Literature
Barbie and the Easy Man
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, conversations about gender, power, and representation take center stage. While history often focuses on real-world trailblazers, fictional storytelling has long been a powerful tool for examining societal norms and challenging assumptions. Two summers ago, one film, Barbie (2023), explored gender norms and societal expectations by portraying an encounter with…
Read MoreKlara and The Sun—Emotional Awareness of an AI Companion
The novel Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro was only recently published in 2021. The book is very well done and reads easily. The author holds back just enough information to keep the reader hungry for more. This style can feel a little disorienting at first, but curiosity is sparked and I found the…
Read MoreThe Historian—Elizabeth Kostova’s Novel of Dracula’s Futures
Read or Listen [SPOILERS WARNING: Do I really have to say this? It’s a review! Read ahead at your own risk.] Several years ago I read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova as a commuter novel. Then, this past summer, I picked up a used copy of the same book at a charming bookstore in South…
Read MoreReading the Right Books in Narnia
Read or Listen In the third book of the Narnia chronicles, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we get a new human character, Eustice. And Eustice lacks the creative education to keep up with the wonder of Narnia. His obsession is with science and observation rather than with fantasy. Eustace criticizes Edmond and Lucy for…
Read MoreReligion in Narnia: Tashlan, the God We Create
Read or Listen to this blogcast I have just completed my recent reading of The Narnia Chronicles, and it has been quite a long time since I remembered the story C. S. Lewis wrote in The Last Battle. This finalé to the series is a remarkable commentary on modern theology that is simple presented as…
Read MoreThe Left Hand of Darkness, Right Hand of Light
Read or Listen to the Blogcast “Light is the left hand of darknessand darkness the right hand of light.Two are one, life and death, lyingtogether like lovers in kemmer,like hands joined together,like the end and the way.”― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin was an award-winning sci-fi author.…
Read MoreLiminality in Butler’s Kindred
Read or Listen to the Blogcast One of Octavia Butler‘s first novels has been recently made into a graphic novel. Kindred is a twentieth-century novel that explores the intersections of mid-twentieth century life for an African American woman living in Los Angeles with the life of her ancestors in nineteenth-century Maryland. Dana, Caught Between Two…
Read MoreApocalypse & Parables by Octavia Butler
I have only just discovered the amazing storyteller and author Octavia Butler. I’m writing this blog to ensure that you don’t miss out on the Parable of the Sower and Parable of Talents. The latter won the Nebula Award for Best Novel (1999). Despite the Parable series being published in the 1990s, the books did…
Read MoreLady of the Underworld, an Evil Queen in Narnia
Read or Listen to this blogcast In C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia‘s The Silver Chair, we meet some new characters, like Puddlegum the Marsh-wiggle and a new human character, Jill Pole. The unlikely pair of a sensible girl and the Narnia-born marsh dweller end up taking part in a rescue expedition, along with…
Read MoreThe Magician, The Witch, and the Fall of Humankind
Read or Listen I have just completed reading, rather re-reading, The Magician’s Nephew, the penultimate book in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series. I have to admit, this is my favorite book. I always look forward to meeting the stubborn Diggory and the ambitious, wise, and cautious Polly. I anticipate the moment that the…
Read More