Updates of no consequence (TABITHA IN BLACKFACE!?!)

Even in the life of a writer and book reviewer, one finds one periodically likes what one reads or likes what one writes. This happened two–two!–times this week. The first excerpt is a review of something I enjoyed reading, Michelle Huneven's absolutely laying-waste-to-the-land-and/or-competition Blame, which I reviewed for NPR.

When a character accidentally kills a mother and daughter within the first 20 pages of a novel, a reader might expect the author to dedicate the remaining pages to...