Author Archives: jarelc

Since starting this (wildly intermittent) book blog over two-and-a-half-years ago I’ve developed much more sympathy for the recipe sites that give you a narrative in four-part harmony over several digital pages before diving into the recipe proper where I find out I forgot to buy half the ingredients and will have to wing it anyways.Continue reading “The Faithful and the Fallen”

“Aren’t you going to say, I told you so?” Hadrian whispered. “What would be the point in that?” “Oh, so you’re saying that you’re going to hang on to this and throw it at me at some future, more personally beneficial moment?” “I don’t see the point in wasting it now, do you?” Royce Melborn,Continue reading “On Royce and Hadrian and Partners in Stories”

Another year over, so it goes, a new one just begun. Calendar anniversaries are nothing if not the time to pause, assess and ultimately, if necessary and/or desired, recalibrate. So let’s do just that. I’ve never been one to eschew anything due to its popularity. I’m about as generic, suburban cul-de-sac as they come. NotContinue reading “A 202(2) Bookish Year in Review”

“Another year over,” in the immortal words of what is either John Lennon or an older Harry Potter, if you squint a little bit. “A new one just begun.” In some ways this was a year of routine: our first full year in our new home. The first year fully end-to-end under the shadow ofContinue reading “A 202(1) Bookish Year in Review”

Due to an unfortunate but plot-convenient map orientation incident the Mystery Machine finds itself parked in the determinatively-named Gold City, an old mining town in the deserts of California. The Scooby-Doo Gang (which I was disappointed to find absent from Wikipedia’s ‘List of gangs in the United States) are confronted by the Miner 49er, aContinue reading “You Meddling Kids”

One of the perks of living in a house-house is the ability to double down on holiday decorations. I loved our old apartment. We were there for five years, it was the first place my wife and I officially lived together (the occasional overlap with one of us waiting on a new lease notwithstanding). WeContinue reading “On the Shoulders of Giant Sand Worms”

Generally speaking, ‘all things in moderation’ works fantastically well as a sociopolitical concept. As the late, great philosopher Obi-Wan ‘Old Ben’ Kenobi said to his wayward and recently genocidal pupil, ‘only a Sith deals in absolutes.’ Prior the 2020 US elections, I engaged in what became a relatively heated conversation with a candidate for CongressContinue reading “Dealing in Absolutes”

I’m starting to think I can’t do magic. I realize there will always be an element of never-say-never; perhaps I’ve just yet to find the proverbial words. From an exchange between Hermione and Xenophilius Lovegood in The Deathly Hallows: “I mean, you could claim that anything’s real if the only basis for believing in isContinue reading “Let’s Talk Fantasy (Part 4: Taxonomic Kingdoms of Magic)”

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called [February 2020] by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a friend sat nextContinue reading “A Deep(ish) Dive into the Wheel of Time”