Reading, Writing, and Me

Today I have Hannah Capin on the blog to talk about her new book, out next Tuesday, called Foul Is Fair.  I reviewed it a while back, so if you're looking for a recap or to learn more about the book, you can find that here . I also ask questions about her last book Dead Queen's Club  and you can find that review here . Beyond that, enjoy my interview with Hannah!  1) Your book has a very interesting tone. Jade's emotional state at the start of the book really comes out in the tone and the way Jade tells her story. Did that voice come to you from the start or was it something you had to cultivate? The voice is usually the first thing that comes to me when I’m working on a new project, and FOUL IS FAIR was no exception! The very first bit I wrote wasn’t an outline or a character sketch: it was a scene, written in full, and it started with the line “Sweet sixteen is when the claws come out.” That’s still the first line of the book, and in fact the entire first chapte...

This is going to be a post you'll either whole-heartedly agree with or completely disagree with because that's how movie/TV adaptions of books work. You either love them or you wish they were never even imagined. We love the idea of them most of all. We all want to see the books we love on the screen, and, from what I've seen, we regret wishing for it in the end a lot of the time. Movie and book adaptions are so tedious because some stories aren't made to be relayed through a screen. Books are so full of emotional subtext that's hidden in tiny details and in the voice and precise words spelled out on the page. There's so much more to a book than what you can portray on a running film of actual video even with voice overs. There are deep internal ramblings that make characters who they are that are hard to put on a screen because there are only so many tools to get internal during a movie. Also, there are books that play out like movies in your head or make...

How Not To Die  by Michael Greger Overall: 5  I picked up this book not knowing what to expect. If you're unfamiliar with its premise, Michael Greger is a doctor who has made it his life's mission to educate people about the ability of a plant based diet to prevent and heal the leading causes of death. He's a proponent of the plant based diet, but it's not a book about a specific diet. He isn't trying to sell you something. I was surprised to learn that all the profits he gets from the book goes to charity. He really goes above and beyond to assert that he's not doing this to make a buck or push a system. It's purely based on the idea that knowledge is power, and, even though I went in dubious, I walked out shocked and compelled. The way that the book is broken down, it's focused on two parts. The first half moves through the leading causes of death and how eating a better diet, generally a plant based one, can cause skyrocketed protection from the...