/an-ode-to-the-art-of-bookbinding/) - Matryoshka books, by maylar

## Pages

- [Kakaner](https://theblackletters.net/kakaners-corner/) - About Kakaner I reside in Medellin and San Francisco. I love nerding about Maths, Scientific Coordination, and How to Learn. I love books and everything about them. I love reading books, I love the authors, I love knowing the different characteristics of various publishing companies, I love browsing editions of beloved books, I love reading
- [About](https://theblackletters.net/about/) - The Black Letters is a joint literary blog written by Kakaner and Emera, a pair of ravening bibliophiles. We try our hardest to look for Good Books, whatever genre they may be. We read fantasy, science fiction, classics, contemporary fiction, young adult and children's books, mythology, fairy tales, horror, history, philosophy, creative nonfiction, comics/graphic novels,
- [Booklish: Through the Woods Tart Recipe](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-through-the-woods-tart-recipe/) - Original Booklish Post Tart Shell Ingredients 12 tablespoons unsalted cold butter, chopped 2 cups pastry flour 1 tbs vodka 1/3 cup sugar pinch of salt 3 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup whole pecans Directions Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, whisk together room temperature tablespoon of butter and brown sugar.
- [Booklish Archive](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-archive/) - The following are links to the post and recipes for each Booklish feature: 1.11.2010 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1900) | Recipe 1.30.2010 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (2004) | Recipe 4.4.2010 Rorschach from Watchmen, by Alan Moore (1986-1987) | Recipe 2.7.2011 Gone With the Wind, by Margaret
- [Booklish: Cimorene's Enchanted Earth Shortbread Cookies Recipe](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-cimorenes-enchanted-earth-shortbread-cookies-recipe/) - Original Booklish post Shortbread Ingredients 1/2 cup butter, chunked 1/8 cup cornstarch 1 1/2 cup pastry flour 1 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup minced raisins 1 cup minced pecans 1 tsp fresh ground black peppercorn Directions Preheat oven to 375F. Cream together butter and sugar in stand mixer until fluffy. Mix
- [K. J. Bishop's That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote - Masterpost](https://theblackletters.net/k-j-bishops-that-book-your-mad-ancestor-wrote-masterpost/) - Posts on K. J. Bishop's 2012 short story and poetry collection, That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote: The Art of Dying The Love of Beauty We the Enclosed Maldoror Abroad Alsiso The Memorial Page Last Drink Bird Head Between the Covers Two Dreams The Heart of a Mouse Saving the Gleeful Horse Mother's Curtains Beach Rubble
- [Emera](https://theblackletters.net/emera/) - I'm currently a graduate student in microbiology; in college I studied biology, creative writing, and French. I love glass-fronted bookcases, textured bookcovers, and the smell of yellowed paperbacks or glossy full-color pages. I grew up on fairy tales, mythology, and The Hobbit, so fantastical fiction will always be my first and true love. I'm a
- [Patricia A. McKillip](https://theblackletters.net/patricia-a-mckillip/) - Last updated: August '13 Reviewed Works The Moon and the Face (1985) [E] The Bell at Sealey Head (2008) [E]
- [Review Index](https://theblackletters.net/review-index/) - All books indexed alphabetically by author’s last name, then chronologically by publishing date. “E” indicates that the book has been read by Emera, “K” indicates that it has been read by Kakaner, and a link indicates that a review is available. Author’s pages include brief profiles, links of interest, and a full list of both
- [Tanith Lee](https://theblackletters.net/tanith-lee/) - Vital Links tanith-lee.com: Official website and blog Daughter of the Night: An excellent and exhaustive fan-maintained annotated bibliography On Wikipedia "Delirium's Mistress:" An overview of much of Lee's more Gothic fiction, including synopses and thematic observations. Desultorily aggregated interviews: Innsmouth Free Press (2009) | Realms of Fantasy Magazine (2011) | SFF Chronicles (2012) | By
- [Tim Pratt](https://theblackletters.net/tim-pratt/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: May 2013 Reviewed Works "Little Gods" (2002) Strange Horizons [E] "Troublesolving" (2009) Subterranean Online [E]
- [Short Fiction Index](https://theblackletters.net/short-fiction-index/) - All short fiction (defined here as anything up to a novella) indexed alphabetically by author's last name, then chronologically by publishing date. "E" indicates that the story has been read by Emera, "K" indicates that it has been read by Kakaner, and a link indicates that a review is available. Review pages may be for
- [K. J. Bishop](https://theblackletters.net/k-j-bishop/) - K. J. Bishop is an Australian author and artist, currently living in Thailand. She began writing in reaction to working at a "fairly dull job," and had written only three short stories before publishing her first novel, The Etched City, an erudite, surreal dark fantasy. The Etched City first appeared through small press, then attracted
- [Susan Fletcher](https://theblackletters.net/susan-fletcher/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: March 2013 Reviewed Works Flight of the Dragon Kyn, by Susan Fletcher (1993) [E]
- [Caitlín R. Kiernan ](https://theblackletters.net/caitlin-r-kiernan/) - Caitlín R. Kiernan (b. May 26, 1964) is an Irish-born author of dark fantasy and science fiction, currently living in Rhode Island with her partner Kathryn A. Pollnac. She studied geology and paleontology prior to beginning a career in writing, and has published a number of scientific papers in addition to her prolific work in
- [Angela Carter](https://theblackletters.net/angela-carter/) - On Wikipedia Last updated: Jan. 2013 Reviewed Works Wayward Girls and Wicked Women (1986) (ed.) [E]
- [A. S. Byatt](https://theblackletters.net/a-s-byatt/) - A. S. Byatt (b. 1936) is a British author, poet, and recipient of the Booker Prize for her 1990 novel Possession. Official Website On Wikipedia Interviews: The Guardian, 2005, on The Children's Book and others: "I was a deeply unhappy child. I didn't like being one. It seemed a horrible thing to have to be." Last updated:
- [Rikki Ducornet](https://theblackletters.net/rikki-ducornet/) - Rikki Ducornet (b. 1943) is an American writer, poet, and artist. In 2008, she was a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Academy Award. Official Website On Wikipedia Interviews: ALTX, The Write Stuff: "...the book is a landscape I am exploring for the first time without compass or map." BOMB Magazine, 2003, on Gazelle
