6 hours ago: The Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.

2 months ago: I actually never watched the movie because it looked horrible but LOVE LOVE LOVE the book. From what I hear from people who did unfortunately watch the movie was that there were unnecessary additions to the movie (a wicked uncle that was never in the book) and just that Anne Hathaway did not capture the true rebellious essence of Ella. But using that stop-motion feature of the Matrix looked bad (I saw that in the trailer).

Honestly though, you should read the book. It is fantastic!

4 months ago: I love how complicated the symbolism of the Breaking Dawn cover is, given that it's a "simple" image.

Great call that the white piece is a Queen. Of course that makes me think automatically that it represents Bella.

The pawn, however, is less clear -- it could very easily be Jacob. But the red pawn almost seems more threatening than the queen due to its color. Honestly, when I first saw the cover image, I thought the Queen = Edward. After all, the Queen is the most powerful piece on the chess board whereas the King is practically the weakest.

Ho hum. I'm just looking forward to deconstructing the imagery once I've read Breaking Dawn.

8 months ago: I've sold the Twilight series to a couple of boys at a bookstore, and knew that at least one was actually buying it for himself. But I don't know of any of my guy friends who are reading the book...that is, I haven't asked them.

8 months ago: I have a soft spot for Adama and Roslin -- an older, softer potential for romance for those two. And then I'm a big fan of Anders/Starbuck. He, better than Lee, keeps Starbuck honest and sane.

9 months ago: I say "Per-sep-o-lis". But that's just me.

9 months ago: From the lips (well, fingers) of the author herself:

"I will return to Kel herself, but not for some years. After BLOODHOUND and ELKHOUND, there's Numair's book and Maura of Dunlath's book. Those all take place in time before Kel. After that, though, I'll return to Kel and we can see what she's been up to, from the point of view of her squire, one of the three girls she met at the tournament in SQUIRE."

-taken from Tamora Pierce's livejournal.

How exciting!

9 months ago: Ramona (Quimbly) appears to be in the works for another movie adaptation, due out 2009. So will Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2009). But imdb.com offers nothing on these titles except for the possible release date.

9 months ago: Uglies on imdb.com Although the idea that it has a 2008 release date is laughable considering no director nor actors are listed (inferring a lack of casting yet). Thanks for the heads up though!

9 months ago: Just as the title asks, do you believe that there are any modern fairy tales? Or are we stuck in a constant re-telling of the classics?

And for the third and final questions: how would you distinguish between a fairy tale and just a story?

I would argue that if we do have modern fairy tales, they are the ones about Tom Sawyer, the stories of Frances Hodgson Burnett [A Little Princess, The Secret Garden], etc. But again, it is more of a judgment call on considering the above fairy-tales or stories whereas history has taken away that ambiguity regarding Cinderella, Snow White, and the Little Match Girl.