We all know the plays I’m talking about, right? The characters are usually family or very close friends and they enter the play facing hardship or strife. Conflicts may be aired but the True Meaning of Christmas finally gets through and everyone remembers the Reason for the Season and makes up in time to unwrap presents. Cue the Figgy Pudding and Curtain, we’re finished. Well, those don’t do it ...
Years ago, when my sister and I were first getting acquainted as adults (a process quite different than growing up together) we discussed a book called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Barb and I agreed it was very good but my sister added, “It doesn’t compare to the author’s first book, The Silver Crown.” I had missed that kid’s book and couldn’t imagine how anything could approach...
I’m not an aeronautic groupie or a science nerd. As a kid, I resented the moon-shot flights of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo for preempting my Saturday Morning Cartoons and although I appreciate their accomplishments, I still prefer reruns of Underdog. Engineering advancements just aren’t my thing. Nevertheless, I get hot under the collar every time I re-read Greig Stewart’s Shutting Down the National Dr...
Now many books take on a life of their own. Any reader of note can cite a half a dozen books that catch the heart and imagination of the public (Make that fifty books. Harry Potter turned the reading world on its ear more times than I can count on one hand) and a play or a film will sometimes add up to more than the sum of its parts. We’re all glad when these moments occur. It isn’t often, though that...
It’s almost winter again and I keep thinking the books of Dickens. For many of us, Dickens is an immutable part of this season although I don’t think he reached that place just because of his famous Christmas tale. Winter is a melodramatic mix of beauty, fear and hope, just like his stories and the first one that comes to mind is The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Nickleby is Dickens’s third nove...