The Literate Kitty

You know the saying “there’s nothing new under the sun”?   Nobody really wants to believe it’s true... even though, deep down, most of us know that it   is .   We’ve all rolled our eyes about books, shows, and movies, for the “ been there, read/seen/heard that before ” scenario.   A movie about cop partners? Cue every cop-buddy-trope comparison out there.   A show about a charismatic serial killer? Someone’s gonna make references to lotion, baskets, and fava.   The toughest of them all, though? Rom-coms... where tropes positively  flourish .   Enemies-to-lovers. Opposites attracting. Someone needs rescuing. Pretend relationships. Friends-to-lovers. Forced spending time together. False or mistaken identity. Rich person falls for poor person. (Et cetera, et cetera.)   But here’s the thing...   Just because you’ve seen a thing done before... doesn’t mean someone  else  can’t come along and put a whole new spin on it.    ...

If there’s one thing every unattached person, everywhere, dreads around the holidays, it’s being grilled by family (friends, coworkers, nosy gas-meter readers, etc.) about Why Aren’t You in a Relationship… then getting schooled in What You Need to Do to Get in One (because everyone who's in a relationship thinks they're experts on that , of course).   [Oh, and if you, dear reader, are one of those happily—or even not -so-happily—married, partnered, or otherwise-coupled folks, engaged in the relentless hounding of all the singletons you know, listen up: No matter if still-single, newly-single, or single-by-choice, we're  well aware of the fact that we’re alone; many of us would really like to find The One; and all the pressure you’re putting on us? Not. Helping.] At least now, though, all those single-(and-not-lovin’-it) people have two brilliant seasons of Home for Christmas (or Hjem Til Jul , in its native Norwegian), now streaming on Netflix, to take away some of t...

  Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: I am— in no way, shape, or form —a big romance fan. I mean, yes, sure— absolutely!— I appreciate the heck out of sweet romantic gestures … IRL(!) … but as far as the written word goes, or on the big screen? Yeah, not so much. (Clever-smart rom-coms being not the norm and not straight-up romance, capice? ) So, why do I need to tell you all this, you might ask? (Fair question.) Because I’m about to review an all-about-the-romance film, and it’ll be helpful if you know where I’m comin’ from, right off the bat. (Trust me, this will matter, later on…) _______________ Normally, I wouldn’t choose to watch a) most Lifetime movies [ which isn’t meant as a diss; I just know wherein my heart and soul lie, and it ain’t here ], or b) a Christmas romance flick, anywhere, anytime. And yet, I find myself watching… precisely that. (Life: it’s a funny ol’ thing, eh?) Anyway, for reasons , my viewing matter one night turned out to be the premi...

A really good book has its work cut out for it. It needs to draw you in, making it seem as though you’re right there , a part of the action. It should make you think , affording you the opportunity of drawing parallels and conclusions on your own. And no matter what genre, a truly good story should make you feel something; you need to have a personal stake in the outcome, for it to matter . Fortunately, there are books aplenty that can do those things. What’s considerably more difficult to find is the book that somehow manages to bring pure, unadulterated joy to every page... a non-stop transfusion of feel-good, happy vibes from the written word straight to your brain. Until a couple weeks ago, coming up with something that made me that insanely giddy would’ve been impossible. But then, I came across Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project , and everything changed. Professor Don Tillman is, without question, a nerd. A top geneticist at a major Australian university, he’s...

The saying “You can’t tell a book by its cover” is an interesting one, because we almost never use it when talking about books, do we? We pull it out to describe the slovenly fellow who paints delicate watercolors... the fragile-looking woman who packs a mean right hook... or maybe, the old, driven-by-grandpa four-door that surprises with a souped-up V-8 under its oxidized hood. The point is that none of those things involves a book.  More interesting, perhaps, is that the saying isn’t strictly accurate; I think you pretty much can guess what a book will be like by studying its cover. The artwork may not jibe completely with the author’s words, but you can usually get at least a sense of what kind of story you’ve picked up, and if there are any blurbs, quotes, or snippets on the cover, those all provide yet more clues to what lies within.  But, what happens when there is no cover? With the growing popularity of e-books, it’s becoming more and more common to access someth...