Stephanie Leary

Writer and WordPress consultant

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Quick reviews

December 27, 2007 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

Found Iron Kissed on the shelf at B&N today, a week early, and promptly devoured it. This series just keeps getting better — as far as I’m concerned, it sits at the top of the urban fantasy/paranormal romance heap. Briggs is especially clever about opening up pieces of Mercy’s world without being heavy-handed about it. While there are a dozen new places for the plot to go next, none of them have a flashing sign on them, and could just as easily be ignored. That’s some skillful series-building. Also, as Mercy’s field of suitors narrows to one, the attendant problems get bigger (in an organic and believable way) rather than falling away, which is refreshing. Very pleased with the series, and looking forward to the upcoming spin-off.

Our B&N is usually very precise about release dates, but they must be slipping due to the holiday; I found Dust there a few days early as well. I’ve finished that one, too, but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I enjoyed it, and there’s no question that it’s full of great ideas, but at the same time, something about it doesn’t sit right with me, and I don’t think I like it as much as Bear’s other work. I’m putting it aside for further analysis.

Still working my way through the Rifters series. Stay tuned.

Movies:

Juno is hilarious and wonderful, and I must see it again. I was afraid all the really good stuff was in the trailer, but I was wrong. While part of the plot was predictable, the other part kept me guessing.

Atonement is not a happy film, but then I knew that going in. I was pleased with it both as an adaptation and as its own story, which is pretty rare. I thought the music was especially great for incorporating the sound of manual typewriters, and it was a nice way of threading the physical act of writing through the film in lieu of all the book’s wonderful observations on writing that couldn’t be conveyed visually.

Charlie Wilson’s War is up next. It’s been ages since I had a Sorkin fix.

Books, Movies

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Fascism Watch

The Fascism Watch is a daily(ish) news roundup. View all the previous Fascism Watch posts »

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Content Strategy for WordPress

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WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

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