When you read a short story, you experience its author at her most undiluted. The constraints of the genre force writers to compress emotion and action. They’re also useful for people who like to read in brief bursts: a short story is the perfect way to while away a subway ride, for example. And this is a great […]
It has been long been prophesied that girls just want to have fun. What that age-old wisdom neglects to mention is that girls have the most fun when they’re running the world. Literature carries the point, offering up a fair few femmes who fatally smashed the glass ceiling. These ladies don’t just elevate the stories they […]
Diving into the fantasy fiction genre is exhilarating—there are so many wizards, princesses, orphans, faeries, and dragons to spend time with. Whether your giftee is a devotee of the genre or a newbie, these are some of the hottest fantasy books of the year, geared toward teens but ready to be enjoyed by anyone.
Life is a never-ceasing struggle between the old and the new. Ideas burst onto the scene amid fireworks, and then slowly rust and rot until they’re sneered at, replaced by newer and hotter ideas. Usually this process is glacially slow, but if you read enough books over a long enough period, you can start to […]
So many wonderful things come from Australia: the Brothers Hemsworth, the flat white, some truly epic slang (a pash and slab makes for a great arvo, amirite?). Australia is basically the undisputed champion of cutest animals contests, with both koalas and kangaroos calling the country home—but more importantly (or equally as important), it’s home to some fantastic […]