Category Archives: Books and reading

Waiting for Sherlock

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

I love the BBC One Sherlock Holmes series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson.  Have you seen it?  Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth now carries a smartphone, and his good friend Dr. Watson publishes … Continue reading →

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Great Books: The Devil in the White City

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Last night was my Great Books Dinner and Discussion event at Milwaukee School of Engineering.  I usually facilitate a book discussion every June, and lately I’ve added the November discussion to my rotation, as well.  This month’s selection was The Devil … Continue reading →

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Who’s the Shop Steward on Your Kickstarter? | Josh MacPhee | The Baffler

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Who’s the Shop Steward on Your Kickstarter? | Josh MacPhee | The Baffler.  Interesting, detailed article on how Kickstarter provides the infrastructure for turning your social network into a commodity, which they then take their percentage of. It’s important that everyone’s eyes be wide … Continue reading →

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“Hawks Do Not Share”: Re-reconsidering Zelda Fitzgerald

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

I’m not sure why, but a slew of books is being published right now about Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott.  Here is an article/ book review from the March 22, 2013, Wall Street Journal that discusses several of the new (fictional) … Continue reading →

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Is that a Dr. Seuss chimney?

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

Nope.  Just ours, distorted in the reflection of our neighbor’s car window.  Totally Grinch-worthy, don’t you think? I love Dr. Seuss books for their art and wordplay.  Just looking at a list of Seuss titles brings back each book instantly, almost viscerally.  I … Continue reading →

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“Imagine”: A reminder that the “big picture” requires “small details”

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

My friend Lisa recently loaned me a copy of Imagine, by Jonah Lehrer.  This was the book at the center of the maelstrom this summer about various ethics and quality issues with Lehrer’s work: his “self-plagiarism” (recycling previously published material), “sloppy” … Continue reading →

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Banned Books Week as “required reading”?

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

This weekend marks the beginning of Banned Books Week here in the United States (September 30 – October 6, 2012).  One thing that’s worth noting on the list of banned or challenged books published on the American Library Association’s website is how … Continue reading →

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Addendum to my “Hunger Games” post

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

I stand corrected.  Having merely seen the film and not read the Suzanne Collins novels, I completely based my assumptions about District 11 on what I saw in the movie.  Now I’ve done a bit more digging and discovered that … Continue reading →

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The “Little House” Books: A new collection looks back

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

A review in this morning’s “Review” section of The Wall Street Journal alerted me to the recent republication of one of my favorite childhood series, the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  This new collection of Wilder’s nine books is … Continue reading →

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E-books versus print – a false dichotomy?

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

I’ve seen some really interesting articles in the last few days appearing to indicate that, regardless of the zeitgeist’s general consensus, print is NOT dead.  Here are links to three articles – two from Publishers Weekly and one from The Telegraph – that … Continue reading →

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