We want that "paradoxical search for familiarity combined with strangeness; want more of the same – but with a difference," says Victor Watson in Reading Series Fiction. Watson's book considers series written for children, but it still applies, doesn't it? There's nothing like reading a series. Robert Kirkman's The Walking
"Flo said to watch out for White Slavers." The opening line. There's Flo with her tales of abuse and mistreatment, with the litany of threats, near and far, posed to women and girls. She also warns Rose about the retired undertaker, with his also-retired hearse, about the the way that he
It's 1952, in the hottest summer that Paris has had since before the war. Shortlisted for the Orange Prize 2012 Beatrice writes to her brother, Marvin, saying "Paris was terrible", and she has little else to report. She has travelled there, at Marvin's request, to look for Marvin's
In "Health and Guidance" class, the teacher goes up and down the rows, asking what the students had for breakfast. On the surface of it, she is checking to see if they are keeping to Canada's Food Rules, making solid nutritional choices. In fact, this is one more way in
Catherine Asaro's works are often recommended when this question is raised amongst readers. (Amidst all the debate and kurfufflery, ruffled readers' feathers and bleeding hearts.) When a Harvard PhD writes a series of books commonly reviewed (and awarded gold medals) in Romantic Times, that's what you get. And