- [Patricia C. Wrede](https://theblackletters.net/patricia-c-wrede/) - Patricia C. Wrede (b. March 27, 1953) is an American writer of many beloved works of fantasy for young adults. She grew up in a house filled with books, and finished her first book in 1978 (Shadow Magic, first of the Lyra books, published in 1982) while working in finance. In 1985, she made the
- [Caroline Stevermer](https://theblackletters.net/caroline-stevermer/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: November '12 Reviewed Works Sorcery and Cecelia (1988) With Patricia C. Wrede. [E] The Grand Tour (2004) With Patricia C. Wrede. [E]
- [Holly Black](https://theblackletters.net/5271-2/) - Official Website On Wikipedia On Livejournal Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works White Cat (2010) [E]
- [Vera Brosgol](https://theblackletters.net/5270-2/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works Anya’s Ghost (2011) [E]
- [Kage Baker](https://theblackletters.net/5269-2/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works The Women of Nell Gwynne's (2009) [E]
- [Stephen Jones](https://theblackletters.net/stephen-jones/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works Vampire Stories by Women (2001) [E] The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 15 (2004) [E] The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16 (2005) [E]
- [Osamu Tezuka](https://theblackletters.net/osamu-tezuka/) - On Wikipedia Tezuka in English: The Global Tezuka Fan Community Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works Princess Knight (1953-6) [E] MW (1976-1978) [E]
- [George MacDonald](https://theblackletters.net/george-macdonald-2/) - The George MacDonald Society On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works The Golden Key (1867) [E]
- [Neil Gaiman](https://theblackletters.net/neil-gaiman/) - Well, uh, we will be the first to admit that this author page is pretty useless. You all know Neil Gaiman as the legendary Chuck Norris of literature-- creator of Sandman, writer of children and adult fiction, and dabbler in all sorts of media. Gaiman has won countless awards, among which are the Newbery Medal,
- [Dan Abnett](https://theblackletters.net/dan-abnett/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works The New Deadwardians (2012) Art by I. N. J. Culbard. [E]
- [John Layman](https://theblackletters.net/john-layman/) - On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works Chew vols. 1-3 (2009-10) Art by Rob Guillory. [K|E]
- [Merrie Haskell](https://theblackletters.net/merrie-haskell/) - Official Website Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works "Huntswoman" (2005) Strange Horizons [E]
- [Theodora Goss](https://theblackletters.net/theodora-goss/) - Official Website Blog Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works "England Under the White Witch" (2012) Clarkesworld #73 [E] "Her Mother's Ghosts" (2008) Clarkesworld #23 [E]
- [Rachel Swirsky](https://theblackletters.net/rachel-swirsky/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: Nov. 2012 Reviewed Works "Portrait of Lisane de Patagnia" (2012) Tor.com [E]
- [Gerard Way](https://theblackletters.net/gerard-way/) - On Wikipedia Last updated: May 2012 Reviewed Works The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite (2008) [K|E] The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 2: Dallas (2009) [K|E]
- [George MacDonald](https://theblackletters.net/george-macdonald/) - George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish writer, minister and theologian most famous for his fairy tales and fantasy novels, including Phantastes and The Princess and the Goblin. Strongly influenced by the German and English Romantics, his work influenced in turn many luminaries of the fantastic, including C. S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien,
- [Tina Rath](https://theblackletters.net/tina-rath/) - "Tina Rath gained her doctorate from London University with a thesis on The Vampire in Popular Fiction and her MA with a dissertation on The Vampire in the Theatre. She has given lectures on vampires for the Fortean Times Unconvention, and for various societies, including the Pagan Group, Talking Stick, Westminster University, the literary society
- [John Kendrick Bangs](https://theblackletters.net/john-kendrick-bangs/) - John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922) was an American humorist, editor, and lecturer. A New York native, he worked variously as a writer and editor for Life, numerous Harper's publications, Munsey's Magazine, New Metropolitan Magazine, and Puck. On Wikipedia Last updated: November '11 Reviewed Works “The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall” (1894) [E]
- [Grace Lin](https://theblackletters.net/grace-lin/) - Official Website Last updated: November 2011 Reviewed Works Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (2009) [K|E] The Year of the Dog (2005) [E]
- [Simon R. Green](https://theblackletters.net/simon-r-green/) - Last updated: August '11 Reviewed Works The Man With the Golden Torc (2008) [E]
- [Ursula Vernon](https://theblackletters.net/ursula-vernon/) - Ursula Vernon is a freelance fantasy writer, artist, and illustrator with a large online following. She is known for her sense of humor, demonstrated both in her work and in her popular blog, and for her general strangeness - her artistic subjects include Viking hamsters, pink lizards stranded in landscapes of phallic rocks, sea monsters
- [Brent Weeks](https://theblackletters.net/brent-weeks/) - Last updated: September '11 Reviewed Works The Way of Shadows (2008) [E]
- [Robin Hobb](https://theblackletters.net/robin-hobb/) - Last updated: August '11 Reviewed Works Assassin’s Apprentice (1995) [E]
- [David Petersen](https://theblackletters.net/david-petersen/) - "David Petersen was born in 1977. His artistic career soon followed. A steady diet of cartoons, comics, and tree climbing fed his imagination and is what still inspires his work today. David won the 2007 Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer. In 2008, David won the Eisners for Best Publication for Kids (Mouse Guard
- [Ellen Datlow](https://theblackletters.net/ellen-datlow/) - Official Website Last updated: July '11 Reviewed Works The Faery Reel (2004) Ed. with Terri Windling. [E]
- [WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR comics collective](https://theblackletters.net/whirr-whirr-whirr-comics-collective/) - “We are WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR, three artists-cum-editors who’ve banded together to take on publishing. Our “-ology” series is a venue for us to collaborate with artists we admire about subjects we geek out over!" Official Website Last updated: July '11 Reviewed Works Mythology Anthology: Katabasis/Anabsis (2010) [K|E]
