Growing up, I often told neighborhood kids about my father’s internment, what he remembered of Camp Crystal City, Texas, where he spent three years, age seven to ten, going to school, swimming, playing in nearby orchards, and other normal experiences—except for the barbed wire, guard towers, and lack of freedom. Later, I wanted to know more and learned that what happened to my family can happen to anybody else if they are feared. More recently, families have been ripped apart, children put in cages, and countless people treated as less than human. My book reminds us of what can happen when fear leads to calling those among us enemies or worse.
I recommend Kennett’s book because it really dives into those first few weeks and months after Pearl Harbor. I found it a fascinating tale of how a nation mobilizes and can if it has the energy and will, go from a peacetime to a wartime footing pretty quickly.
I would also recommend this book because it makes use of sources such as comic books and soap operas alongside the more traditional archival documents and oral histories. I highly recommend, a fun read, too!
Rich in detail from archives, interviews, and sweeping research, this book surveys the first six months of the United States war effort after entering World War II
I began reading science fiction when I was 8 years old and "borrowed" my father’s library books until, in defense, he got me my own library card. Not only have I spent decades reading SF, I’ve written it as well. As a veteran reader and writer with plenty of kill marks on my fuselage, I'm literally married to the SF mob (Grandmaster Robert Silverberg, is my spouse). I can both walk the walk and talk the talk. And after writing 9 SF novels including a Star Trek Book and reading uncounted SF and F tales, I still think science fiction and fantasy can be a literature of ideas illuminating the human condition.
Oh, the delicious snark of it all. Murderbot may—or may not—have a human heart, but what it does have is attitude with a capital A.
System Collapse focuses on the further adventures of the cyberbot security unit that has hacked itself free from dangerous behavioral controls and named itself Murderbot. The gender-free bot is suffering from PTSD resulting in memory lapses and odd behavior that endangers not only Murderbot but the humans they're protecting from being killed/enslaved by evil Corporate raiders and/or contaminated by deadly alien biotech.
Some of the funniest moments come when human characters try to get touchy-feely with Murderbot, much to their horror. Honestly, Murderbot would rather just watch soap operas with buddy/significant other, ART, the AI ship they live on. It helps to have read the previous 6 books to know who all the characters are and their histories.
The million-copy, New York Times bestselling Murderbot series is back in another full-length novel adventure!
Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.
Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free…
I’ve always wanted to write. It took years to get started, and after working in the library and information technology fields for over thirty-five years, I quit the day job routine in 2011 to write full time. I've learned two valuable lessons since I started writing which have been of immense help. The first is a quote from writer and activist Mary Heaton Vorse, who said, "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." The second is from novelist Rachel Basch, who told me that "the story has to move down, as well as forward." Both sound simple. Neither is.
This book is a masterwork of more than thirty years of research into why people tell stories. Booker breaks down literature into seven archetypal themes which occur across all types of stories. Using a wealth of examples ranging from ancient myths and folktales to plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, he demonstrates how these archetypal themes have remained constant over the generations. Not everyone will agree with Booker, but everyone will learn from him—about reading, writing, and understanding. This fascinating read provides writers with a new way to look at their own plotting and tap into the hero’s journey.
This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to…
Researching the storylines for my family drama novels gives me the opportunity to speak to many different people about huge events and dilemmas in their families and lives. Through their honesty and generosity, I have gained a huge respect for the way in which people can cope with tragedy and also a fascination with how they deal with it. For me, reading – and writing – about these topics is immensely cathartic and makes me remember to grasp life with both hands. I’m a sucker for a happy ending, though, so I always look for the hope at the end of any story.
I sobbed my way through this one! I was a few chapters in when I discovered that it was a sequel to The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes, but I was so invested by then that I couldn’t stop and go back.
Anna McPartlin has the enviable skill of combining comedy and tragedy to great effect. The Hayes family are a mess of grief and confusion and misplaced blame, but their love for one another, and their wonderful humour, meant that I took them to my heart immediately.
