Rainbow Ravenclaw

I have written before about my love for unusual storytelling. Specifically in the way of short stories that fit into the space of a tweet. And more and more users on twitter might not be users at all. There are bots that create all kinds of tweets: nice ones (wishing you a good morning), serious ones (reminding you that people are not illegal) or specific ones (retweeting everything about coffee). And there are also those that create stories. Or more specifically story ideas. Unlike the VeryShortStory, what a bot like MagicRealismBot creates seems more like a premises. An idea of what could be. And maybe what should be. This bot tweets every two hours. And admittedly, many of those tweets are quite banal. But the sheer amount of output produced seemingly makes it impossible not to create a few ideas worth noting. Reading those tweets also depends heavily on the recipient. With the idea presented, what can I and do I want to imagine. In a way the author is quite literally de

empower: fight like a girl is a collection of short stories written by female authors who are best known for their work on a variety of television shows. The title promises stories about female characters unafraid to fight their own battles which I found intriguing. Furthermore, the proceeds of the book are donated to the Lupus Foundation of America. And I should add that I own pretty much any book Jane Espenson helped create. So buying this collection was basically a no-brainer . The authors featured in the book are each named on the cover and have contributed a total of sixteen short stories to the book. What makes this especially interesting to me - except for the obvious feminist ideals - is the fact that the authors are largely known as television writers. This is noticeable through the stories. Some reference it overtly such as Jane Espenson's "INT. WOLF - NIGHT". In other cases like "Three Minutes" by Liz Edwards the build up and suspense created in

When I first came upon Cinder in my search for new Young Adult literature to read, I was immediately hooked. A cyborg Cinderella living in a dystopian New Beijing sounded extremely interesting. In my opinion, the book delivers on this promise. Cinder is working as a mechanic, supporting her stepmother and her two stepsisters. When she was still a child she had to have major surgery that transformed her into a cyborg. Her life before the change is a mystery to her and her family as she was adopted right after the surgery and has no memories before this. Her stepmother resents her, blaming her for her husbands death and for being a cyborg but still relies on her work as a mechanic to finance the family. When the prince brings his broken android to Cinder her life begins to spiral out of control. There is a deadly virus threatening her family, she is afraid prince Kai might resent her for being cyborg and the empire is in danger of invasion. A lot of people have laughed after I tol

The Royal We is by far not a typical book for me to read. To be honest deciding to read this was as much influenced by the very low price of the kindle version as by the fact that the wonderful Prinzessin Paradox suggested it to me. Before starting the book I checked out the reviews on goodreads and there was one (the most popular one) which stayed with me throughout the book.  " This is 100 percent Kate Middleton fan fiction and I have absolutely no problem with that." This is in my opinion exactly the mindset, with which to start reading this and you might just find yourself enjoying it  immensely . Especially because even though it is very much "reality based" (and yes some characters are immediately recognizable), it is not as much devoted to an idea of a fairytale royal romance as one might imagine.  In fact, in a genius meta move the book I expected to read does exist in the fictional world of The Royal We and is called the Bexicon. There the sto

"most men don't fear death, they fear those things - the knife, the shipwreck, the illness, the bomb - which precede, by microseconds if you're lucky, and many years if you're not, the moment of death." Shaking Hands With Death is not a typical book by Terry Pratchett. Firstly, it is a little booklet with only 59 pages. Secondly, it is not set in the Discworld or in any other fantastic space. Thirdly, it contains the speech he gave as The Richard Dimblebly Lecture in 2010. The book itself consists of two parts. An introduction by Rob Wilkins and the speech by Pratchett. Pratchett, who has died in March 2015 after years of him living with Alzheimer's disease. The introduction is as much part of the book as is the speech itself because it describes how Pratchett struggled (because of his illness) to write (he could not type) and deliver (someone else had to read it for him) the speech. This view into his life is an important perspective to remember when

Today is the day, most Harry Potter fans will remember as the day when the story really started. The day Harry Potter changed into The Boy Who Lived. The day Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter. And of course I know that all of this is fictional. And to many people it is just a story. To many other people the Harry Potter books are the story that has been with them through large parts of their life. Many people - like me - have grown up with the story of the boy wizard. The books have influenced and inspired them. Those people created conventions and charities (such as the Harry Potter Alliance ), wrote booklength fanfiction and music that created a whole genre of wizard rock (such as the amazing Margot , whose video I have linked below). Harry Potter has influenced lives in so many different ways. And to many of us, this is a special day. To us, Hogwarts will always be our home.