An Inconvenient Truth: The Soul of an Octopus (a Review)

In life, there are some truths that are harder to face than others. The truths that are especially hard to deal with usually focus on some life-altering aspect of our routine. The theory of animal intelligence is not new, but it is disquieting to a number of people for very clear reasons. We kill animals. We eat animals. We test products on animals. How much harder does it become to do these things when we face the reality that author Sy Montgomery calls on us to realize: animals are not just blank slates of tissue. They have thoughts, they have feelings, they have souls.

Continue reading An Inconvenient Truth: The Soul of an Octopus (a Review)

Dead Boy and Escalation (a Review)

In October, I read nothing but horror and horror-related books. This past month, I kept mostly to classics: Jaws by Peter Benchley and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. For my third and final book, I decided on something a little lighter. Dead Boy by Laurel Gale is horror in premise only: a dead boy come back to life.

Continue reading Dead Boy and Escalation (a Review)

Adaptation done Right: Jaws

For many people, the 1975 film Jaws from Steven Spielberg stands as one of the best “blockbusters” ever made. With such a large cultural influence, it is sometimes easy to forget that, one year before the shark took to the screen, Jaws was published as a novel from then struggling author, Peter Benchley. While the success of the novel came as a complete surprise, the success of film should not. Through a mix of fate and decision, Jaws is one of the smartest adaptations of book-to-film.

Continue reading Adaptation done Right: Jaws