If I could only describe my reading taste in two terms, they would be “Jane Austen” and “fantasy.” This is a totally hypothetical and unlikely scenario, but the point is that I love Jane Austen and I love fantasy fiction, almost (well, not really, I’d say about half-way) to the exclusion of any other reading material. I mean, I read other stuff fairly frequently, but I always go back to Jane Austen and fantasy.
And what I find really interesting is that, while at first glance they seem completely unrelated, I often find echoes of Jane Austen in my favorite…
It’s been a week since I saw Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. There were things I loved about it, and things I wasn’t so on board with, and things that I was simply baffled by. I’ve now had some time to process and sort out my emotions regarding the conclusion of this epic saga. I’ve read Twitter threads and thinkpieces and watched YouTube essays that solidified and deepened my views, plus some that made me examine them more closely, and I’m ready to move on.
And how do I move on from a deeply moving cinematic experience…
I am a hypocrite.
Not really, but I needed a good hook for this post. If I had written this maybe three years ago I would have been a hypocrite, though, so we’ll go with it. Here’s why.
I used to fancy myself a book snob. I always adamantly claimed that any book was inherently better than its film adaptation (I still believe that’s usually true, with a few exceptions), and that any self-identified reader worth their salt ALWAYS reads the book before seeing the movie.
But a couple years ago I read some compelling arguments for watching the movie…
So I’ve recently discovered a new favorite author, three-time Hugo Award winner and all-around badass N. K. Jemisin. I finished reading The Fifth Season and immediately had to learn more about Jemisin and her other works. Of course books 2 and 3 of the Broken Earth trilogy have gone to the top of my TBR, along with her Inheritance trilogy, but right now I’m working my way through her recently released short story collection, How Long ’Til Black Future Month?
In her introduction to the collection, Jemisin states that the title of the book comes from an essay she wrote…
Rhonda Watts
I write about life and culture through a literary lens. I co-host the Pop DNA podcast and blog at Rhonda With A Book.
