Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?

It was about a girl who helps an ugly old woman who turns out to be a good fairy in disguise. Inner values versus shallow appearances.

And kissed her for a hundred and sixty-nine years.

One of the nastier trends in library management in recent years is the notion that libraries should be 'responsive to their patrons'.

I hate sequels. They're never as good as the first book.

And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.

It is not an easy thing to put on a wet sock.