A book that makes me laugh out loud one minute and blub like a baby the next is always a winner for me. I would read anything that this author chose to write. (I read Rabbit Hayes immediately afterwards and loved that, too!
'Brilliant, funny and immensely moving' Catherine Isaac, author of You, Me, Everything
'Well, that was a tearjerker! Anna McPartlin's Below the Big Blue Sky is a MORE than worthy follow-up to The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes' Marian Keyes
***
There's no family quite like the Hayes, and yet they're just like any other - they love each other, they look out for each other and they drive each other mad. When their youngest, Rabbit, dies tragically at just forty, the Hayes are almost torn apart by their grief.
Without her beloved mum, twelve-year-old Bunny is adrift; without Rabbit, there…
For almost fifty years, we have been chronicling American television, tracking its history, and following its transformation from the era of three networks to the cornucopia of choices now available through streaming. Along the way, we have appreciated and learned much from other TV books that look at the industry from multiple angles. When we started, there were precious few on this topic. Now, there is a surplus. These are the ones we treasure for their well-told stories.
Rod Serling’s fantasy anthology (where he was narrator and chief writer) was a favorite of ours back then and still is. Despite a skimpy production budget, the show’s quality scripts, acting, and imaginative themes usually transcended the sparse settings.
Having seen most episodes several times, we still turn to Zicree’s handy book to refresh our memories of the show. This was one of the first of the “companion” books to document a memorable TV series, presenting each episode with cast and crew information, airdate, sample photo, the text of Serling’s intro and outro narration, plot summary and revealing analysis, and background details. The expanded 3rd edition (from 2018) also covers the various later revivals of the series.
The Twilight Zone Companion is the complete show-by-show guide to one of television's greatest series. Zicree's well-written account is fascinating reading for even the casual fan. Coverage of each episode includes a plot synopsis, Rod Serling's opening narration, behind-the-scenes stories from the original artists who created the series, and a complete list of cast and credits.
I believe deeply that, as messy and painful as life is, there is always joy, and usually humor, to be found. The book I wrote, Leaving’s Not the Only Way to Go, pulls from some of the painful experiences I’ve had, and I often find myself following my description of the book, about two women who meet in a grief group, with “but it’s not a downer!” It’s true, because Leaving is also inspired by all the joy and connections I’ve made for myself, even in the midst of loss. I learned how to balance the two sides of life through books like the ones on this list.
Fat Tuesday is the book that taught me what a lesbian was and what a joyful possibility that could be for me.
It’s about a high school senior named Rusty who decides, despite all the desperate circumstances of her life, to travel to New Orleans for Mardi Gras with her sick mother and dysfunctional friends.
Rusty and company are obsessed with soap operas as an escape from their current reality, and as their road trip proceeds, their reality becomes more and more like a soap opera plot, with all the drama, dramatic twists, and exaggerated exuberance that soap operas are known for!
What does Rusty Quinn do when her mom loses touch with reality, her best friend's dad explodes over a kiss, her other best friend gets committed to a psych ward, and the sanest person she knows is an egotistical Finnish exchange student who swears in a language nobody understands? She could write a soap opera, of course - or go to Mardi Gras. In fact, she could do both!
Funny how destiny comes down to single choices, focused moments, and split-second decisions. Can running away to Mardi Gras really change four lives forever?
I’ve always been fascinated by film and television. No matter how challenging life can be at times, we're forever united by what stories captivate us on the gold and silver screens. Whatever challenges the world may throw at this type of storytelling be it a world war, the internet, Covid, or TikTok, nothing beats sitting down on your sofa to enjoy the finest entertainment the world has to offer. Critically studying our most treasured past time might sound like the best way of sucking the life out of it. But I’m here to show you how this isn't the case. Join me on a quest through the best writings that can capture your imagination.
The Television Genre Book is a smorgasbord of leading international scholars who come together to offer an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the debates, issues, and concerns of what it is that makes unique television genres so appealing.
From the news and quiz shows to soaps and serious HBO dramas I still remember first opening this book and being enthralled by my newfound ability to look at our favourite pastime differently and critically.
