Author Archive

  • Juliet by Anne Fortier – review
    I haven’t been as excited about a book as I was when I got to the end of Juliet in a long time.  A year, maybe.  Anne Fortier has managed what might well be the impossible:  making Romeo and Juliet fresh again.  Not in the way that West Side Story did, by re-setting and re-casting the story, but by taking the plain old medieval Italy Romeo and Juliet story...
    by Elena Nola at September 3rd, 2010 at 08:09 am
  • A Game of Thrones Read and React
    As we’ve mentioned before, Jay and I are spending this fall reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin over at Gestalt Mash.  For me it’s my first time, for Jay his…well, he’s never explicitly said, but I suspect he can’t count that high.  So you’ve got two perspectives, mine, as unadulterated as someone who blogs in the SFF...
    by Elena Nola at September 2nd, 2010 at 07:09 pm
  • Indie Angle: Restrepo
    Restrepo is a documentary about the U.S. Army post of the same name in Afghanistan, front line for the hottest zone of the war.  The tagline for the movie:  “One platoon.  One valley.  One year.”  Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like this documentary, the film just fell flat for me.  So what happened?  Two things:  First, there were scenes that seemed...
    by Elena Nola at September 2nd, 2010 at 10:09 am
  • The Bodice Rippeth: Ghosts and Demons
    If you’ve never seen this column before, and most especially if you have, welcome to the modern Romance section. Current market trends have moved away from the discreet markers of roses and silk and toward total transparency of content. I’ve compiled for your amusement the best of the worst covers which I encountered during the last week of visits to my friendly...
    by Elena Nola at August 31st, 2010 at 08:08 pm
  • True Blood – “Fresh Blood” – review
    This was an episode I more clearly liked than the last couple.  I really liked where they went with Eric and Russell. Not what I expected.  I’ll be impressed if they really kill Eric off—and depressed!—but I almost can’t believe they will.  Still, a creative use of his options.  Well played, Northman.  Also well played:  Pam and Russell watching Eric walk...
    by Elena Nola at August 30th, 2010 at 05:08 pm
  • BSC Round-up: Aug. 29, 2010
    Two week’s worth of posts to sum up this time around.  What can I say?  Last weekend I took the dog to a lake where he can swim without fear of being eaten by Supergator to escape this oppressive late-summer heat wave.  There was no internet involved.  So if you’ve been too busy tossing your dog–or your kids–into a lake, alligator-free or...
    by Elena Nola at August 29th, 2010 at 09:08 pm
  • The Bodice Rippeth: Commands and Wordplay
    If you’ve never seen this column before, and most especially if you have, welcome to the modern Romance section. Current market trends have moved away from the discreet markers of roses and silk and toward total transparency of content. I’ve compiled for your amusement the best of the worst covers which I encountered during the last week of visits to my friendly...
    by Elena Nola at August 24th, 2010 at 08:08 pm
  • True Blood – “I Smell a Rat” – review
    I’m trying very hard to wait for the end of this season before I make sweeping judgments about the direction the show is going, but it’s hard.  For me it’s running dangerously close to capsizing and has been for a couple episodes now.  However.  I will maintain my microcosmic view and talk about the episode at hand only, since the season finale’s...
    by Elena Nola at August 24th, 2010 at 07:08 pm
  • Imager’s Intrigue by L.E. Modesitt – review
    Imager’s Intrigue is the third and, for now, at least, final book in the Imager Portfolio (per Modesitt’s website the next imager book he’s planning is set in a different time than this trilogy).  It does not pick up directly where the second book left off, but rather five years later, which makes this story almost a coda to the first two, as they were more closely...
    by Elena Nola at August 19th, 2010 at 08:08 am
  • Indie Angle: Valhalla Rising
    Valhalla Rising is a movie we in my household have been praying would come to our local independent spot since the first trailer appeared online a few months back.  It has yet to do so, but it is currently available on demand from our local cable company (Cox; I would imagine it’s available on other carriers, too, and if not I think Netflix might have it for download). ...
    by Elena Nola at August 18th, 2010 at 08:08 am
  • True Blood – “Everything Is Broken” – review
    Sorry I’m a day late with this, but I needed some extra time to think over everything that happened.  Because damn, that was an episode where a lot happened.  Including several characters reaching their breaking points—should have been titled “Everyone Is Broken,” eh? The really sorry part is that I’m still not sure what to think of everything, and neither...
    by Elena Nola at August 17th, 2010 at 09:08 pm
  • The Bodice Rippeth: Lords, Masters, and Other Occupations
    If you’re a BSC regular, you’ve seen this column before.  But you’ve never seen it like this.  Unless you saw last week’s inaugural installment of its new weekly manifestation.  If you’ve never seen it before, welcome to the modern Romance section. Current market trends have moved away from the discreet markers of roses and silk and toward total...
    by Elena Nola at August 17th, 2010 at 08:08 am
  • BSC Round-up: Aug. 15, 2010
    It’s getting to be that time of year again, where the kids go back to school and football starts up again and all of a sudden you wake from your mid-summer fugue, the torper induced by too many consecutive days of 100+ temperatures, to find that fall and all its attendant fun are just around the corner.  If you were too busy celebrating this discovery with a long...
    by Elena Nola at August 15th, 2010 at 03:08 pm
  • The Bodice Rippeth: Pop Culture and Wardrobe Malfunctions
    If you’re a BSC regular, you’ve seen this column before.  But I’m going to try shifting it to a weekly column–smaller chunks of laughs, but more frequent.  If you’ve never seen it before, welcome to the modern Romance section. Current market trends have moved away from the discreet markers of roses and silk and toward total transparency...
    by Elena Nola at August 10th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
  • More George R. R. Martin Read and React!
    Just wanted to send out a quick plug for the (re)read and react project Jay and I have going for A Game of Thrones over at Gestalt Mash.  We just tackled the third chapter (Daenerys Stormborn number 1) and the ranks of fellow readers are swelling by the post.  From the comments everyone’s enjoying his conspiracies and my ASOIF-devirginizing about equally.  Think...
    by Elena Nola at August 10th, 2010 at 01:08 pm