A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, Romanian folklore, and some thoughts about perfectionism

August 23, 2021August 23, 2021 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ Leave a comment

Keeping in line with my inadvertent summer theme of fantasy novels, I recently turned the last page on A Deadly Education, the first book in Naomi Novik's projected Scholomance trilogy. This has been by far my favourite Naomi Novik book—for me, neither Uprooted nor Spinning Silver lived up to their hype. But this one I … Continue reading A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, Romanian folklore, and some thoughts about perfectionism

Language Matters

June 19, 2021June 19, 2021 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ Leave a comment

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about language. Since I am an editor, writer, book reviewer, and library branch assistant, this might not shock you. But, specifically, I have been thinking about the way in which language shapes reality, and the unconscious choices that we make with our words, … Continue reading Language Matters

Something Old, Something New

June 6, 2021 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ 2 Comments

I’m a discerning reader. Well, okay, some might call me picky. For many years I maintained that I didn’t like contemporary fiction at all, and I only read old books (not always classics—I had, and still have, a deep love of the so-called "middlebrow" novel). Of course, I was simply looking in the wrong places. … Continue reading Something Old, Something New

Rereading Old Favourites: an Interlude (with Paper Dolls)

May 30, 2021August 8, 2021 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ 3 Comments

Literary paper dolls. Has anyone had a better idea, ever? I'm a little bit late to this party, but starting in May 2019, The Paris Review writer Julia Berick partnered with illustrator Jenny Kroik to create: "what us bookworm-clotheshorse child-adults have always wanted: literary paper dolls." The first one in the series was my very … Continue reading Rereading Old Favourites: an Interlude (with Paper Dolls)

Mothers, Daughters, and Jellyfish: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

March 14, 2021August 8, 2021 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ 2 Comments

I just finished reading Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, and I have emerged from its pages feeling sunburned. The novel is set in Almería, in southeast Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It's an unfriendly landscape, with blazing sun, burning sand, and harsh salt. There are sweltering plastic greenhouses, unlovely gas canisters lining the beach, and … Continue reading Mothers, Daughters, and Jellyfish: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

Careful Attention: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ Leave a comment

March is here. It came in like a race between the lion and the lamb…yesterday we alternated between glorious sun and blue sky, and wild squalling blizzards. Today is grey and cold; when I tried to let my cats out, they blinked in the frigid air, flicked their paws, and went back to bed. I … Continue reading Careful Attention: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Ideas and Revolutions: I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom

December 19, 2020December 19, 2020 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ Leave a comment

I used to say, only sort of in jest, that I was in favour of public shaming. I didn't mean that I thought we needed to bring back the stocks or anything like that (okay, okay, I may have joked that we needed to bring back the stocks), but I had an idea that people … Continue reading Ideas and Revolutions: I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom

Witches, Sluts, Feminists by Kristen J. Sollée (plus a bit of a rant)

November 26, 2020November 26, 2020 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ Leave a comment

Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive by Kristen J. Sollée is a book with a solid premise at its core. It explores the history of women who have been (at times literally) demonized and persecuted, and draws parallels between the medieval and puritanical witch hunts; the women who in the early 20th century fought … Continue reading Witches, Sluts, Feminists by Kristen J. Sollée (plus a bit of a rant)

Culture-Making, Dirty Dancing, and #MeToo: Waiting for a Star to Fall by Kerry Clare

November 11, 2020November 11, 2020 ~ lindsayehobbs ~ 1 Comment

Well, here I am writing another post about another brand new book, in spite of my previous assertion that is something I rarely do. But sometimes you go where the wind blows, and this October it floated me over to Waiting for a Star to Fall by Kerry Clare. I am a big fan of … Continue reading Culture-Making, Dirty Dancing, and #MeToo: Waiting for a Star to Fall by Kerry Clare

Tag: critical thinking