verloren in vertaling

Which, in Dutch, means “lost in translation.”
While in Amsterdam I checked out a number of bookstores hunting down the impossible: a discovery. The art of discovering something uncommon (or at least uncommon in one culture that might be totally popular in another) carries a certain cache “That proves you were there/That you heard of [...]

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& the critical essay, as submitted

As I mentioned, when I was originally putting my application package together I had finished the spit and polish on my critical essay and went back to check and make sure I didn’t screw up the page length requirement. It seems a small thing, but I really didn’t want to look like a dingledork [...]

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personal essay, as submitted

This is it, the one I finally settled on. The edit was a bloodbath — it was twice and long and four times as meandering as it needed to be originally. I think if I hadn’t been on a short deadline (of my own design) I’d have written at least 20 different versions, [...]

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acceptable

adjective capable or worthy of being accepted.
Which is to say, I got into grad school.
I started putting this blog together at around a month ago just after I applied. I had a September 1st deadline for a January start and I honestly didn’t expect to hear anything before the middle of October. In [...]

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big stinky review fun

I just finished up my most recent batch of books to review and was thinking “Hmm, what should I read next?” when a ginormous padded mailer came from the nice UPS man filled with my next batch of books.
Wow. So many trees, giving up their lives so valiantly in the name of books that [...]

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ant farm by simon rich

This collection of shorter humorous pieces — I hesitate to use the word story as so many are written only to hit a punchline — are either the first inklings of a major force in humor or the short, brilliant sparks of beer-infused talent at the cusp of spiraling into oblivion.
Personally, I’m hoping for the [...]

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the sweet spot

My blog subscriptions are a funny collection of who I am, what interests me. I’m sure everyone’s collection of interests has a few odd pieces.
One of the places I visit regularly is Seth Godin’s blog entitled, uh, Seth’s Blog. Seth is marketing guru, a guy who is constantly looking at and rethinking the [...]

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99 & 44/100% female

It was one of those things that came up in a conversation late at night while we were drifting off to sleep. I talked about how, in the bookstore, the adults who are shopping are 90% female. In fact, I said, you didn’t really notice that the clientelle was all women until you’d [...]

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let the book be a book

Historian and author Marc Aronson has a blog at School Library Journal called Nonfiction Matters. In his posts he regularly addresses the issues surrounding nonfiction and history as it’s presented in children’s books.
In a recent post he discussed the idea that a book be something more than just a book, that interactive media should [...]

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NSFK

Everyone’s acronym crazy these days, and text messaging seems to be a fact of life, so why not join in the fun!  NSFK now means Not Safe For Kids which I’m throwing out there for use however and whichever way it works you all.
Actually, I was surprised it hasn’t already come up. We’ve got tonnes [...]

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accidental essay

When I was working up application materials I had a critical essay I needed to include. I really liked this book I picked up on my vacation and felt — aside from the essay — that I had something to say about the possible uses of historical non-fiction for teens.
When I was just about [...]

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