Magnificent Octopus

Now before we forget abut it completely or before our continuation of the story renders the fact redundant because it comes too late, we wil...

It was one of those unaccountable little rooms which are never seen anywhere but in a tavern, and are supposed to have got into taverns by r...

They say a picture's worth a thousand words. I supposed it depends on the words, depends on the picture. The stink of the Lannister ho...

One of the perks of my no-longer-new job is that when the kid comes with me (hey, I guess that's a perk right there), there are some fix...

The Oregon Experiment , by Keith Scribner, has a couple really interesting things going for it. Namely: 1. A nose. One of the main charact...

OK. Wow. This is an amazing little book. Martin Chuzzlewit is finally almost leaving America. And during his very long (boring) illness in...

I so wanted to love A Polish Book of Monsters — I'd placed an order for it within minutes of having been alerted to its existence — but...

Leonard Cohen was this week conferred the 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters , reminding me that I left Beautiful Losers half read o...

So many I thought I'd be over and done with. So many I had planned. But there just isn't enough time. Martin Chuzzlewit , Charles ...

What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms . . . or the memory of a brother...

"Why do you read so much?" Tyrion looked up at the sound of the voice. Jon Snow was standing a few feet away, regarding him curi...

I have tickets to see a play this week! A friend of mine is acting in it, so I thought I'd find out a little bit more about it, and it ...

"A simile," he said, "is true because you say so. It's a persuasion: this is like that. That's not enough for it anym...

The Atomic Weight of Secrets, or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black , by Eden Unger Bowditch, is the first book in The Young Invento...

ACL — Accelerated Contact Linguistics — was, Scile told me, a speciality crossbred from pedagogics, receptivity, programming, and cryptograp...

I love that when I perched on Helena's bed this morning and she opened her eyes, the first thing she thought to say was, "Who won l...

An ancient proverb warns us that we should not expect to find old heads upon young shoulders; to which it may be added that we seldom meet w...

It happened on the fourth evening, that Mr. Pecksniff walking, as usual, into the bar of the Dragon and finding no Mrs. Lupin there, went st...

It's taken a while, but finally I've watched all Mad Men episodes to date. From the start of the series, it's been impossible no...