- [Cameron Rogers](https://theblackletters.net/cameron-rogers/) - Official Site Last updated: July '11 Reviewed Works The Music of Razors (2007) [K|E]
- [Booklish: Matilda Honey Oatmeal Scones Recipe](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-matilda-honey-oatmeal-scones-recipe/) - Booklish Recipe #5: Matilda Honey Oatmeal Scones (Back to Introductory Post) Ingredients 1 3/4 cup flour 3/4 cup oatmeal 1/2 cup margarine 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup honey 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/8 tsp cream of tartar 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon Directions Preheat oven
- [George Zebrowski](https://theblackletters.net/george-zebrowski/) - Last updated: April '11 Reviewed Works "Behind the Night" (1987) Fantasy & Science Fiction [E]
- [Lucius Shepard](https://theblackletters.net/lucius-shepard/) - Last updated: April '11 Reviewed Works "The Glassblower's Dragon" (1987) Fantasy & Science Fiction [E]
- [Emera's Author A-Z Challenge](https://theblackletters.net/emeras-author-a-z-challenge/) - I planned to attack this challenge during the summer of 2009 (original post), but, well, as of 2011 haven't been doing so great. I noticed that Vega had started an a-to-z author personal reading challenge - something that I'd been vaguely considering for a year or so, so thought it would be fun to traverse
- [Helen Oyeyemi](https://theblackletters.net/helen-oyeyemi/) - Helen Oyeyemi is a Nigerian-born British novelist who notoriously published her debut novel, the highly acclaimed strong>The Icarus Girl (2006), while only 18 and studying for her A-level exams. While at Cambridge University, she wrote and published two plays, and since then has published two more novels, The Opposite House (2007) and White for Witching
- [Robin McKinley](https://theblackletters.net/robin-mckinley/) - Robin McKinley is an American fantasy and YA author currently living in England with her husband, the fantasy author Peter Dickinson. Her best-beloved works are her fairy-tale retellings, namely Beauty (her first novel, published when she was 26), Deerskin, Rose Daughter, and Spindle's End; and her Damar books, The Blue Sword and The Hero and
- [Study Break!](https://theblackletters.net/study-break/) - // first.length + second.length + 5 && count = first.length+second.length && count < first.length + second.length + third.length){ txt+=third[count-first.length-second.length]; document.getElementById("thistext").innerHTML=txt; a = fly() t=setTimeout("timeMsg()",300); count+=1; } else if(count >= first.length+second.length+third.length && count < fourth.length + first.length + second.length + third.length){ txt+=fourth[count-first.length-second.length-third.length]; document.getElementById("thistext").innerHTML=txt; a = fly() t=setTimeout("timeMsg()",300); count+=1; } else{ clearTimeout(t); } } function lastWord(opac) {
- [Booklish: Gone With the Wind Tara Cake](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-gone-with-the-wind-tara-cake/) - Booklish Recipe #04: Gone With the Wind Tara Cake (Back to introductory post) Foundation Cake- Wartime & Tara Ingredients 2 cups unsalted butter 4 cups white sugar 8 eggs 1 cup hot water 1 cup milk 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 cups cacoa powder 2 tsp baking soda 1
- [Shirley Jackson](https://theblackletters.net/shirley-jackson/) - Last updated: February '11 Reviewed Works The Haunting of Hill House (1959) [E] We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) [E] The Magic of Shirley Jackson (1966) ed. Stanley Hyman [E]
- [Franny Billingsley](https://theblackletters.net/franny-billingsley/) - Official website Last updated: December '10 Reviewed Works The Folk Keeper (1999) [E]
- [Susan Hill](https://theblackletters.net/susan-hill/) - Official website Last updated: December '10 Reviewed Works The Woman in Black (1983) [E]
- [What is bookstore piracy?](https://theblackletters.net/what-is-bookstore-piracy/) - Being a pair of ravening bibliophiles comes at great monetary cost. When funds are short, or the commitment to buy a book is lacking, we find that in order to satisfy our hunger we look for excuses to go to the nearest bookstore and sit and read a book (or several) in its entirety. Why
- [Mary Gaitskill](https://theblackletters.net/mary-gaitskill/) - Last updated: November '10 Reviewed Works "Secretary" (1988) [E]
- [Christina Weir](https://theblackletters.net/christina-weir/) - Last updated: November '10 Reviewed Works New X-Men: Hellions (2005), with Nunzio deFilippis. [E]
- [Nunzio deFilippis](https://theblackletters.net/nunzio-defilippis/) - Last updated: November '10 Reviewed Works New X-Men: Hellions (2005), with Christina Weir. [E]
- [Jerry Spinelli](https://theblackletters.net/jerry-spinelli/) - Last updated: November '10 Reviewed Works Wringer (1997) [E]
- [Meredith Ann Pierce](https://theblackletters.net/meredith-ann-pierce/) - Last updated: October '10 Reviewed Works The Woman Who Loved Reindeer (1985) [E]
- [Thomas Ligotti](https://theblackletters.net/thomas-ligotti/) - Thomas Ligotti (b. July 9, 1953) is considered a master of modern horror and weird fiction. His short fiction is grim and unsettling, and much inspired by the works of Poe, as well as Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen, and other classic authors of cosmic and supernatural horror. He is famed for his longtime reclusiveness, and has
- [Max Brooks](https://theblackletters.net/max-brooks/) - Max Brooks (b. May 22, 1972 - ) is an American screenwriter, voice actor, and author of bestsellers about zombie apocalypses. Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: October '10 Reviewed Works World War Z (2006) [E]
- [David J. Skal](https://theblackletters.net/david-j-skal/) - Last updated: October '09 Reviewed Works Antibodies (1988) [K]
- [Peter S. Beagle](https://theblackletters.net/peter-s-beagle/) - Peter S. Beagle (b. April 20, 1939) is the author of a number of works considered to be classics of modern fantasy, including The Last Unicorn (1968; with which Emera is obsessed) and A Fine and Private Place (1960; his first published novel, written at only 18 years old). His 2005 novelette "Two Hearts," a
- [Tezuka Osamu](https://theblackletters.net/tezuka-osamu/) - "Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack. He is often credited as the "Godfather of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent
- [Thomas Wheeler](https://theblackletters.net/thomas-wheeler/) - "Thomas Wheeler sold his first screenplay at age twenty-two, to Twentieth Century Fox. He has continued to work on major Hollywood features for the last several years. Wheeler lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Christina, and his son, Luca. The Arcanum is his first novel." Last updated: July '10 Reviewed Works The Arcanum (2004)
