It's the time of year where I'm starting to think on my best-of picks for the year, and as usual, I have some late-coming strong contenders. I sure hope it's not just a recency effect. Featured book of the month: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis Time travel stories are notoriously fussy. One …
Author: Kaitlyn Casimo
Books, October 2018
I learned a new word this week: tsundoku. It's a Japanese word that translates as the practice of buying more books than you can read, purely for the joy of never running out of things to read. Have you ever heard a word that specifically names the core of your being? Because my 200+ title …
Books, September 2018
I listened to a delightful episode of a delightful podcast today about the positive mental health effects of regular reading. I had sort of subconsciously known this but it really brought to the forefront how when I'm most stressed or tightly wound or overextended, I tend to read much less, but that's precisely the time …
Science Halloween #3: Bad Moon Rising
I'll be returning to Pacific Science Center's Halloween programming for the third year running, this time with more howling. Come see me on October 30 at 7pm for an orientation session for new werewolves. Those bitten on the October 23 full moon, their friends and family, and all others are welcome! Appropriate for all ages, …
Books, August 2018
It's another month of series! Joe Turner's Come and Gone, King Hedley II, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson * The logical order for approaching Wilson's ten Century (or Pittsburgh) plays would be chronologically through either publication time or setting time. That said, I'm reading them in the order I happen to find them, …
Books, July 2018
Six out of my seven titles this month were installments in a series. (Two pairs came from the same series!) I will sing to you the praises of a series: long-term investment in characters and story stakes, themes that emerge only over the course of telling multiple discrete but linked stories, and most of all, …
Books, June 2018 + halfway through the year
Somehow, the first half of 2018 simultaneously lasted 3 days and 12 years. In six months, I brought to you 7357 pages of 24 books, for an average of about a book a week. Periodic Tales, Hugh Aldersey-Williams While the conceit of brief essays each delving into the history and practical uses of different elements …
Continue reading Books, June 2018 + halfway through the year
Books, May 2018
I didn't get a whole lot of reading in this month but I had the BEST excuse. A Darker Shade of Magic, VE Schwab I read a heck of a lot of novels in fantasy settings, so I don't often have the pleasure of encountering a plot/world element that's genuinely new to me. The structure …
the doctor is in
I defended! I still can't believe the big day has come and gone. I thought about writing a lengthy narrative reflection of my time in graduate school, the best and hardest experiences, and everything I've learned that wasn't about brains. But you don't want to read that and I don't want to write it. One …
Books, April 2018
It's a bumper crop this month. Amazing what handing in your dissertation draft does for your reading time! Henchgirl, Kristen Gudsnuk For our annual Book Exchange party, my friends give each other books we pick specifically for them, based on requests or just what we think they'd like. This year I asked for villain protagonists, …
