The Literate Kitty

The next time you’re having an especially crappy day at work, remind yourself that things could always be worse. You could , for instance, be doing something like toiling away in a meat processing plant (shudder) or mucking about in a sewage treatment facility (cringe)... or, you could be earning a meager income as a demon-slayer-for-hire, valiantly battling all the ooky, creepy, dangerous creatures from the underworld every night, while most people (like you and I) are slumbering comfortably in their beds.  See? Things really could be worse... as they are for Victory “Vicky” Vaughn, who continues trying to rid Boston’s residents of their pesky personal demons (with creepily corporeal forms), in the latest installment of Nancy Holzner’s consistently-entertaining “Deadtown” series, Darklands . ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ Not much has changed in Deadtown--the quarantined section of Boston which all of the city’s inhuman (supernatural) and undead (zombie) residents are forced t...

Oh, how easy it is to loathe them, those obnoxiously self-important little rich kids... the ones born with tiny silver spoons in their mouths, whose every whim will be catered to by a host of cooks and nannies and household staff... children who have birthday parties that cost several thousand dollars, get whisked off in private jets and chauffeured limos for weekend getaways, and receive haute couture wardrobes and Lamborghinis as gifts once they’re teenagers... and who are always, always secure in the knowledge they’ll never want for anything... not when they’re destined, one day, to run huge companies, command vast fortunes, and otherwise lord over what they consider hoi polloi (that would be you and me, if you’re unsure). Yes, it’s almost ridiculously easy to hate them. Dredging up any sympathy for those in the throes of teenage angst is, therefore, no easy task. With the world (read “every man-made convenience that makes life better”) at their fingertips, how could they...

Out of all the evils which men can do, sexual predators are among the most reviled. So deeply-rooted is our hatred of them, in fact, that it’s impossible for us to feel much sympathy for a sex offender who is himself the victim of a serious crime. (It seems a lot less awful and a lot more like karmic retribution, if you will.)  What if the person has already been amply punished (according to the legal system), though? Is he still exempt from sympathy if the worst happens to him? Author Jane Casey offers a thrilling--and thoughtful--look at how we view the monsters who live among us, in The Reckoning .     ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan doesn’t know whether to be happy or horrified when her supervisor tells her she’s being partnered with DI Josh Derwent. On one hand, working with an experienced, successful detective like Derwent should prove invaluable to Maeve, still a newbie on the murder task force. On the other hand, she’s hear...

Life (with a capital "L") is patently refusing to cooperate with me right now. I have this perfectly-reasonable little list-- want to read, want to write, want to have some fun  (not too much, just a bit ) --yet all I've managed to accomplish for the past couple of weeks is a (ridiculously-)small amount of the first, none of the second (grrrrrr), and only a smidgeon of the third. (Oh, yeah, and work--boring, crappy work, how could I forget that?--which seems a lot more like punishment than accomplishment.) So, in the spirit of... well, of  some thing--yes, I know it's a day late (but it goes back to the un-cooperativeness of Life... see how that works? )--and since it's been, oh, forever-and-a-day since I did one of these, I'm giving you some Patriotic Boycat to enjoy. Here he is, in all his splendor...  (Just humor me, okay? He's the large, gorgeous bundle-of-fluff feline clown who keeps me somewhat sane, and I adore him.) Oh, and I will h...