This really makes me want to pull out my old She-Ra action figure and teach all my friends’ kids about princesses of POWER.
There’s another reason, just on the tip of my tongue, that shows about teenage girls tend to have their brilliance overlooked, while shows about men — men just like you and me! — are so often called brilliant when they really aren’t. They’re lovable and relatable and sell back the experience of upper-middle class white men to the middle-class white men most likely to enjoy them, they challenge just enough not to actually be challenging.
“
| — | Jacob Clifton (ie the main reason to watch half the shows on TV) at Television Without Pity |
Teen Reads For Spring!
On Saturday, May 19th, @BooksofWonder is thrilled to welcome 7 authors of page-turning novels for teen readers to an event that features fantasy, mystery, a traveling circus, thrillers, and some extreme situations. Joining us for this exciting afternoon as debut author, HANNAH BARNABY, pulls the curtains back on Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze; JENNIFER HUBBARD steals our breath with Try Not to Breath, a riveting story about a teenage boy who attempted suicide and now finds a new chance at life when he meets an energetic new girl; BRIAN JAMES shares Life Is But a Dream, the intense, compelling story of a teen girl with schizophrenia; the team of debut authors STACY KRAMER and VALERIE THOMAS take us for a ride with From What I Remember, the crazy tale of four classmates and a trip south of the border; DANIEL NAYERI shares Another Jekyll, Another Hyde revisiting Jekyll and Hyde as a current-day cautionary tale laced with a heady dose of paranormal intrigue; and ROBIN WASSERMAN introduces a teen whose dream romance turns overnight into a nightmare of a mystery in The Book of Blood and Shadow. Join us beginning at noon for this event packed with great teen novels. The authors will present their books, answer questions from the audience, and sign copies of all their great titles. Ages 12 and up. Saturday, May 19th, 12-2pm.
My girl Robin Wasserman. ;) Go to her! She makes the best salads and writes the best books.
No matter how many times I watch, it will never get old.
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
It turns out even Molly Ringwald is Team Spader.
Why does this make me so happy?
(Better question: How can a rich 80s cheeseball sleazeball asshole be so damn hot? File under: Things That Are Wrong With The World. And Also Apparently With Me.)
I wrote a thing about Weetzie Bat, the book that made me want to write YA, for The LA Review of Books and you should read it.
So great!
DON’T GET MAD, BUT THERE’S SOMETHING I’VE BEEN MEANING TO BRING UP. I KNOW IT’S IMPORTANT FOR US TO HAVE A “LOOK” AND I KNOW IT IMPROVES SOLIDARITY, WHICH IS LIKE … A HUGE PART OF BEING IN A STREET GANG, BUT I THINK MAYBE THE BELLS ARE A BAD IDEA. NOBODY ELSE HAS BELLS. THEY HAVE LIKE … ARMBANDS AND STUFF. WITH THE BELLS WE CAN’T EVEN SNEAK UP ON OUR FOOD, LET ALONE OUR RIVALS, WITHOUT JINGLING.
…
I’M JINGLING RIGHT NOW.
…
YOU’RE NOT ANSWERING ME BECAUSE YOU’LL JINGLE IF YOU MOVE YOUR FACE, RIGHT?
I’ll admit, I have no special love for poetry or Ralph Fiennes, but…talk about two great tastes that taste great together.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
