The Worlds of Ashley Stangl

Halloween's ended, Thanksgiving has passed, and now we're well into December and its Christmas preparations. I've got my Christmas shopping done, and I hope to find a little bit of time in the next few weeks to curl up by the tree with some Christmas-themed books. I've already finished a few of them, but I still have a decent-sized list that should carry me through to Epiphany. The Grift of the Magi: A Heist Society Novella by Ally Carter I've aged out of the target audience for these books, but I was still excited to stumble unexpectedly upon a new Heist Society novella, showcasing a new adventure for Ally Carter's team of teenage thieves in which they try to steal back a Faberge egg that's been stolen from a charity right before their Christmas auction. The story's frothy and unrealistic and would probably work better as a TV episode than as a book, but it was still nice to get back in with the characters. Some Christmas Stories by Charles Dic...

Here I am again! I was tagged for the Quotation Tag by Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy. Thanks, Rachel! Now it's time for Day 3. Once again, the rules: Thank the person who nominated you  Nominate 3 new bloggers every day  Post a new quotation every day for 3 consecutive days.  Today, I'm continuing my theme of quotations by G.K. Chesterton, because there are just too many good ones to share. The first quote is from his book of apologetics, Orthodoxy , and specifically from the chapter "The Ethics of Elfland" , in which he outlines how fairy tales affect his understanding of the universe. Follow the link to read the whole thing, but I'll just share a lovely bit explaining the sense of wonder that fairy tales invoke.  This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and ...

I was tagged for the Quotation Tag by Rachel from Hamlette's Soliloquy. Thanks, Rachel! Here are the rules of the Quotation Tag again. Thank the person who nominated you  Nominate 3 new bloggers every day  Post a new quotation every day for 3 consecutive days.  Day One went well. Now it's time for Day Two, five days later. I understand that this is not following the rules of the tag, and I am humbled and ashamed. Nevertheless, I have returned with quotes for you!  Today's quotes come from this man. G.K. Chesterton, the man, the myth, the legend.  A writer in the early decades of the twentieth century, Chesterton wrote everything. Novels, poems, epic poems, plays, detective stories, biographies--the man was a fountain of words.  Reading Chesterton can fill a writer with sheer delight and awe at what you can do with words, and with despair at knowing that you yourself will never write anything to compare. I've read only a small fraction of Ches...