Genre is central to understanding the industrial context and visual form of television. This new edition of the key textbook on television genre brings together leading international scholars to provide an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the debates, issues and concerns of the field. Structured in eleven sections, The Television Genre Book introduces the concept of 'genre' itself and how it has been understood in television studies, and then addresses the main televisual genres in turn: drama, soap opera, comedy, news, documentary, reality television, children's television, animation and popular entertainment.
This third edition is illustrated throughout with case studies of…
Soap operas may have no actual relation to soap—the term comes from radio dramas that were sponsored by soap companies—but they’re certainly related to opera, full of melodrama and grandiosity. With my second novel, a multi-generational family saga, my goal was to write a literary soap opera. I wanted it to be finely crafted, attuned to language and characterization, but also dishy, riddled with heightened drama, vivid personalities, and theatrical events. Below are five literary soap operas I studied while writing my own.
History can be a challenge and a rebuke to novelists. How can we expect, I’ve often wondered, to create a work of the imagination as surprising and majestic as the trajectory of time? World’s End is T.C. Boyle’s answer to that question. Set in the Hudson River Valley and spanning four centuries, with enough characters to fill a three-page list of them in the front matter, this darkly comic, brightly tragic novel proves that history doesn’t repeat, as the saying goes, nor does it rhyme. History braids, over and over, strand upon strand, and the only people who can see the tapestry are those who take a step back. Boyle, like all great historical novelists, knows how to step back.
Haunted by the burden of his family's traitorous past, woozy with pot, cheap wine and sex, and disturbed by a frighteningly real encounter with some family ghosts, Walter van Brunt is about to have a collision with history.
It will lead Walter to search for his lost father. And it will send the story into the past of the Hudson River Valley, from the late 1960's back to the anticommunist riots of the 1940's to the late seventeenth century, where the long-hidden secrets of three families--the aristocratic van Warts, the Native-American Mohonks, and Walter's own ancestors, the van Brunts--will be…
I'm a journalist and a historian who writes about how American evangelicals are complicated. I was trying to explain Left Behind in graduate school and I talked and talked about the theology in the book—all about the doctrines of the rapture, the antichrist, and the millennium. Then my professor said, “But it’s fiction, right? Why is it fiction? What are people doing when they read a novel instead, of say, a theological treatise?” I had no idea. But it seemed like a good question. That was the spark of Reading Evangelicals. But first, I had to read everything I could find about how readers read and what happens when they do.
I’m cheating a little here, but I made the rules and there’s a little clause in the rules I made that says I can break them as long as I announce that I am breaking them. Herewith, I announce.
This isn’t a book about readers. It’s a book about watchers—specifically the Dutch audience for the soap opera Dallas. But this book is so good and so wild, it changed forever the way I think about “reception,” including reading. I recommend this book all the time and if you want to understand the freedom and creativity of readers, you have to read it.
Dallas, one of the great internationally-screened soap operas, offers us first and foremost entertainment. But what is it about Dallas that makes that entertainment so successful, and how exactly is its entertainment constructed?
There is a 25th anniversary edition of this book. which is one of the most sumptuous tomes I've ever had the pleasure of owning... or reading. It's a monster of a work, 750 pages of heavy paper, that weighs in at over 2-1/2 kg, profusely and perfectly illustrated, as well as beautifully designed and typeset. The end papers offer up a genealogy of the extended and intertwined families that populate the story.
It's a rich and complex story, deserving of the magnificent treatment.
Edgewood is many houses, all put inside each other, or across each other. It's filled with and surrounded by mystery and enchantment: the further in you go, the bigger it gets.
Smoky Barnable, who has fallen in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, comes to Edgewood, her family home, where he finds himself drawn into a world of magical strangeness.
Crowley's work has a special alchemy - mixing the world we know with an imagined world which seems more true and real. Winner of the WORLD FANTASY AWARD, LITTLE, BIG is eloquent, sensual, funny and unforgettable, a true Fantasy Masterwork.
