I love the idea of mashups. Two separate but familiar works get slammed together to create an idea that has elements of both. (Sounds familiar, no?). The results can be kind of fun. These title mashups came from my bookshelf. Which ones do you have? Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince of Tides Harry hates being the last member of his family until he’s stuck with the Wingo clan on Melrose Is...
Revisionist tales can be slippery. We love them because they tell the tale we already know from a perspective that gives the story new meaning. Sometimes a revisionist history promotes a fairer review of the past, like The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. Wide Sargasso Sea, is revisionist version of Jane Eyre but the new story is brilliant enough to stand on its own. Most of the...
Full disclosure: The love of words brought my late mom and Liz Kennedy together. I’m glad Liz stayed in touch with me because she’s someone I admire. After taking her B. A. in English Lit. at Brown, she earned an M. S. at Emporia State University. She’s also been a teacher, a museum educator, a mom and for the last several years the resident expert in children’s literature at the webs...
Not every great writer is a great human being. We expect the people who touch our souls with their prose to be as wonderful as their words but sadly, that isn’t always the case. There are some writers whose work I admire, that I wouldn’t want within a mile of me, alive or dead. On the other hand, I wish I could have met the Oscar Wilde in Richard Ellmann’s biography of that name. Seldom has lite...
God never meant me to cook good food. When it comes to spices, herbs, flavors and proteins, I’m a major disaster. I mean major. My home economics teacher recognized this when I put tablespoons of oregano in her braised radishes instead of the teaspoons she specified. (Who braises radishes anyway?) My husband figured it out the night I added sugar to the meatloaf instead of salt. He thanked me for inve...