- [China Miéville](https://theblackletters.net/china-mieville/) - China Miéville is an English writer of the fantastic best known for his involvement with the New Weird fiction movement and his Bas-Lag trilogy (named for the continent on which it occurs). The trilogy's first book, Perdido Street Station, is his most celebrated and popular work, and introduces his signature dystopic steampunk-dark fantasy-noir-weird city, New
- [Jim Butcher](https://theblackletters.net/jim-butcher/) - Jim Butcher is a Missouri-based author best known for his hit urban fantasy series, The Dresden Files (a.k.a. Emera's crack in book form), featuring wizard detective Harry Dresden, nerdy wisecracks, and a varied bestiary of faeries, werewolves, vampires, fallen angels, and a grab bag of other mythological creatures. The Dresden Files were first written as
- [Ann Patchett](https://theblackletters.net/ann-patchett/) - Last updated: July '10 Reviewed Works Bel Canto (2001) [E]
- [Jeanne Desy](https://theblackletters.net/jeanne-desy/) - Last updated: July '10 Reviewed Works "The Princess Who Stood On Her Own Two Feet" (1981) [E]
- [Kelly Barnhill](https://theblackletters.net/kelly-barnhill/) - "Kelly Barnhill is a former schoolteacher, former wildland firefighter, former bartender, former janitor and former park ranger. Now she is a mom by day and a freelance writer by night. She enjoys her double life. Her short stories have appeared in Fantasy, Weird Tales, The Sun, Postscripts, and Polluto, and her first two novels were
- [Garth Ennis (1970 - )](https://theblackletters.net/garth-ennis/) - Garth Ennis is badass. Garth Ennis is an Irish author most well known for his epic 66-issue series, Preacher. Co-created with Steve Dillon, Preacher encompasses all the themes that pervade Ennis' works-- shockingly graphic violence, black humour, gritty backdrops, an overt presence of religion, male friendship, and apocalyptic stories. Other famous works include The Punisher
- [Michael S. Dodd](https://theblackletters.net/michael-s-dodd/) - Michael S. Dodd says, "I seem to be something of an eclectic writer, or perhaps just an indecisive one. Unable to choose a genre, I write everything from horror and dark fantasy to historical fiction. I live in San Diego with my very eclectic little family and a small zoo of furry critters. I am
- [Lists](https://theblackletters.net/lists/) - We are always slowly publishing and compiling our own lists of recommended reads for all sorts of genres, publication periods, author categories, etc. We hope these will function as reflections of our literary preferences as well as sources of book recommendations. The Black Letters Top Books The Black Letters Top 10 YA Books The Black
- [Features](https://theblackletters.net/features/) - Bad Book Cover Fridays BBCF Archive Not just garden-variety bad - BBCF is dedicated to bringing you the absolute worst of the worst in book covers, with, of course, an emphasis on hand-picked offerings from the annals of fantasy and science fiction. Bring us your tacky, your tasteless, your blatantly sexist, your just plain "what
- [Rochita Loenen-Ruiz](https://theblackletters.net/rochita-loenen-ruiz/) - "Rochita Loenen-Ruiz grew up in the mountains of Ifugao, Philippines. Her stories have appeared in a variety of print and online publications including Weird Tales Magazine, Philippine Panorama, Philippine Speculative Fiction volumes two and four, Apex Magazine, and Fantasy Magazine. A graduate of Clarion West, Rochita was the recipient of the Octavia Butler Scholarship for
- [Konrad Lorenz](https://theblackletters.net/konrad-lorenz/) - Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) was a Nobel-prize-winning Austrian ethologist (animal behaviorist) particularly famous for his work on imprinting, and is one of the loves of Emera's life. I mean, this is what he looked like: LOVE. On Wikipedia Nobel Prize autobiography Last updated: April '10 Reviewed Works King Solomon's Ring (1949) [E]
- [Robert Stone](https://theblackletters.net/robert-stone/) - On Wikipedia Interview with Salon, April 1997 Last updated: April '10 Reviewed Works Bear and His Daughter (1997) [E]
- [Anne McCaffrey](https://theblackletters.net/anne-mccaffrey/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: April '10 Reviewed Works Crystal Singer (1982) [E]
- [Mary Robinette Kowal](https://theblackletters.net/mary-robinette-kowal/) - "Mary Robinette Kowal is the 2008 recipient of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Cosmos and Asimov’s. Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor, lives in Portland, OR with her husband Rob and eight manual typewriters. She has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry
- [Kij Johnson](https://theblackletters.net/kij-johnson/) - Website Last Updated: October '09 Reviewed Works "Spar" (2009) [K|E] "26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss" (2008) [K|E]
- [Booklish: Rorscharch Cheesecake Recipe](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-rorscharch-cheesecake-recipe/) - Booklish #3: Rorschach Cheesecake (Back to Original Post) Spiced Oreo Crust Ingredients 10 Oreo crusts (cream removed, set aside for Golden Oreo crust) 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp smoked paprika 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter Directions Crush Oreo crusts thoroughly in large bowl. Mix in black pepper and paprika. Pour butter over mixture and
- [Bad Book Covers Friday Archive](https://theblackletters.net/bbcf-archive/) - 3.12.10 Relationships II, by Piers Anthony 3.5.10 Birth of the Firebringer, by Meredith Ann Pierce 2.26.10 The Saga of Recluce, by L. E. Modesitt 2.19.10 Moonsinger's Friends, ed. Susan Shwartz 2.12.10 The Alphabet Mysteries, by Sue Grafton 2.5.10 Diamond Star, by Catherine Asaro 1.29.10 The God Engines, by John Scalzi 1.22.10 The Mammoth Book of
- [Jason K. Chapman](https://theblackletters.net/jason-k-chapman/) - "Jason K. Chapman lives at the intersection of Geek and Art. His two main interests come together in his job as the IT Director for Poets & Writers (pw.org), where he was worked for ten years. His short fiction has appeared in Cosmos Magazine, Jim Baen's Universe, and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, as well as
- [Thomas M. Disch](https://theblackletters.net/thomas-m-disch/) - Last updated: February '10 Reviewed Works "Descending" (1964) [E]
- [Tracy Chevalier](https://theblackletters.net/tracy-chevalier/) - Last Updated: February '10 Reviewed Works The Virgin Blue (1997) [K|E] Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999) [K|E] Falling Angels (2001) [K|E] The Lady and the Unicorn ( 2003) [K|E] Burning Bright (2007) [K] Remarkable Creatures (2009) [K]
