The Cruelty of School-tees: The Worst Witch and the Hogwarts Problem

Like many readers who have a modicum of Internet awareness, I’ve spent a fair bit of time trying to find a thing to replace Harry Potter as my go-to “wizard school” series. There are, of course, many to choose from. Ursula Le Guin infamously said of Harry Potter that the work is, to paraphrase, derivative […]

Book Review: The Witches by Roald Dahl

If Dahl were alive today, he might be particularly bothered by the fact that the 1990 adaptation of his 1983 novel, The Witches, has had the same (or, more probably, slightly more) cultural staying power than the novel it loosely adapts. Indeed, Dahl is on record as having called the adaptation “utterly appalling,” yet for […]

A Not Quite History: The Great Courses’ “The History of Ancient Egypt”

For the past week, I’ve been listening to a series of lectures from The Great Courses on the history of ancient Egypt, which I must have grabbed on an Audible sale many moons ago. The series is presented by Dr. Bob Brier, a notable Egyptologist and mummy expert. I say notable because much of his […]

Shaun’s Rambles 003: On Negative Reviews and Their Value

…in which I talk about things some people don’t want to write. In this edition: http://media.blubrry.com/shaunsrambles/ia801504.us.archive.org/10/items/ShaunsRambles003OnNegativeReviewsAndTheirValue/ShaunsRambles003–OnNegativeReviewsAndTheirValue.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS