First off, let me say that I don’t think video games have to be analyzed deeply by everyone who plays them. They can be purely entertainment, and that’s perfectly okay. However, as is my nature, I often use the media I consume—whether it’s books, movies, or games—for self-reflection. I didn’t grow up with video games, and Silent Hill 2 is actually my very first playthrough of any game in the series. That gave me a raw, unfiltered experience of ...
Book Book Review: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline | Characters Flat as a Pancake
*Orphan Train* by Christina Baker Kline seemed like the perfect read-along to tackle with the bestie. For those of you who’ve known me for many moons, y’all probably remember the shenanigans Fizzy and I got into over on the now-retired blog, *A Simply Enchanted Life*. I got divorced. She got older. I got chonkier. Life happened. So some of y’all might not know the bestie. Let me fix that: her name is Fizzy. She writes over at ...
Book Review: Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain | Eugenics and the Cost of “Doing What’s Best”
Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain is a historical fiction novel set in North Carolina in the 1960s. It’s not a feel-good story, and it’s not exactly a feel-bad story either (hey, don’t laugh at me—words are hard), but it’s a little bit of both. The 1960s were a challenging time for women in general. Married women had to get permission from their husbands to be prescribed the newly available birth control pill, effectively placing their ...
