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“Things Every Southern Woman Should Know How to Make”

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Alice clicked on the headline, mildly curious about what yet another stranger thought should be in her kitchen repertoire. Pictures of China plates mounded with crispy fried chicken, greens, cobbler, and a pile of biscuits a mile high flooded the screen, all set off with a pitcher of sweet tea beaded with condensation. The table was set; an apron draped off to the side next to a box labeled “Gramma’s Recipes” in fine calligraphy. She closed the browser and put away her tablet. She was born a Georgia peach, but she couldn’t make a cobbler to save her life. Did that mean she wasn’t southern? Or maybe just not “Southern.” For Alice, there was no recipe box full of family traditions. Her younger years were filled with rental homes in different states and her father’s voice coaxing her toward a text book rather than a cookbook. Metalworking and fabrication held more interest than learning to flambé or sauté. Did it make her less of a woman that her cooking skills consisted of fresh salads...
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Comic Rec: DAYS OF HANA by Seokwoo

Today’s recommendation is the webcomic, DAYS OF HANA, by Indonesian artist Seokwoo, whose romances are far more than a love story. They deal with social perceptions of minority groups, in the case of DAYS OF HANA, werewolves, what happens when the world views begin to change. In the world of this story, humans keep werewolves as pets, but Hana and Haru were raised together like siblings, and the line between owner and pet is blurry. Hana’s family took Haru in when they found him injured and alone one winter. There's an adorable montage of photos of Hana and Haru growing up, ending with a family photo. But as the two get older, the hazy boundaries between human and werewolf become a problem. Werewolves are given limited rights—education, right to work for wages, etc.—with the hopes they they’ll be able to live independently and on equal footing with humans. However, as the werewolves explore their newfound freedoms, there’s pushback from the humans who have owned them. Tensio...
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WEBTOON: Lots to Read, Lots to Love

Hey all, I'm breaking from our regularly scheduled book rec because I'm behind on my TBR pile. (Sorry, delicious books. I will get to you shortly!) Today, I want to share with you the invaluable wonder of the WEBTOON, and all the excellent comics to be found there. It's a free app with hundreds of comics in just about every genre you can think of. Sometimes translations are hinky, but I've found a lot of real gems here. Some of my favorites are: SWEET HOME by Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang. If you like horror, this one's for you. A young man moves into an apartment building after the death of his family, and a strange sickness turns people into powerful monsters. The story and art are both amazing. LET'S PLAY by Mongie. Game designer, Sam, is devastated when her puzzle game Ruminate gets trashed by vlogger, Marshall Law, and his rabid fans downvote her into oblivion. And then Sam meets her new neighbor...Marshall, who has no clue he's destroyed her...
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Book Recs: DAMSEL DISTRESSED by Kelsey Macke

CW: Self-Harm I'm not going to go into details on that, but it does play a factor in the story so be aware. What I really liked about DAMSEL DISTRESSED is that Imogen is flawed, knows she's flawed, and even though she's trying to work on it, sometimes she fails hardcore. She sometimes thinks or says terrible things about people she loves, but she usually calls herself out on it or someone else will. Which was nice because too often things like slut-shaming or body-shaming slip into a protag's dialogue and they aren't pointed out as wrong. Imogen lives with clinical depression, and in her low moments, it's hard for her to believe in herself or other people, even when they are supportive of her. She struggles with the fact that even with therapy and medication, she still feels broken. She isn't magically cured by a pill or a couple therapy sessions or by the love of her best friend, Grant. Rather than curing her, the support of her family and friend...
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The Content of YA Books and Maturity

There’s been some talk about the content of teen books lately. About the violence, sex, cursing and other content that some find unsuitable for their children. Some kids aren’t old enough to read these books. Some are. Twelve is a very transitional age. Some kids are more mature than others. And some of these books are probably really written for the older teens.     When I was twelve, I read a wide range of things. My mom bought me the classics in paperback, and my grandma had a selection of leather-bound books like THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE. I read everything from Hans Christian Anderson to Jack London to Jules Verne. I read more. DRACULA, many novels by Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz. My mother’s historical romance novels. (I learned the answers to Jeopardy! questions from some of those historical romance novels.)    The topics in these books weren’t new to me. Violence was in the news; death was on my bus route when a guy on a motorcycle...
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It's Got Layers!