- [Grant Morrison](https://theblackletters.net/grant-morrison/) - On Wikipedia Last updated: February '10 Reviewed Works Sebastian O (1993) Art by Steve Yeowell [K|E]
- [Joe Hill](https://theblackletters.net/joe-hill/) - Official Website On Wikipedia Last updated: February '10 Reviewed Works Locke and Key Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft (2009) Art by Gabriel Rodriguez [K|E]
- [Booklish: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Recipe](https://theblackletters.net/booklish-jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell-recipe/) - Booklish Recipe #02: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Black Forest Raven Cake (Back to introductory post) Black Chocolate Cheesecake Ingredients 2 8oz. packages of cream cheese 14 tbs condensed milk 2 eggs 3/4 cup 60% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate chips 25 drops black food coloring Directions Preheat oven to 350F. Blend together cream cheese, condensed milk,
- [Jeanne DuPrau](https://theblackletters.net/jeanne-duprau/) - Official Website Last updated: January '10 Reviewed Works The City of Ember (2003) [K|E]
- [John Scalzi](https://theblackletters.net/john-scalzi/) - Whatever: official website and blog On Wikipedia Last updated: November '09 Reviewed Works “Denise Jones, Super Booker” (2008) Subterranean Press [E]
- [Stephen Jones](https://theblackletters.net/stephen-jones-2/) - Last updated: January '10 Reviewed Works The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 15 (2004) [E] The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16 (2005) [E]
- [Patrice Kindl](https://theblackletters.net/patrice-kindl/) - Last updated: January '10 Reviewed Works The Woman in the Wall (1998) [K|E]
- [Catherynne M. Valente](https://theblackletters.net/catherynne-m-valente/) - Official Website On Livejournal On Wikipedia Last Updated: January '10 Reviewed Works The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (2006) [K] "Urchins, While Swimming" (2006) Clarkesworld #3 [K|E] "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica" (2008) Clarkesworld #20 [E]
- [Shweta Narayan](https://theblackletters.net/shweta-narayan/) - From her official website: "I'm a writer, academic, and cultural crazy-quilt; I was born in India and lived in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Scotland before moving to California. I grew up reading folk tales and fairy tales from all over the world, so my fictional landscape is rather mixed. I'm particularly interested in
- [Daphne du Maurier](https://theblackletters.net/daphne-du-maurier/) - Last updated: January '10 Reviewed Works Rebecca (1938) [E]
- [Mitch Albom (1958 - ?)](https://theblackletters.net/mitch-albom/) - Mitch Albom is a multi-talented professional (author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster, musician) raised in New Jersey. He is best known for his inspirational literature, namely Tuesdays with Morrie, an account of the last days of Albom's Brandeis sociology professor suffering from ALS, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, a speculation
- [Booklish: Wonderful Wizard of Oz Recipe](https://theblackletters.net/wonderful-wizard-of-oz-recipe/) - Booklish Recipe #01: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Lemon Brick Cake (back to introductory post) Yellow Lemon Cake Ingredients 1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) softened unsalted butter 8 eggs 1 tsp salt 4 cups cake flour 2 1/4 cup white sugar 3 tsp lemon extract 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 tsp baking powder 1 3/4
- [Chuck Palahniuk](https://theblackletters.net/chuck-palahniuk/) - Last Updated: September '09 Reviewed Works Fight Club (1996) [K] Survivor (1999) [K] Choke (2001) [K] Lullaby (2002) [K] Diary (2003) [K] Haunted (2005) [K]
- [Natsuhiko Kyogoku](https://theblackletters.net/natsuhiko-kyogoku/) - On Wikipedia Last updated: January '10 Reviewed Works The Summer of the Ubume (1994) Trans. Alexander O. Smith & Elye J. Alexander [E]
- [Glen Duncan](https://theblackletters.net/glen-duncan/) - Last updated: January '10 Reviewed Works I, Lucifer (2002) [E]
- [Erzebet Yellowboy](https://theblackletters.net/erzebet-yellowboy/) - "Erzebet YellowBoy is the fiction editor of Cabinet des Fées, a fairy tale journal, and co-editor (with Sean Wallace) of Jabberwocky Magazine. She is also the founder of Papaveria Press, a private press specializing in handbound limited editions of mythic poetry and prose. Her stories and poems have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Mythic
- [Attainables and Unattainables](https://theblackletters.net/attainables-and-unattainables/) - WARNING: I swear if any of ya'll go out and buy one of these before me I will hunt you down! This will be my running list of rare books (this includes all signed and/or limited edition books) that I crave and own. They are categorized by price range and then by author. green- I
- [Kim Newman](https://theblackletters.net/kim-newman/) - Kim Newman on Wikipedia Last updated: December '09 Reviewed Works "Coppola's Dracula" (1997) [E]
- [Sarah Rees Brennan](https://theblackletters.net/sarah-rees-brennan/) - "Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it's not called Gaelic) but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. The books most often found under her desk were Jane Austen,
- [Nicole Kornher-Stace](https://theblackletters.net/nicole-kornher-stace/) - "Nicole Kornher-Stace was born in Philadelphia in 1983, moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and back again by the time she was five, and currently lives in New Paltz, NY, with one husband, two ferrets, the cutest toddler in the universe, and many many books. Her short fiction and poetry has appeared
- [Sharon Shinn](https://theblackletters.net/sharon-shinn/) - Sharon Shinn (b. 1957) is an American journalist and author of romantic fantasy and science fiction. Her most popular works are the science fantasy Samaria series, which is set on a Biblically-inspired planet governed by angels, and has often been compared to Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. Official Website Wikipedia Last updated: September '09 Reviewed
- [Orson Scott Card](https://theblackletters.net/orson-scott-card/) - Orson Scott Card (b. Aug 24, 1951) is a prolific, award-winning author best known for his significant contributions to the science fiction genre, particularly the influential Ender series, which as of 2009 has made him the only author to win the Hugo and Nebula Awards in two consecutive years (for Ender's Game, 1985, and Speaker for the
- [Storm Constantine](https://theblackletters.net/storm-constantine/) - Last updated: November '09 Reviewed Works StalkingTender Prey (1995) [K]
