Transformation: Arrietty and Does She Transform Too Much?

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The new A-Z List is about characters, some in disguise, who transform or reveal themselves. I find this particular theme particularly captiv...

Transformation NOT: Alice in Wonderland

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The new A-Z List (A-Z List 11) is about characters who transform. Character pull off disguises. They reveal true intentions. They change the...

Lesson from the Ms: Make It Personal

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Her rage is personal. Less noble. More interesting. Perusing so many fiction books, I've been reminded of how much human beings love sto...
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Books to Movies: Tolkien's Visuals

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When evaluating movies, it is important to remember: film is about the visuals.  Books can do things that film cannot, and the film will com...

Alexander McCall Smith's Latest: In the Time of the Pumpkins

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The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is one of the few series that I continue to follow despite the books numbering over 3. I often los...

Interview with the Translator: Halloween & Zombies

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Kate: The Hinman who attack Risai and Gyousuu’s group in Hills of Silver Ruins seem like a cross between zombies and werewolves.  Do the ...

All the Ms: Mah to Mahoney

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Ann Mah: Ann Mah, author of kitchen chinese and other books, showcases the difference between first-generation immigrants and second-genera...

The Royal Who Is Really Something Else

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Zahler's book The Thirteenth Princess brings up the classic archetype: the royal disguised as a servant or ordinary person. Twain's...

Stop the Christie Murder: the Most Obvious Person in The Caribbean Mystery

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My prevention detectives in A Caribbean Mystery wouldn't have to do much detection! They would simply need to listen to Major Palgrave....

Characters as Society: Yugi Yamada

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One of my favorite mangaka (an artist who writes the manga' story and draws its characters) is Yugi Yamada. One reason I like her so muc...

The Dumbest Trope of All Dumb Tropes

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Okay--maybe there are dumber ones. But this one is pretty dumb: The bad guys (or vampires in hiding) set up in a SMALL TOWN.  And...they get...

The Dysfunctional MacBeths

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The dysfunction in MacBeth 's primary relationship isn't that Lady MacBeth talks MacBeth into killing the king. That's bad. But ...

Josephine Tey's Alan Grant

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Repost from 2005. * * * The best description of Josephine Tey's novels is comedy of manners . My favorite of her books is To Love and Be...

X is for the Unknown in Murder Mysteries

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In mysteries, X often stands in for the murderer. In the show Person of Interest , the unknown factor is whether the "number" (or ...

People Don't Change: Mesopotamian Sons

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Cultures change. Technology changes. Understanding changes.  Human nature truly doesn't change.   Professor Amanda H. Podany of Great Co...

Books to Movies: The Great and Intelligent Excision from The Lord of the Rings

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One of Jackson's most intelligent decisions was to not present the Scouring of the Shire. In the book, Saruman--let go through mercy by ...

What Makes a Good Hero?

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Below is a repost from 2011. * * * I first came up with a list of favorite heroes (main protagonists). I then used those heroes to create a...
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T.H. White and What Makes a King-to-Be

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In my novella, The Wolf Boy Returns from Space , my king-to-be is more a young Alexander the Great than, say, Harry Potter. That is, he has ...