No, I don’t mean a clove of garlic, or head of lettuce, or that other veggie often served up bloomin’ style. I’m talking about stories, be it a short story or a monster, 1000 page novel. A story with layers has depth. It makes the world you created real for the reader, and if it’s done right, will boggle my mind. If someone one day says, “That Brandi Lynch chick writes crazy layers!” I think I could die happy. Well, I’d jump up and down a lot. What makes these awesome layers? Details. Stories beneath the story. They don’t even have to be explained or resolved in the end. For example, Robert Jordan’s WHEEL OF TIME series. There are so many details and interwoven stories in those books that 13 books hasn’t been enough to cover them all.   I sink into the world Mr. Jordan created, and I can believe that at one time, somewhere all those sculpted palaces and strange hairless-cat creatures existed. I can see it, walk the streets, smell the bread in the cities or the cook...
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From the Casual Webcomic Reader: The Awesomeness that is Unsounded

A girl with a lion’s tail and an attitude to match it. An eloquent, somewhat outdated, badass zombie spell caster. Smugglers. And the local authorities chasing them all. Welcome to Unsounded . I tumbled into this world because I was lurking around the website of author and outstanding artist, Ashley Cope. I’d found her artwork some time ago while feeding my Final Fantasy art jones, and when I saw her gallery , I was overwhelmed. A mixture of game art and her own characters, the level of badassery is beyond my comprehension. Each piece has a depth to it, especially those of her characters like Murkoph. Maybe because they have backstories (a lot of them are RPG characters), they feel deeper to me. I don’t know all the stories, didn’t know any of them before I read the little explanations underneath each one, but it was like I could feel a story behind them. I knew Murkoph wasn’t scarred just to be scarred. I knew there was a story behind each one. And behind that grin.   E...
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The Beautiful Dying: Why I Love Certain (Maybe) Doomed Characters

I love Lia Habel’s zombies in DEARLY, DEPARTED. I also love Jem Carstairs in Cassandra Clare’s INFERNAL DEVICES series. Both the zombies and Jem know they’re living on borrowed time, but they make the best of it. (If you haven’t read these, you might want to look away now. I’m keeping it as spoiler-free as I can, but the topic makes me reveal things you might not want to know beforehand.) The zombies, having overcome the psychological torment that they’re already dead, keep going, keep fighting to help others and to find a way to stop their disease from claiming more of the living. They don’t bemoan their fate. Sure they’re not happy about it, but they accept it. And having done that, they put their remaining time into a goal. Jem. Lovely, talented, mortally poisoned, Jem. He heads toward his inevitable premature demise with grace and kindness toward others. When his affliction overwhelms him, he takes his anger and frustrations out on his violin strings. He’s caring and ...
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Book or E-book? From the POV of a Casual Tech User

I like technology. Maybe not as much as some people. My newest computer is from 2009, I have exactly 29 apps on my phone that I actually downloaded, and I do not own an iPad. I do, however, own a Kindle Fire. It’s a nifty device. I especially like that fact that I can read my personal documents on it. I’ve read a few books on it, but I’d still rather have the real thing, and here’s why: Lighting. My Kindle is great indoors and in the shade, but if I happen to be outside or on a long trip in a car, the glare on the glossy screen makes it too difficult to read. Battery. I sometimes go for days without using my Kindle. When I get it out to read, I often haven’t read long before the low battery warning comes on. Then I’m crawling around trying to find an outlet. Can’t toss it around. I read all over the place. Sometimes, I’m interrupted (puppies demand play time, fiancé needs attention, mom calls) and I just sit my book wherever…not always in the best spot. If a paper book h...
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