Monthly Archives: December 2011

Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl

Posted on December 31, 2011 by

Ever since the summer I’ve been meaning to write about The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, but my feelings about it are so mixed that it’s hard to say something coherent. The Windup Girl is science fiction geared to the … Continue reading →

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Maybe it just seemed like 1001 nights…sheesh.

Posted on December 28, 2011 by

I remember reading, as a child, some version of the Thousand and One Nights.  Evidently it was not Sir Richard Burton’s bestselling Victorian translation, which is written in a faux-medieval style that is pretty annoying to my adult self and … Continue reading →

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Master, lay your head in my lap.

Posted on December 9, 2011 by

Like a lot of people, when I first encountered The Lord of the Rings, I was struck by what seemed to be a fantasy version or allegory of the Second World War. Not that Gandalf particularly resembles Churchill or anything … Continue reading →

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How do you say “bachata” in Elvish?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by

If you have heard of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, you may have wondered, as I did, what kind of name Wao is.  Here’s the story behind it. One year in college Oscar (real name de … Continue reading →

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