- [Jules Feiffer](https://theblackletters.net/jules-feiffer/) - Last updated: November '09 Reviewed Works The Man In the Ceiling (1995) [K]
- [Sarah Waters](https://theblackletters.net/sarah-waters/) - Last Updated: September '09 Reviewed Works Tipping the Velvet (1998) [K|E] Affinity (1999) [K|E] Fingersmith (2002) [K|E] Nightwatch (2006) [K|E] The Little Stranger (2009) [K]
- [Margaret Ronald](https://theblackletters.net/margaret-ronald/) - From her blog: "Margaret Ronald wrote her first fantasy novel in 8th grade. That this novel no longer exists is evidence toward the existence of a merciful God. She attended the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, graduated without knowing her left from her right, and went on to receive a B.A. in English
- [Genevieve Valentine](https://theblackletters.net/genevieve-valentine/) - From her website: "Genevieve Valentine’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy, Farrago’s Wainscot, Sybil’s Garage, Federations, edited by John Joseph Adams, and more. She is a columnist at Tor.com and Fantasy Magazine. Her first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, is forthcoming from Prime
- [Terri Windling](https://theblackletters.net/terri-windling/) - Last updated: October '09 Reviewed Works The Faery Reel (2004) Ed. with Ellen Datlow. [E]
- [F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://theblackletters.net/f-scott-fitzgerald/) - Last Updated: October '09 Reviewed Works The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1921) [K]
- [Cecilia Dart-Thornton](https://theblackletters.net/cecilia-dart-thornton/) - Cecilia Dart-Thornton is an Australian author of fantasy novels. Official Site Last updated: October '09 Reviewed Works The Ill-Made Mute (2002) [E]
- [Elizabeth Kostova](https://theblackletters.net/elizabeth-kostova/) - Elizabeth Kostova (b. December 26, 1964) is an American author best known for her first novel, The Historian, a vampire novel inspired by her love of libraries and by her father's tales of Dracula during her childhood, part of which was spent in Slovenia. Wikipedia Last updated: October '09 Reviewed Works The Historian (2005) [E]
- [Paulo Coelho](https://theblackletters.net/paulo-coelho/) - Paulo Coelho (b. August 24, 1947) is a Brazilian author and lyricist best known for his inspirational allegory, The Alchemist (1988), which is one of the best-selling books in history. Wikipedia Last updated: September '09 Reviewed Works The Alchemist (1988) [E]
- [Audrey Niffenegger](https://theblackletters.net/audrey-niffenegger/) - American author, artist, and scholar Audrey Niffenegger's (b. June 13, 1963) first novel was the phenomenally popular The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), which precipitated a fierce bidding war for her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry (2009). Niffenegger is based in Chicago, where she teaches book arts at Columbia College. She has also created and published a
- [Jeff Lindsay](https://theblackletters.net/jeff-lindsay/) - Last Updated: September '09 Reviewed Works Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004) [K|E]
- [Hubert Selby](https://theblackletters.net/hubert-selby/) - Hubert Selby, Jr. (July 23, 1928 - April 26, 2004) was a Brooklyn-born American author whose personal experiences with drug addiction and New York's violent, impoverished communities fueled his two most acclaimed novels, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, both of which were adapted into movies. Selby was often bedridden because of
- [Robert Harris](https://theblackletters.net/robert-harris/) - Robert Harris (b. March 7, 1957) is a British writer and former journalist. He has published a number of political and historical nonfiction works, as well as numerous works of historical fiction, beginning with the bestselling alternate history Fatherland (1992), and one contemporary political novel. Since the release of the popular Pompeii in 2003, he
- [Kazuo Ishiguro](https://theblackletters.net/kazuo-ishiguro/) - Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro (b. November 8, 1954) is the award-winning writer of several novels, screenplays, and works of short fiction. His works have thus far all been first-person narratives focusing on his characters' flaws and attempted reconciliations with their troubled pasts, and often feature historical settings. His latest work is the alternate reality/science fiction
- [Nick Hornby](https://theblackletters.net/nick-hornby/) - Last Updated: September '09 Reviewed Works Slam (2008) [K]
- [Mike Mignola](https://theblackletters.net/mike-mignola/) - Last Updated: September '09 Reviewed Works The Amazing Screw-on Head (2002) [K]
- [Karen Cushman](https://theblackletters.net/karen-cushman/) - Karen Cushman (born October 4, 1941) is an American author of YA historical fiction. Her two most popular and well-known books, the medieval historical fictions Catherine, Called Birdy (1994) and The Midwife's Apprentice (1995), respectively won the Newbery Honor and the Newbery Medal. Her books are wryly humorous and well-researched, with headstrong heroines and an
- [Lisa See](https://theblackletters.net/lisa-see/) - Last Updated: September '09 Reviewed Works Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005) [K]
- [Isaac Marion](https://theblackletters.net/isaac-marion/) - Isaac Marion is an independent and self-published writer who has experienced burgeoning success with his short stories and two novels. To date, he has published his short stories online at www.burningbuilding.com and sold limited copies of his self-published novels, The Inside and Warm Bodies. Marion is known for his generally weird or romantic themes and
- [The Black Letters Top 10 YA Books](https://theblackletters.net/the-black-letters-top-10-ya-books/) - Below you will find Emera and Kakaner's childhood favorites. We understand you can find these books easily on any Newbery Honors and Medal list, but we carefully chose what we believe to be the top 10 the YA genre has to offer based not only on literary merit, but also reread value, world immersion, and
- [Robert Weinberg](https://theblackletters.net/robert-weinberg/) - Robert Weinberg is an American writer and editor of science fiction, horror, Western fiction, and nonfiction. He has also written for Marvel Comics. Wikipedia Last updated: July ‘09 Reviewed Works 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories (1995) Ed. with Stefan Dziemianowicz & Martin Greenberg. [E]
- [Paul Dini](https://theblackletters.net/paul-dini/) - Paul Dini (born 1957) is a renowned comics and TV writer who dabbles in the fantastically fascinating hobby of cryptozoology. His most noted contributions to animation are in the Batman franchise (Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond) and in particular, the introduction of Harley Quinn into the Batman rogue's gallery. He, along with Bruce Timm,
