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Books

Snap by Belinda Bauer – Book Review

Snap by Belinda Bauer (Penguin Random House, Bantam Press) “On a stifling summer’s day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack’s in charge, she’d said. I won’t be long. But she doesn’t come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed forever.” While a very popular genre, crime novels have never been at the top of my reading lists. Not for lack of interest! I went through a phase in high school when I bought and burnt through every Kathy…

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Music

“In the Zone” Playlist

As we gear up to face the reality that summer weather, vacation and the blissful relaxation that is synonymous with it is coming to a close, I find myself looking forward to the opportunities that are yet to come in these following months. While seeing the days become shorter and the weather forecast beginning to dip in temperature can be disheartening, the end of a season and start of a new one brings about a sense of productivity. The air will become crisper, and with it our minds clearer, for either school or work to kick in to full gear…

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Books

Waking Gods (Themis Files Book 2) – Book Review

Following from Sylvain Neuvel’s debut novel, Sleeping Giants, I took the first chance I could to go buy the next in the series of the Themis Files. Waking Gods was as much an excitement to read as the first book was (read my review of Sleeping Giants, here). So, of course, after tearing through it, I knew I had to write another review for it. Though in all honesty, I struggled with writing this review, mainly because the story is so engaging and complex simultaneously that I find it hard to describe it without including spoilers. With that said, Here…

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Reflections

Batwoman: Challenging Traditional Gender Norms

In lieu of the exciting news that DC Comics character Batwoman will be made into a TV series (starring Ruby Rose), I hearken back to a time when I studied Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams’ graphic novel, Batwoman: Elegy (2009-2010), in university. This Batwoman edition is part of the modernized Batwoman canon (starting in 2005), in which Kate Kane (formerly Kathy) is written as a Jewish lesbian woman. Now, this depiction is incredibly important because it takes major leaps for the LGBTQIA+ community, as queer main characters are not often found, particularly in the superhero genre. Archaic gendered notions of macho…

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Books

Canongate Myth Series Review: Jeanette Winterson’s “Weight”

For the first review in the Canongate Myth Series I chose to pick up Jeanette Winterson’s novella, Weight. Winterson has an interesting reputation as a writer of being completely unpredictable and incredibly insightful, which is a description that perfectly sums up Weight. Weight retells the story of Atlas, who carried the world on his shoulders and Heracles, the half-god hero, from Greek mythology. Already, by choosing to rewrite such popular stories, Winterson was in for a challenge. However, it is not simply the story of Atlas or of Heracles that she writes, but that of herself. Many of her novels…

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5 Best Series

5 Best Binge-worthy Netflix Originals

Anbody who has Netflix knows that there are a ton of – perhaps too many – options when it comes to Netflix Originals. This behemoth of a company pumps out a new show or film seemingly every month, so it can be tough to figure out which ones are worth watching. And hey, maybe they’re all worth watching; Netflix does, after all, generally dedicate quality production and content. However, if you just need a place to start and don’t know where to, here’s a list of five amazing original series that truly give Netflix a good rep. Since some of…

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