Wally B.

  • Teen Women in History

    March was Women’s History Month, but it’s always a good time to reflect on the accomplishments and lives of women in the past. Here are seven stories about teens and young women through history. Jazz Owls by Margarita Engle follows Marisela and Lorena, two jazz owls – young women who work all day to support… Continue reading

  • Teen Novels in Verse

    To celebrate National Poetry Month, here are eleven terrific titles in verse. In Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne, Skyy feels terribly alone after her best friend’s boyfriend calls her a name she can’t forgive or forget.  Her sudden freedom allows her to see herself in a new light and consider all the ways she… Continue reading

  • Black History Month 2022: Black Teens in Love

    Black History month meets Valentine’s Day, and they make a sweet couple! Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender follows seventeen-year-old Felix, who feels he is one marginalization more than people can handle: Black, queer, trans. When someone posts his deadname and pre-transition pictures, Felix seeks revenge, but his search for his tormentor reveals some surprises… Continue reading

  • Riffs on the classics: The Odyssey (Part 2)

    Last time, I looked at the Odyssey and some close-hewn translations and versions of the original epic poem.  Come along as we continue our wanderings through the text and beyond to see where it will take us. From these rather straightforward threads of the original, things get a little weird, as the stories become more… Continue reading

  • Riffs on the classics: The Odyssey (Part 1)

    What makes a classic a classic? A lot of definitions have been offered, but one that resonates with me is the influence a work exerts on other works that follow. How have other authors responded to it with their own versions, counter-versions, sequels, prequels, and completely alternate takes on the original? The more responses there… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Friday: SF Film Fest

    Local science fiction fans may be well aware of the Cinerama’s upcoming Science Fiction Film Fest, but how many of you read the book first? Interestingly, most of the films started out as books of one kind or another, and they are worth a look. Here’s a rundown. Metropolis: no source book for this one, but this… Continue reading

  • Experiments with Fiction, Part 3

    No exploration of experimental fiction would be complete without reference to the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Workshop of Potential Literature), or Oulipo. This literary circle, founded by the Surrealist Marcel Duchamp and some friends in France in 1960, literally plays with words. The group is famous for making an almost mathematical use of “constraints” to… Continue reading

  • Experiments with Fiction, Part 2

    In my first post on experimental fiction, I mentioned the Library of Congress and its creation of the term, but I didn’t communicate how idiosyncratically the term is used. The good people at the Library of Congress created the term, but applied it in ways that might puzzle the attentive reader. Why, for instance, does… Continue reading

  • Experiments with Fiction, Part 1

    I recently read a strange little book by Tao Lin, called Eeeee Eee Eeee. It is fiction, a novel of sorts, although its characters are almost uniformly flat and disaffected (including the dolphins and the bears), anything resembling a plot dissolves after a few pages of slightly bored or mildly anxious introspection, and the language… Continue reading

  • Wordless Stories for Adults

    As a librarian, I read daily, whether it’s emails, tweets, blog posts, magazines, a variety of news sources (hard to call them papers anymore), and naturally, books. These words add up. I figured out once that I read about 200 words a minute on average, and when I count the minutes and hours I read… Continue reading

  • Natural Seattle

    As a native Seattleite, I’ve been blessed my entire life with our four seasons, umpteen varieties of rain, and countless beautiful days (no matter what kind of weather we’re having).  Recently someone asked me about a particular bit of weather lore, and this led me on a quest to find out more not just about… Continue reading

  • Reading those censored books

    Every year, the American Library Association puts out a list of the most challenged books of the previous year, plus a distressingly thick catalog of banned and challenged books. This article at The Onion made me think about all the various banned books that most of us really never read (or read for the wrong… Continue reading

  • Author Crush: Tom Robbins

    I am not sure when I first started reading Tom Robbins, but I’m guessing it was some time in the ’80s, and I know it was when I picked up at a used bookstore a copy of his early work, Still Life with Woodpecker. The title intrigued me, and then the plot itself, such as… Continue reading

  • Author crush: Ted Chiang

    In my tween and teen years, I devoured science fiction like Godzilla devoured Tokyo train cars. I read all the great authors and all the classic titles until I found myself, around age 19, sated. No more science fiction for me. I got it. Space. Aliens. The Future. A year or so ago, I subscribed… Continue reading

  • Cold War Graphic Novels

    The Cold War and the post-Cold War era gave authors and artists a lot of grist to mill.  While the novels and plays are famous and plentiful, there isn’t much in the way of graphic art that conveys the history of the time while also telling a great story.  Here are four graphic novels that tackle… Continue reading

  • The Arrival: power without words

    The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, is the wordless story of a man who leaves his home and emigrates to a new country. So simple, so universal, but the reader wonders: is it history? Science fiction? Fantasy? Fable? What are these strange machines and bizarre creatures? How will the man survive in this weird new world,… Continue reading

  • Four Books for a Desert Island

    If I’m ever really stranded on a desert island, the books I want to have with me must have titles like Raft Building for Dummies, 500 Ways to Cook Coconuts, Getting Along with Your Invisible Friends, and of course, How to Escape a Desert Island. For that desert island visit with a small working sailboat, I… Continue reading

  • Arthur C. Clarke’s best books

    When I was in third grade, in the early 1970s, I encountered Arthur C. Clarke on a classroom book spinner.  I was intrigued by the cover and the title and promptly took the book home and devoured it, thus beginning a lifelong love of hard science fiction.  My tastes have broadened considerable since, but most… Continue reading