- [Isaac Asimov](https://theblackletters.net/isaac-asimov/) - Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers of his time, as well as one of the most prolific and renowned science fiction authors to this day. His best-known works are those set in the Foundation universe, a futuristic universe involving intergalactic space travel, as well as numerous fictions examining the
- [Yoon Ha Lee](https://theblackletters.net/yoon-ha-lee/) - "Yoon Ha Lee's work has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and Helix, and is upcoming in Clarkesworld. She plays piano and composes in her spare time." Official Website Livejournal Last Updated: August 2009 Works Reviewed: "Behind the Mirror" (2007) Coyote Wild issue 1. [E]
- [Mari Ness](https://theblackletters.net/mari-ness/) - "'Mari Ness worships chocolate, words and music, in no particular order, and has a second career as cat furniture for two adorably cute cats. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Aberrant Dreams, Coyote Wild, and several other print and online places. She keeps a blog at mariness.livejournal.com." Fantasy Magazine interview Reviewed Works "Playing
- [The Black Letters Top Books](https://theblackletters.net/the-black-letters-top-books/) - This list contains the absolute cream of The Black Letter's crop. Everything listed here has been found by both Emera and Kakaner to be most impressionable, heartily favorited, and highly recommended. Our standards for this list are incredibly strict-- it is not only enough for a book to be memorable, but also that we feel
- [John Ajvide Lindqvist](https://theblackletters.net/john-ajvide-lindqvist/) - John Ajvide Lindqvist (born 1968) is a Swedish novelist and former magician and stand-up comedian. He has written two horror novels, the international bestselling vampire novel Let the Right One In (2004), adapted into 2008 into an equally acclaimed film, and the zombie novel Handling the Undead (2005). In 2006, he also released a collection
- [Sophie Gee](https://theblackletters.net/sophie-gee/) - Sophie Gee (born 1974) is an Australian-born novelist and assistant professor of English at Princeton University. Her first novel, The Scandal of the Season (2007), is an 18th century historical fiction and romance based on the real-life intrigue that led to the success of the poet Alexander Pope. Official Website Last updated: July ‘09 Reviewed
- [Jamaica Kincaid](https://theblackletters.net/jamaica-kincaid/) - Last Updated: August '09 Reviewed Works Lucy (1990) [K]
- [Warren Ellis](https://theblackletters.net/warren-ellis/) - Warren Ellis is first and foremost a notorious comics figure known best for his sociocultural commentary in his works. His longest and best known publication, Transmetropolitan, is one of the best selling non-superhero comics to date. Other successes in the comics world include Planetary, The Authority, and Global Frequency. His works frequently feature cyberpunk themes
- [Lawrence Gullo](https://theblackletters.net/lawrence-gullo/) - Lawrence Gullo is a chronodysphoric dandy, puppeteer, and comic artist, among other things. His first webcomic is the gag- and relationship-driven My Life in Blue, which follows the lives of a promiscuous and often androgynous bunch of art students, glam rockers, and heiresses. His second, Baritarian Boy, centers on the history of his mythical Eastern
- [Chris Hastings](https://theblackletters.net/chris-hastings/) - Last Updated: July ‘09 Reviewed Works The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Book 2 (2008) With Kent Archer. [K|E]

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://theblackletters.net/category/uncategorized/)
- [Book](https://theblackletters.net/category/book/)
- [Novels](https://theblackletters.net/category/book/novels/)
- [Nonfiction](https://theblackletters.net/category/book/nonfiction/)
- [Graphic novels & comics](https://theblackletters.net/category/book/comics/)
- [Poetry](https://theblackletters.net/category/book/poetry/)
- [Short stories](https://theblackletters.net/category/book/short-stories/)
- [Book porn](https://theblackletters.net/category/book-porn/)
- [News & Curiosities](https://theblackletters.net/category/book-porn/news-and-curiosities/)
- [Bookstores](https://theblackletters.net/category/book-porn/bookstores/)
- [Writing](https://theblackletters.net/category/writing/)
- [Features](https://theblackletters.net/category/features/)
- [Film/TV](https://theblackletters.net/category/film/)
- [Bibliophagy](https://theblackletters.net/category/book-porn/bibliophagy/)
- [Interviews](https://theblackletters.net/category/features/interviews/)
- [Bad Book Cover Fridays](https://theblackletters.net/category/features/bad-book-cover-fridays/)
- [Booklish: The Bibliophile's Kitchen](https://theblackletters.net/category/features/booklish-the-bilbiophiles-kitchen/)
- [Author Events](https://theblackletters.net/category/features/author-events/)

## Tags

- [young adult](https://theblackletters.net/tag/young-adult/)
- [fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/fantasy/)
- [cyberpunk](https://theblackletters.net/tag/cyberpunk/)
- [zombies](https://theblackletters.net/tag/zombies/)
- [apocalyptic](https://theblackletters.net/tag/apocalyptic/)
- [self-published](https://theblackletters.net/tag/self-published/)
- [romance](https://theblackletters.net/tag/romance/)
- [authors](https://theblackletters.net/tag/authors/)
- [noird](https://theblackletters.net/tag/noird/)
- [readings](https://theblackletters.net/tag/readings/)
- [sci-fi](https://theblackletters.net/tag/sci-fi/)
- [series:dresden files](https://theblackletters.net/tag/series-dresden-files/)
- [urban fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/urban-fantasy/)
- [humor](https://theblackletters.net/tag/humor/)
- [action](https://theblackletters.net/tag/action/)
- [mystery](https://theblackletters.net/tag/mystery/)
- [noir](https://theblackletters.net/tag/noir/)
- [fairy tales](https://theblackletters.net/tag/fairy-tales/)
- [dark fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/dark-fantasy/)
- [weird fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/weird-fiction/)
- [vampires](https://theblackletters.net/tag/vampires/)
- [children](https://theblackletters.net/tag/children/)
- [superheroes](https://theblackletters.net/tag/superheroes/)
- [steampunk](https://theblackletters.net/tag/steampunk/)
- [satire](https://theblackletters.net/tag/satire/)
- [politics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/politics/)
- [social critique](https://theblackletters.net/tag/social-critique/)
- [economics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/economics/)
