Headache Cures

A prosaic post for the middle of NaNo. Disclaimer, not in small print in case you are currently in the throes: I am not a doctor. Sometimes headaches can be the sign of something serious. First pass at a cure: 500 mg of vitamin C 16 oz of water (2 cups or about 250 mL)

Gilmore Girls

I’d read admiring references to Gilmore Girls, had a friend give it high marks, but I’d never seen an episode until I started hanging out on Chinese YouTube. Before I proceed any further, I have to clarify for the locals that my mother is not analogous to Emily Gilmore, the judgmental aristocratic grandmother character. They’ve

Reading about People Who Look Like Me

You may be aware of the controversy around the cover of Justine Larbalestier’s book Liar: the American edition of the book has a picture of a white girl on the cover, even though the narrator of the book is black. The first publisher rationalization for the decision was that the character tells lies, and maybe

Learning to Read

I was an early reader. A flexible kindergarten teacher pulled a group of parents aside and said, “It’s not on the curriculum until next year, but these kids are ready to go now,” and five of us started staying after school for a private tutorial in how to unlock the philosopher’s stone. And we were

Non-Reading Life

After many years of using my TV solely as a DVD player, I started watching network television again this spring. The first excuse was that I was going to write a screenplay, and the way to get a feel for the rhythms of a narrative arc that takes 30 minutes to unfold was to watch