Never Let Me Go is science fiction, British, and YA (even though it is frequently also read and enjoyed by grow-ups). It is also written by a widely lauded author (Kazuo Ishiguro) and seems to always be around, “your next read.” But while I expected to like this book as much as, say, The Perks…
A Monster Calls (2011) by Patrick Ness is a sad, somewhat difficult YA book that borders on a novella and, in the end, is rewarding. It is also magical, but avoids the obnoxiousness of overly-fable-y books to drive home some very real points about coming of age, death, and guilt, while the backstory about this…
This a continuation of the movies and shows I am watching during the writing of a YA trilogy. However, in the spirit of recent awards shows, I have decided to include my favorite movies and shows of 2022. By “of 2022,”, I mean I watched them in 2022. They may be 100 years old (they…
I know you probably didn’t come to The Starving Artist for movie reviews and, well, my expertise is in literature and not movies. But I am a very opinionated movie-viewer, and I often tie movies to books as an experience. However, none of the movies below are related to books or to the writing life.…
I was so busy Nanowrimo-ing and having holidays, that I never read the Thanksgiving book that I had slotted for this year. Yes, there are some Thanksgiving books, though so far (the past two years) I have found them to be a stretch. This year, however, the book is clearly a Thanksgiving book while also…
THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER I have tried to read and review a children’s picture book each Christmas along with a novel and a nonfiction book. This year I chose The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter. I have never been a big Beatrix Potter fan (I can’t say I’m not a Potter fan because, well,…
For National Novel Writing Month (November) this year, I was working on a YA fantasy adventure trilogy. It was a new project to me, and I admit to not being as versed in YA or speculative fiction as in some other genres. In the past, I have made playlists to get in the writing mood…
I love books, obviously. I also happen to love movies. I don’t love movies as much as books, I suppose, but I really enjoy a great movie and have some real favorites. I will also often watch related movies (or series) after reading a book. Thus, when I found an article from Harper’s Bazaar, I…
After reading In Cold Blood, I felt interested in reading Truman Capote’s other most-famous work, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. For one thing, I was intrigued by his strange career of seemingly never landing on the same genre twice. For another, this is my experience with Breakfast at Tiffany’s: In the nineties, the song “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”…
And yet another book that I have been meaning to read for ages: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I never understood what on earth a lauded and supposedly literary type like Truman Capote was doing with a true crime book topping his very short list. I mean, where did this author fit in my…
When I was in high school (maybe on my way to college) I received one of those memorable gifts. I have received many memorable gifts. (Gifts is one of my love languages after all (along with service and then, I suppose, quality time.) For me, a memorable gift is often more than you expected and…
For the holiday season, the entire homeschool co-op read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I have already reviewed this book and also a couple of the movies related to it. I also listed some more movies that are adapted from it. I imagined I would have time this year to watch all of these, but…
It’s not that I can’t see what others would see in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. But I’m not a teenager and I don’t live in the mid-century past. I can also understand that his writing was something fresh and special and that his insistence that it stay the way it was…
Can anyone actually enjoy reading this book? I mean, appreciate it, dissect it, talk about it, parse it, give it a good rating, praise it, but enjoy it? The thing is, most books that I read while a teenager or even young adult, when I reread them I find waiting for me a completely different…
Let’s all say it together before I get a chance to tell you again: this book is not what I expected. On America’s radar for the past ten years, this is one of those confusing all the books (or movies) with the same hot word in the title. Let’s see: Gone Girl, The Girl with…
Rarely do I listen to a book as opposed to pick up a physical copy and read it with my eyeballs. (Almost never do I read with my eyes a digital copy.) The exceptions to this rule are two: one, when I have a migraine and I am laying there bored out of my mind…
Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging (2008) Just as I have been neglectful of posting my media review of the entire month of February, so was I remiss in January in not including Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging. This is another of the movies in my never-ending slog through the movies that I personally own. It’s…
Not a secret: I’m a Harry Potter fan. I read the new stuff as it comes out, including the Fantastic Beasts series, which, if you don’t know, is a five-book series of screen plays set in the Harry Potter world but seventy years before the stories we are familiar with. Which makes Dumbledore really old.…
This is an old review, which has been sitting at the bottom of my next-up feed for a long time. I don’t really know how it got there or why I kept it there, but it was probably read during a dry period, perhaps when I was sick or on vacation. At any rate, a…
THE GOOD PLACE (series, 2016-2020) When I mentioned to some friends that I was watching this show, I was surprised when they said, “Ehn. It was good, and then it wasn’t. You’ll see.” I was so enjoying it. Quirky. Funny. Full of interesting characters. And just an interesting (if slightly heretical) idea: a young woman…