- [pop culture](https://theblackletters.net/tag/pop-culture/)
- [statistics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/statistics/)
- [photos](https://theblackletters.net/tag/photos/)
- [ghosts](https://theblackletters.net/tag/ghosts/)
- [illustrated](https://theblackletters.net/tag/illustrated/)
- [horror](https://theblackletters.net/tag/horror/)
- [thriller](https://theblackletters.net/tag/thriller/)
- [book art](https://theblackletters.net/tag/book-art/)
- [series:batman](https://theblackletters.net/tag/series-batman/)
- [comics:dc](https://theblackletters.net/tag/comics-dc/)
- [historical fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/historical-fiction/)
- [literary fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/literary-fantasy/)
- [detective fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/detective-fiction/)
- [language](https://theblackletters.net/tag/language/)
- [collecting](https://theblackletters.net/tag/collecting/)
- [race](https://theblackletters.net/tag/race/)
- [lgbt](https://theblackletters.net/tag/lgbt/)
- [awards](https://theblackletters.net/tag/awards/)
- [hugo](https://theblackletters.net/tag/hugo/)
- [robots](https://theblackletters.net/tag/robots/)
- [lists](https://theblackletters.net/tag/lists/)
- [tragedy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/tragedy/)
- [culture:chinese](https://theblackletters.net/tag/culture-chinese/)
- [war](https://theblackletters.net/tag/war/)
- [series:ender](https://theblackletters.net/tag/series-ender/)
- [paranormal](https://theblackletters.net/tag/paranormal/)
- [gothic](https://theblackletters.net/tag/gothic/)
- [science fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/science-fantasy/)
- [pregnancy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/pregnancy/)
- [death](https://theblackletters.net/tag/death/)
- [genre](https://theblackletters.net/tag/genre/)
- [alternate history](https://theblackletters.net/tag/alternate-history/)
- [fairies](https://theblackletters.net/tag/fairies/)
- [high fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/high-fantasy/)
- [epic fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/epic-fantasy/)
- [pure stupidity](https://theblackletters.net/tag/pure-stupidity/)
- [aliens](https://theblackletters.net/tag/aliens/)
- [historical fantasy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/historical-fantasy/)
- [series:hellboy](https://theblackletters.net/tag/serieshellboy/)
- [publishing](https://theblackletters.net/tag/publishing/)
- [anime-manga](https://theblackletters.net/tag/anime-manga/)
- [classics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/classics/)
- [comics:marvel](https://theblackletters.net/tag/comics-marvel/)
- [series:x-men](https://theblackletters.net/tag/seriesx-men/)
- [adventure](https://theblackletters.net/tag/adventure/)
- [lang:japanese](https://theblackletters.net/tag/langjapanese/)
- [lang:swedish](https://theblackletters.net/tag/langswedish/)
- [feminism](https://theblackletters.net/tag/feminism/)
- [memes](https://theblackletters.net/tag/memes/)
- [religion](https://theblackletters.net/tag/religion/)
- [science](https://theblackletters.net/tag/science/)
- [nature](https://theblackletters.net/tag/nature/)
- [series:realm of the elderlings](https://theblackletters.net/tag/seriesrealm-of-the-elderlings/)
- [mythology](https://theblackletters.net/tag/mythology/)
- [libraries](https://theblackletters.net/tag/libraries/)
- [folklore](https://theblackletters.net/tag/folklore/)
- [sociology](https://theblackletters.net/tag/sociology/)
- [lang:russian](https://theblackletters.net/tag/langrussian/)
- [dragons](https://theblackletters.net/tag/dragons/)
- [series:enchanted forest chronicles](https://theblackletters.net/tag/seriesenchanted-forest-chronicles/)
- [erotica](https://theblackletters.net/tag/erotica/)
- [sexuality](https://theblackletters.net/tag/sexuality/)
- [gender](https://theblackletters.net/tag/gender/)
- [wtf](https://theblackletters.net/tag/wtf/)
- [dystopia](https://theblackletters.net/tag/dystopia/)
- [psychological horror](https://theblackletters.net/tag/psychological-horror/)
- [contemporary fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/contemporary-fiction/)
- [class](https://theblackletters.net/tag/class/)
- [black humor](https://theblackletters.net/tag/black-humor/)
- [nebula](https://theblackletters.net/tag/nebula/)
- [pulitzer](https://theblackletters.net/tag/pulitzer/)
- [newbery](https://theblackletters.net/tag/newbery/)
- [post-apocalyptic](https://theblackletters.net/tag/post-apocalyptic/)
- [bookselling](https://theblackletters.net/tag/bookselling/)
- [animals](https://theblackletters.net/tag/animals/)
- [conventions](https://theblackletters.net/tag/conventions/)
- [ya](https://theblackletters.net/tag/ya/)
- [Graphic novels & comics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/graphic-novels-comics/)
- [science fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/science-fiction/)
- [angels and demons](https://theblackletters.net/tag/angels-and-demons/)
- [western](https://theblackletters.net/tag/western/)
- [werewolves](https://theblackletters.net/tag/werewolves/)
- [history](https://theblackletters.net/tag/history/)
- [arthurian legend](https://theblackletters.net/tag/arthurian-legend/)
- [lovecraftian](https://theblackletters.net/tag/lovecraftian/)
- [memoir](https://theblackletters.net/tag/memoir/)
- [family](https://theblackletters.net/tag/family/)
- [weird](https://theblackletters.net/tag/weird/)
- [fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/fiction/)
- [Poetry](https://theblackletters.net/tag/poetry/)
- [marvel](https://theblackletters.net/tag/marvel/)
- [occult](https://theblackletters.net/tag/occult/)
- [gaming](https://theblackletters.net/tag/gaming/)
- [realist fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/realist-fiction/)
- [southern gothic](https://theblackletters.net/tag/southern-gothic/)
- [heroine](https://theblackletters.net/tag/heroine/)
- [friendship](https://theblackletters.net/tag/friendship/)
- [africa](https://theblackletters.net/tag/africa/)
- [surrealism](https://theblackletters.net/tag/surrealism/)
- [indonesia](https://theblackletters.net/tag/indonesia/)
- [post-colonialism](https://theblackletters.net/tag/post-colonialism/)
- [magical realism](https://theblackletters.net/tag/magical-realism/)
- [comics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/comics/)
- [india](https://theblackletters.net/tag/india/)
- [sexual harassment](https://theblackletters.net/tag/sexual-harassment/)
- [family dynamics](https://theblackletters.net/tag/family-dynamics/)
- [lang:greek](https://theblackletters.net/tag/langgreek/)
- [folk horror](https://theblackletters.net/tag/folk-horror/)
- [literary fiction](https://theblackletters.net/tag/literary-fiction/)